There’s an interesting post (see below) by Paul Murphy at ZDNet titled “Why IT doesn’t meet expectations.”¬† While reading, I couldn’t help but reflect on my experiences and how closely they related to what Paul Murphy wrote.

Why IT doesn‚Äôt meet expectations by ZDNet‘s Paul Murphy — The key reason IT is often a source of cost and frustration is that senior managers – CEOs, CFOs, and board members – usually have neither the expertise to direct IT, nor the interest and resources needed to get that expertise externally…

It was my experience that most of upper management (CEO’s, CFO’s), directly responsible for directing IT, was so out of touch and uncomfortable with technology that they tended to avoid the subject as much as possible. If they were confronted with an IT proposal that directly addressed a business requirement and couldn’t be avoided, they would often get a glazed look in their eyes and ask few if any questions. The few questions they might ask would include: Does this fix or satisfy the requirement? How much is the total cost and what kind of ROI can we expect? Is there already a budget item for this? They were only concerned with the financial side of the proposal not if it was the appropriate use of technology.

Top management, who should be providing the guidance for strategic use of IT, often lacks both the knowledge and the courage to do so.

Paul writes that from IT’s perspective; IT failure succeeds and success fails.¬† From the failures comes the recognition (of how difficult it is), larger budgets (to fix the problems), and more staff (to support the failure).¬† From success comes the assumption that it’s simple and that IT could well be over budgeted or staffed. Therefore, IT often is working for what’s best for IT.

As an example, who would many offices believe more important, the telephone person who they almost never see but who’s phone system is almost always working, or the photocopier person who is often present fixing and helping the users with a product that often is broken and down.

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