8 Things We Hate About IT: How to Move Beyond the Frustrations to Form a New Partnership with IT |  | Author: Susan Cramm
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Seller: thermite-media
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 26848
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1422131661
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.0684
EAN: 9781422131664
ASIN: 1422131661
Publication Date: March 29, 2010
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Product Description
Why can't you get what you really want from IT? All you desire is a ready-and-willing partner to help you exploit IT to drive your business. Instead, you get endless rules and regulations, not to mention processes, projects, and technologies that deliver too little, too late, for too much. It's frustrating!
How to build a relationship that puts you firmly in control and produces the business results you need? In The 8 Things We Hate About IT, Susan Cramm provides the answers.
Start by understanding differences between operational and IT managers - in backgrounds, personality, pressures, and incentives. Cramm explains how differences prevent operational managers and IT from communicating what, why, and how they do what they do.
Citing case studies and stories, the author then presents practical strategies for overcoming the difficulty. These include seeing things from your IT partners' perspective, developing a single version of 'truth,' and assuming accountability for IT just as you've done for management of your firm's financial and human resources.
Brutally honest, provocative, and filled with sound advice, this book reveals that the key to solving the IT problem is decidedly un-IT: it's a deeper understanding of human behavior, including how to apply your leadership skills to the world of IT.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
Time for business people to get more involved IT - and here's how! March 5, 2010
Abbie Lundberg
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've been watching, analyzing and writing about the intersection of IT and business for 21 years, as former Editor in Chief of CIO magazine. The pace at which things have evolved in incredible. Today, IT is built into just about all aspects of business, from the very products companies sell (just look at the Kindle!) to the ways in which they create, store, market and distribute them. All of this requires not only that IT professionals get more involved in all parts of the business but that all parts of the business get involved in IT. But how do they go about it? So much about IT is mystifying and mysterious to business managers and leaders.
"8 Things We Hate About IT" is a wonderful guide to help clear away the confusion and show business people how to get involved in all stages of the IT process, from planning how to best use IT for business value to making the right decisions quickly to engaging effectively during development and operations. Thoroughly researched and reflective of Susan's hands-on experience (she's both a former CIO and a former CFO), this book is a must-read for anyone interested in demystifying IT and providing more effectively leadership of their own function or business unit as business becomes more digital. In the process, readers will gain a better understanding of how to improve IT-business collaboration to benefit the enterprise - and the people within.
Cramm Gets It; Now for the Rest of Us May 28, 2010
James Drogan (Westport, CT USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been in the business of applying technology to business for 45 years. Cramm's book squares well with my 36 years of in IBM working directly with clients on their issues. For the last nine years I have applying that experience in higher education. There is nothing in this book that I have not encountered and been occasionally bloodied by.
Cramm is on target in a clear and clarifying way about what needs to be done by business if the potential value of technology is to be realized. Crisp writing (except for the occasional "yank the bandage off" phrase) regarding the critical issues is engaging and informative. Cramm's critique of the approach to managing the IT assets is constructive with suggestions as to what to do liberally sprinkled throughout the easy-to-read book.
This is a recommended read for the executive who is wondering what to do about IT. I would likely make it assigned reading for my client executives were I still in the consulting business. As it is, I have some other ideas as to how to use the book in the context of some of my current responsibilities.
It is regrettable that the issues and recommendations are too easily recognizable by many of us who have been in IT for a long time. One is left to wonder how much progress has really been made in generating value through the application of IT. Perhaps this points to a void in the higher education curriculum.
It occurs to me that a subtitle for this book could be "We have met the enemy and he is us." Ah, the prescient Pogo.
8 Hates or 8 things to work out? Its all about the relationship! April 11, 2010
Gary Kuyper (GR MI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I preordered the book because I have heard Susan speak, read what she has written for Harvard Business Review and follow her tweets. I had high hopes for the book based on her previous works as described; also being that she has been in both a CFO and CIO role. She has the experience of demanding impact from IT and delivering high value with IT. Having over 25 years of IT leadership experience, I conclude that she has held to the high expectations by delivering insightful points of view in this easy to read piece too. Many pages contain insights that are commonly faced in the daily work of a CIO. The book is worth the read, just so the typical CIO knows that he/she has company in the effort to bring value to his/her organization. The concepts and ideas will help build the bridge to high value returns.
The premise of the book is to ensure there are good relationships in building and executing an organizations technology. The book endorses a joint ownership model to make sure there is good accountability on the part of IT and the business. It is essential for business staff to know IT and IT staff to know much about the business. Business leaders that cannot read financials are not as valuable, the same is analogous for technology. Business staff need to have a basic knowledge of how to leverage, justify and exploit technology to innovate or create a competitive advantage.
The point many organizations get stuck in is that the back office items are easy to automate and justify as a priority. At least twice in the book the recommendation is to get the most value out of technology by implementing technology to improve the customer experience by delivering technology to improve the front line staff or enabling the customer. I echo this philosophy to ensure maximum IT value.
I am not sure this would be the only book to give to the business staff, but maybe a heavily highlighted copy or a group read with discussion would maximize the value. The book promotes a relationship model, what better way to build that relationship then by reading and discussing this material in a book group format.
It is common knowledge that IT is intrinsic is all aspects of business, especially going forward in a flat world. This makes it essential to get the value out of every aspect of the business, especially IT. I recommend this book to move an organization closer to the potential ROI. The ultimate goal for all involved is to deliver maximum value to the business and its customers. Nice work, awesome insights Susan!
What I Wish I Had Said... April 16, 2010
Jeffrey M. Harvey (Racine, OH, US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
OK, as an IT guy- I love this book. Even if it is about hating IT.
The truth is that the things Susan Cramm identifies as hated by business people are things that we in IT aren't so crazy about either.
The real value in this book is Susan's plea for the folks on the "business" side of the house to own their IT; to think of it as THEIR tool for getting THEIR work done as opposed to a kind of neutral service that should do their bidding. That kind of attitude change would make a tremendous difference in an organization's ability to leverage its systems for real competitive advantage.
There are practical suggestions here for building the sort of partnership that we need between business and IT. I think that those suggestions are both realistic and attainable, even if they are likely to nudge us all out of our comfort zones. In other words, don't expect just a theoretical discussion of how things oughtta be... there's real guidance for how to get there.
As for readability- I rarely use a highlighter in a book, but a quarter of the way through this one, I made an exception. It's full of interesting factoids and quotable quotes and I wanted to be able to find them again when I needed to steal them.
Finally, for what it's worth, I also enjoyed what struck me as a uniquely female sensibility around some of the thought here. Two quick examples...
In relaying an illustration of one IT manager's plight she describes his much-cultivated business alignment as being "like the alignment of a husband and wife with separate bedrooms and separate vacations."
Later she says that "Dealing with the typical IT department is like trying to date someone difficult. There's the promise of something life-changing, but the day-to-day realities are painful...".
There are about 50 manager-level business leaders in our organization. I'm seriously thinking about getting every one of them a copy of this book, in hopes that they will find themselves captured by the compelling story-telling before they realize that they've had their thinking changed.
A thoughtful, fun read about an endlessly confusing topic March 18, 2010
Michael Clifford (Austin, TX)
Susan's book directly addresses what so many IT Busines Partners have been saying behind closed doors for years - what is that IT person talking about? IT people too many times are all hung up on managing expectations, or trying to explain very complex things when all their partners want to know is why something doesn't work or why things cost so much.
Susan has a genuine love and appreciation for what IT leaders do. She also has a genuine love and appreciation for what the business expects. She knows that IT is in service to the business, and is keenly sensitive that this doesn't mean they are in servitude to their business partners.
This is a book for Non-IT Leaders that genuinely care and want to help their IT partners succeed. It is a fun read, thoughtful, with a good balance of process and just plain feel. It is for the person that wants to go beyond just trying to understand what IT does - it is meant for those out there that want their IT relationships to be as fun as this book is to read.
Full disclosure: I've known Susan for years. We've been trying to figure out how to say these things our entire career. She's the one that figured it out!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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