Welcome to my blog about people “doing technology”.

I am writing this blog more to collect information them to disseminate it. After a few years of working in a technology field it became obvious that the people side of IT was just as important as the technology. Having one doesn’t compensate for a problem with the other.
I have been working in IT for “about” ten years, specialising as I go. I can’t really say that I have lost skills, but I have really only developed my skills/knowledge in an ever decreasing field. I would like to say that in this area I am pretty good, at least for some one with less then a dozen years under my belt as a professional.
I work for a smallish consulting company; we sometimes describe ourselves as boutique. This company specialises in the areas I do, but this blog isn’t about the technology itself, or even about doing technology stuff. Rather it is about meta-technology, the stuff that needs to happen so that people can do the technology things
I am at a point now in my career where I am still doing the technology thing, sitting in front of a keyboard and mouse making changes to fancy (and expensive) electronic stuff. But I am also at a point where I am making changes without touching the technology (except to produce documents – using MS-Word doesn’t count as “doing technology stuff”. I am advising people on their technology choices, and how they should use that technology with their people to achieve their aims.
It is this “using people” that I want to focus on. When I started at IT I was introduced to some process stuff, one team would fill in a form (in pen) and drop it off on my desk, and I would go and do something to fulfil that request. It was a simple task, and it was probably the first thing given to me because it was easy, and easy for some one to teach me.
Process is a two edged sword, it can really constrain peoples ability to do what needs to be done, yet without it chaos rules. With one of my clients the lack of process (and clear standards) is causing problems. There is pressure to do more quickly, but things are being done inconsistently. Suddenly part A won’t quite fit into part B because they were made by different people with no common reference. End result, the project gets delayed, and a lot more stress and pressure to do things quickly as opposed to correctly.
The counter argument is that the process constrains people. Same client, one team wants to do something that could be made easier/faster/more efficient by using a particular feature, with no capital cost required. Unfortunately, there is no process to do this, or rather the process doesn’t’ quite fit. The normal process was initiated and followed, but someone technical isn’t made available to the project until it too late to take advantage of the feature.
I am raising a problem without proposing a solution. Instead, I am inviting comment and feedback. I don’t want to use this blog to pontificate, I don’t see my self as the source of knowledge and readers (hopefully there will be readers) as people I need to educate. I am hoping to attract people who don’t’ want to know how to do things, but who are prepared to ask “why am I doing this”, and “what do I need to change about ourselves”. It is important for me to hear from the people actually doing the work, and not just from managers and theorists.
Between work and family (I do have a family life) I don’t have a huge amount of time to devote to this blog, but I am planning on updating this once a week. Time will tell how well I stick to this.