Advice from Paul Coby speaking last week at the IT Forum EMEA. Paul, CIO at British Airways was speaking about the importance of people in large scale projects such at T5.
"When you launch a project of the scale of T5, focus on people training. Train everyone to where you think they should be then triple it."
He identifies the need for people to have the skills to pull off the projects and highlights the importance of embedding those skills.
The move towards "business technology" as opposed to Information Technology will require a shift in the skills but also the attitudes within IT departments and their staff. A move, that, if it is to be successful, will require a process that supports change as well as delivering training on new skills.
Much of the requirement will not be technical - it will require technical staff to think and act from a strongly business centered focus. Developing these skills will require more than a training course in communication.
The learning and change process will need to become part and parcel of the departmental culture, supporting individuals to adopt new methods and to deploy them successfully will require a blended approach to ensure success.
CIOs will need to become champions of change, be open to and willing to face the challenges of change and to gain buy-in and to support their teams. They will need effective and appropriate methods to develop those skills and implement then successfully.
In short, get the buy in, train them, triple it and then follow up and support the implementation process, evaluate and support at each stage, tackle blocks head on and celebrate success.
Building the IT department of the future will require commitment at all levels but the effort will ensure success and implementation in the long term.
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3 comments:
I'd like to ask two questions.
Firstly: Is this the beginning of the end for the back room boys and girls who are appreciated for their excellent technical skills yet traditionally have been "kept in the cupboard" through lack of any other social/ business/ communication skills?
And secondly: Is there evidence of buy-in at senior management level to instigate and see through the programmes that will deliver these much needed skills?
Honestly Linda, I think it is an end to the back office function, for two main reasons. Firstly, there is a sea change in the use and perception of IT from the non-IT functions. Everyone is involved in IT today and this is only going to increase, therefore the IT function is going to be everywhere, rather than in internally focused departments. There is already a much greater focus on business function, customer centered delivery and service than has traditionally been the case. With higher levels of intergration, SAAS and a more educated user group, I really believe that this will only increase.
Secondly, there is an ongoing push for CIOs to become more and more business focussed, thus the move from Iformation Technology" to "Business Technology". CEOs are expecting IT to step up to the plate and add value in all aspects of the business. Coby also stated at the IT Forum EMEA that "there is no such thing as an IT project, .there are only business projects"
Is there senior level buy-in? I believe so, much of the recent research and press has indicated the need to develop those non-technical skills and processes to allow the staff to recreate IT for the future. However, as with all sea changes the process will be a slow one, and as such it is critical to ensure that all aspects of that change are managed and supported effectivley. As I said above, throwing a communication course at it will not cut it.
That's a very interesting question from Linda and one that has given me cause for some thought. As I look back over the years and experiences in IT I find it difficult to totally agree with Siobhan's response. Let's take a couple of examples.
1. The commoditisation of the Personal Computer. In the early 1980's and the days of the original IBM PC, they were delivered to specification as "components" - you wanted 256k of memory, you ordered 256k of memory and were delivered a plastic "tube" containing actual computer chips that you mounted on a circuit board. They had to be aligned, mounted, secured and tested properly and it was a daunting task for any "non-technical" person. Today, 25 years later, all that is required is to open the box and plug in the power of your new computer then follow the on screen prompts. As evidenced by the widespread use of PC's at home - this is no longer the domain of the technically oriented.
Another example, the advent of the world wide web. It used to be the case that creating a web page involved the manual typing of HTML code into nothing more advanced than a crude text editor was the only way to do it. It was the domain of the IT specialist. As time moved on and the technology matured we saw tools that helped the HTML "programmer" (e.g. HotDog) and then later tools such as Fusion or Dreamweaver. The maturity meant that many more people are now able to develope advanced web sites.
For my money, it is not a case of being "the beginning of the end". It is merely that with a maturing of technology we inevitably see a commoditisation of it. This brings into an area where the masses can use the technology without having to know what's going on "behind the scenes". As new technology emerges (Silverlight, Ajax, SOA) there will remain the vital need for the technical experts and as that technology matures we will see the skills needed becoming more mainstream. Of course, there will always be new technologies that will keep the technical experts busy.
In terms of the second question, I think we are seeing changes at the highest level in terms of ensuring that IT delivers against business objectives as opposed to IT objectives - the so called Busines / IT Alignment. In order for CxO's to meet their business objectives, IT must understand what those business objectives are and also be able to produce effective IT initiatives to deliver them. This requires a sea change in the way IT communicates with the business. Fundamentally, it demands a common language. IT supports the business, so IT must understand the business. It is no longer sufficient for IT to say "server xyz was available for 99.99% of the time last month". IT must be able to communicate in business terms... "The recent upgrade to server XYZ has increased our efficiency by x% by enabling us to take y% more orders on-line. This in turn has reduced manual data entry by z% resulting in a reduction in incorrect orders of q%". OK, that's perhaps a bit verbose, but you can hopefully see my point.
For what it's worth, having spent 20+ years as a "back room" boy, I now focus entirely on business benefit of IT rather than the "Wow, that's cool" factor.
Dave.
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