January 7, 2016 at 8:16 am
Stephanie J Brown (1/5/2016)
mjh 45389 (1/5/2016)
Stephanie J Brown (1/4/2016)
I'd like to learn more of the "language of business", so I can find better ways to communicate IT needs to our management. Far too often we don't seem to properly express the underlying business value of what I'll call "infrastructure" needs - things like better hardware, up-to-date software (like newer version of SQL Server) and general system upgrades.My theory is that better and more specific communication would help.
I find it can be extremely difficult as you may be talking to people who either do not listen or do not want to understand. About a decade ago I specified a server only to find it was downgraded in all areas. This slowed the overall performance down but the worse problem was someone changed the Linux from a paid for/supported version to a freeware one. Some issues had not been resolved when I left over five years later and remained on the forum! None were show stoppers but they did create extra work!
It does seem that management doesn't understand the ramifications of some decisions - especially those that cause technical debt, re-work and ongoing manual interventions. It's a challenge to figure out how to express these concepts without causing their eyes to glaze over. I understand that there are budget constraints in all companies; we need to make sure the long-term costs of short-term budget decisions are clear. Too many times we hear "we'll do it this way for now, and fix it later". Of course, "later" never comes as by then many more new priorities have appeared, and thus the waste becomes entrenched over time.
The question (in my mind) then becomes "how do we make clear to management the consequences of their decisions?" There may still be reasons for making less-than-perfect choices, and I'm okay with that as long those decisions are made with full information and an understanding of the consequences.
I have one for you. Years ago as a computer operator work at Data General, my supervisor ordered rehabilitated 2400' 9 track magnetic tapes. He was so proud of the money he saved. Yes, the tapes were missing BOT and/or EOT tape markers. The tapes failed about 50% of the time when they did have BOT/EOT markers. It was ridiculous.
January 7, 2016 at 10:07 am
Lynn Pettis (1/7/2016)
Stephanie J Brown (1/5/2016)
mjh 45389 (1/5/2016)
Stephanie J Brown (1/4/2016)
I'd like to learn more of the "language of business", so I can find better ways to communicate IT needs to our management. Far too often we don't seem to properly express the underlying business value of what I'll call "infrastructure" needs - things like better hardware, up-to-date software (like newer version of SQL Server) and general system upgrades.My theory is that better and more specific communication would help.
I find it can be extremely difficult as you may be talking to people who either do not listen or do not want to understand. About a decade ago I specified a server only to find it was downgraded in all areas. This slowed the overall performance down but the worse problem was someone changed the Linux from a paid for/supported version to a freeware one. Some issues had not been resolved when I left over five years later and remained on the forum! None were show stoppers but they did create extra work!
It does seem that management doesn't understand the ramifications of some decisions - especially those that cause technical debt, re-work and ongoing manual interventions. It's a challenge to figure out how to express these concepts without causing their eyes to glaze over. I understand that there are budget constraints in all companies; we need to make sure the long-term costs of short-term budget decisions are clear. Too many times we hear "we'll do it this way for now, and fix it later". Of course, "later" never comes as by then many more new priorities have appeared, and thus the waste becomes entrenched over time.
The question (in my mind) then becomes "how do we make clear to management the consequences of their decisions?" There may still be reasons for making less-than-perfect choices, and I'm okay with that as long those decisions are made with full information and an understanding of the consequences.
I have one for you. Years ago as a computer operator work at Data General, my supervisor ordered rehabilitated 2400' 9 track magnetic tapes. He was so proud of the money he saved. Yes, the tapes were missing BOT and/or EOT tape markers. The tapes failed about 50% of the time when they did have BOT/EOT markers. It was ridiculous.
Oh my. And I'm actually old enough to know what you're talking about! :hehe:
I'd bet most of us have tales like that of attempts to save money that actually ended up costing much, much more than the original "savings".:crazy:
Steph Brown
January 8, 2016 at 6:14 am
Stephanie J Brown (1/5/2016)
mjh 45389 (1/5/2016)
I find it can be extremely difficult as you may be talking to people who either do not listen or do not want to understand. ...It does seem that management doesn't understand the ramifications of some decisions - especially those that cause technical debt, re-work and ongoing manual interventions.
.....
The question (in my mind) then becomes "how do we make clear to management the consequences of their decisions?" There may still be reasons for making less-than-perfect choices, and I'm okay with that as long those decisions are made with full information and an understanding of the consequences.
The trouble is that many managers are not interested in the long term comsequences of their decisions for the company and its shareholders - they are concerned only with the short term consequences for their share options and bonuses, which means that they regard a short term reduction in cost that allows a good financial statement at the end of the company's operating year leading to a short term share price boost and a higher bonus for them this year is a vastly more important consequence than is the collapse of the share price and the company going out of business in five years time.
In effect, they would prefer not to understand the long term consequences because to do so might oblige them to damage their short term gains. When an engineer says "management doesn't want to understand" he is often literally correct.
Stephanie J Brown (1/7/2016)
Lynn Pettis (1/7/2016)
I have one for you. Years ago as a computer operator work at Data General, my supervisor ordered rehabilitated 2400' 9 track magnetic tapes. He was so proud of the money he saved. Yes, the tapes were missing BOT and/or EOT tape markers. The tapes failed about 50% of the time when they did have BOT/EOT markers. It was ridiculous.Oh my. And I'm actually old enough to know what you're talking about! :hehe:
I'd bet most of us have tales like that of attempts to save money that actually ended up costing much, much more than the original "savings".:crazy:
Yes, between us we will have quite a few such tales:
There was once a purchasing director who decided that buying parts with gold-plated connectors was an unneccessary expense and caused a bunch of machines to be build with substandard board edge connectors; when installed something over ten thousand miles away from the manufacturing plant, the equipment worked for a while; it then stopped working - the boards were no longer adequately conected to the buses, and some extremely expensive equiopment was just so much junk, a very important customer was extremely annoyed, and the company's reputation was badly damaged.
If my memory servers correctly that happened very soon after new executive management had decided to put accountants and salesmen in charge of research, product development, and manufacturing instead of scientists and engineers.
A few years later in a much smaller company, the CFO decided that cash flow could easily be improved by not paying bills. That caused suppliers to refuse to deliver. That meant that the company could not fulfil its ongoing contracts with its customers. The CFO didn't want to know. The technical staff and sales and customer support staff had no option but to arrange for the Creative Director to present the results of the CFO's policy to a board meeting and ask the board to take action in order to prevent the company going under.
Tom
January 8, 2016 at 1:05 pm
TomThomson (1/8/2016)
The trouble is that many managers are not interested in the long term comsequences of their decisions for the company and its shareholders - they are concerned only with the short term consequences for their share options and bonuses, which means that they regard a short term reduction in cost that allows a good financial statement at the end of the company's operating year leading to a short term share price boost and a higher bonus for them this year is a vastly more important consequence than is the collapse of the share price and the company going out of business in five years time.
In effect, they would prefer not to understand the long term consequences because to do so might oblige them to damage their short term gains. When an engineer says "management doesn't want to understand" he is often literally correct.
b]TomThomson (1/8/2016)[/b]
Yes, between us we will have quite a few such tales:
There was once a purchasing director who decided that buying parts with gold-plated connectors was an unneccessary expense and caused a bunch of machines to be build with substandard board edge connectors; when installed something over ten thousand miles away from the manufacturing plant, the equipment worked for a while; it then stopped working - the boards were no longer adequately conected to the buses, and some extremely expensive equiopment was just so much junk, a very important customer was extremely annoyed, and the company's reputation was badly damaged.
If my memory servers correctly that happened very soon after new executive management had decided to put accountants and salesmen in charge of research, product development, and manufacturing instead of scientists and engineers.
A few years later in a much smaller company, the CFO decided that cash flow could easily be improved by not paying bills. That caused suppliers to refuse to deliver. That meant that the company could not fulfil its ongoing contracts with its customers. The CFO didn't want to know. The technical staff and sales and customer support staff had no option but to arrange for the Creative Director to present the results of the CFO's policy to a board meeting and ask the board to take action in order to prevent the company going under.
Sadly I think Tom has hit the nail square on the head in many cases. Personal gain over corporate well-being does seem to be the trend, especially for (but not limited to) publicly traded companies.
However there are also what I would call "poorly trained managers" out there. That's what I would consider the "target audience", and I would include those who have trouble thinking long-term in that category. If doing the "right thing" and not having a bonus this year meant a double-size bonus next year, what choice would each of US make? (I know it's sometimes tough to remember, but managers are humans too!)
And in the case of the CFO Tom mentions, wouldn't it have been great to be able to apply his own philosophy to his salary. Just don't pay him for all those days he came into the office. I'll bet he'd get the lesson pretty quickly. 😀 Immediate consequences are often the best teachers.
Steph Brown
January 11, 2016 at 9:44 am
Lynn Pettis (1/7/2016)
I have one for you. Years ago as a computer operator work at Data General, my supervisor ordered rehabilitated 2400' 9 track magnetic tapes. He was so proud of the money he saved. Yes, the tapes were missing BOT and/or EOT tape markers. The tapes failed about 50% of the time when they did have BOT/EOT markers. It was ridiculous.
Heh. I was a bit of a tape monkey in the early '80s, I kind of enjoyed it. I'm sure that's the definite sign of a disturbed mind. :hehe:
In the late '80s my boss decided that third-party reloaded HP LaserJet II cartridges were a good deal.... Let's just say that they weren't.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
January 13, 2016 at 9:22 am
Happy New Year all!!!
I will be looking to rejuvenate my development skills. This will involve becoming refreshed in all that I used to do (usually without the need to refer to books or the newfangled Internet thing). And probably some things newish to me e.g. I have limited experience with SpecFlow.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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