Originally posted by: themoogler
I have to do a small paper for a class and we were asked to interview someone. Coudl any one answer these questions?
1) How hard is it to communicate with management in a computer field?
2) What type of barriers exist in that communication?
3) What are the "small" things that one can do to "fix" the barriers?
4) Communication amongts the "programmers," IT ppl etc... is there any barriers there?
I work for a community college, but many things I do apply elsewhere. Managers tend to have an agenda. They know what they want and they expect IT people to produce. They dont care if it is impossible to get done in 1 hour they just want what they want. One big problem with communication is it tends to be top-down.
In IT to be truly effective you need a supervisor that will fight for your concerns. A strong IT leader is important. If you have no IT management representation or a lousy yes-man managing IT, the entire IT department will be at the whim and criticism of every department manager in the company. Accounting says this, production says that, fianancial aid says something else. When management fails to manage it is the fault of IT when something goes wrong.
After a while IT people start to write everything down and do a lot of documentation. sometimes IT just has to bend over backwards so department managers start to make sense. When no cooperation existst, IT people must present and in-your-face attitude. Regretfully, many managers and department heads will stab you in the back if they get a chance. So keeping good records to back you up will be necessary. Being blunt and straight forward is sometimes needed. Mind reading is a good skill if all else fails. Customers very rarely know what they really need so you have to decipher what they want. Then if you think you know what they want tell them and give them a chance to correct you. When possible have some grapic aids or some hands-on demonstrations.
Staff meetings are one way programming staff or system analysts/program developers communicate. Meetings are like a necessary evil. You have to provide your status and keep up with other developments to keep ahead of the game. No systems development project can succeed without good oral, written, and formal communications. People have to be on the same sheet of music, and sometimes be forced to review documents and sign off on key elements of a project.
Plan Plan Plan and Plan some more. Then replan the Plan.
These all sound like stupid text book questions. What kind of subject is this on is it tellecommunications or what?
Many IT people do not work in large companies and do not have these large groups of programmers and testers, and developers. We have been using 3-4 programmers for the last 5 years. It wasnt still we started working on a new system that we hired more people. One issue in IT is Help that is not part of the Company you work for. They might be consultants, or possibly belong to an outside firm the Company has hired like we have at this time. IT may need to bring in outside help for larger jobs or for a little more expertise. This may be network help, coding help, Communications help.
IT is getting to be a wider area. We have computer labs all over campus in nursing, English, math, Science, MIS, ETC. We just installed an IP Phone system that runs over our IT Network, requiring an upgrade and we hired a consultant on the best way to set it up. We have distant learing initiatives with people working for us 3 states away. We have online-bill-Pay and teach web-enhanced classes. Everything is more and more complex.
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