Opinion: Don't blame your users for their ignorance about IT -- train them

Computerworld - I occasionally teach a session in the IT-MBA program at a local university. My subject is IT governance. After introducing myself, I ask the students what they think of their IT departments. Here is a sampling of the comments I've heard:

• They never get projects done on time.
• They never get the project done on or under budget.
• They don't understand our business.
• They are more loyal to IT than to our company.
• They have their own language. I can't understand them.
• Why does it take them so long to do anything?
• They lack a sense of urgency.
• They often want to try new, untested technologies. They take too much risk.
• They spend too much money.

In the class, I try to dispel some of these myths, but they still persist, aided no doubt by IT stereotypes depicted on TV and in the movies. The IT person is usually cast as a social misfit or worse, and seldom would he be described as a clotheshorse.

The amazing fact is that this image hasn't changed in the more than 40 years that I have been in the IT business. Despite the great strides we've made in competency and efficiency, a lot of senior and midlevel managers still treat us as a necessary evil.

What can be done?

I think we have to spend more time introducing our users to the realities of IT. Could it be that we are late on projects because users ask us for last-minute additions? Is it possible that the users never had time to tell IT what they wanted and then complained that we didn't provide a system that met their needs? Is IT routinely bypassed when it comes to company meetings where corporate strategy and corporate realities are discussed? Do users understand the actual costs of their requests? Does IT tell them?

We need to train our users to understand their role in the system development process. We must convince them that an IT system belongs to them, not to IT. They must learn that the only way to get a system that works for them is to be involved in every step of the development process. They must know that they are ultimately responsible for ensuring that IT resources are used effectively to solve their business problems. They must realize that the changes they make affect project completion dates.

This matter of user training should become a top priority of every CIO. IT should survey its users and determine their feelings about the IT department. If negative stereotypes are held by managers within the company, it is the CIO's responsibility to determine whether IT deserves such a reputation. If it doesn't, then the IT department should begin a series of manager training sessions to explain to users the level of commitment required from them to resolve their complaints.