IT Sense: Too Many Cooks

by Jon William Toigo
October 1, 2004

This created even greater frustration when their application migration vendor (a vendor with a three-letter acronym for a name) took it upon themselves to draft a 30- page document criticizing the recovery scenario: They were “concerned” the strategy, which relied on the technology of a competitor (also a three-letter company), was poorly conceived and prone to error.

I can only speculate on the contractor’s reasons for writing and circulating this document. In effect, they were casting aspersions on the CIO for her selection of the chosen storage vendor (their hardware guys had lost the competitive bid) and its recovery technology. Perhaps they were also out to increase their billable hours by providing additional “services” to “fix” the errant strategy. Bottom line: They were making a fuss over something they had no business commenting about in the first place.

Were I the CIO, I might have fired the lot of them. However, over lunch, the CIO explained why she had taken a different approach, one more facilitative than I would have chosen, and decided to seek another opinion. My job, she said, was to get up close and personal with staff, confirm their solution, give them confidence in their strategy, and write a final report she could show to management.

Perhaps her approach to the mess is what separates those of us who were cut out to be consultants from those who were cut out to be CIOs. This CIO held her peace when her knowledge and choices were being called into question, putting the project (which required the contractor resources to be completed on time) first. A hot head like me would have had to have my fingers removed from the throats of the troublemakers, regardless of the consequences for the project.

My hat is off to her for teaching me a thing or two about why some technologists shouldn’t be managers.