IT professionals today are seeing their list of tasks grow substantially. As technologies evolve, they are increasingly finding themselves at the centre of business infrastructure. They have to manage a multitude of software programs and different architectures and make sure that business networks are properly maintained and functional. More and more, IT professionals are finding that their job revolves around “keeping the lights on” and it is becoming more time-consuming and complex.
Their tasks revolve around things like administration, upgrades, and patching, all the way up to some of the more difficult tasks including disaster recovery, business continuity, digital strategy and testing existing systems. With IP departments being asked to do so much, it’s worthwhile thinking about how to make their lives a bit easier so that they can better drive your business goals.
Prioritize Tasks
Several years ago, one of the speakers at an MIT conference distinguished between what he called A/C projects and C/F projects. C/F projects were those that you could complete to the highest possible standards, and yet nobody would give you a pat on the back at the end of it. As a result, the best mark that you could expect from such a project was a C. However, if you got it wrong, you would be certainly rewarded with an F.
On the other hand, A/C project were those that drive innovation and enable your company to be a leader in the industry. The great thing about A/C projects is that you can still fail to meet expectations but get credit anyway for driving innovation and competitive advantage. This is why entrepreneurs should encourage their IT staff to focus on the highest value added projects, like investing in 40G QSFP+ breakout cables.
Affirm The Importance Of C/F Grade Tasks
This isn’t to say that C/F aren’t important. In fact, these tasks – which include things like computer maintenance and disaster recovery testing – are among the most central to your business. The only problem is that IT staff don’t get the recognition that they need when carrying them out.
It is worth thinking about whether a particular set of tasks could be cut from your business and if that would make any difference to the profitability of your organisation. For instance, if you could stop IT professionals from doing the work that they are doing, would anybody notice? For many tasks, you will find that people do notice and that not doing them makes a huge difference to your company.
But sometimes some tasks don’t generate any positive results. For instance, many businesses spend a lot of time trying to find problems with their invoicing records. They can proofread their invoices for many months and never find a discrepancy, yet they continue to perform the task anyway. Getting rid of these trivial tasks is an important part of freeing up your IT department.
Another way IT departments waste a lot of the time is through helping other people to do mundane tasks. This is why many companies try to automate self-help. Things like password resets, for instance, don’t require the help of a professional.