Turning the tables: A 'Users for Dummies' IT guide

InfoWorld - Those damned users. They're always whining about how people in IT don't get them, don't know how to communicate, and need to "align" to their interests. As if only IT pros have to do the work in the relationship.

But we all know that this unfair situation is common, and IT suffers as a result. And IT pros particularly suffer when it's time for cutbacks. Fortunately, IT pros can get the upper hand by thinking of users as a problem to be solved through a rational plan, as if it were any other vexing issue that gums up the works.

[ Fun with "us versus them": Check out InfoWorld's "Stupid user tricks" series and "Dirty IT jobs" series. | Wear your geekdom with pride, with InfoWorld's signature T-shirts and mugs. ]

To help IT get the upper hand, InfoWorld has put together an eight-part plan for dealing with users, which we call the "Users for Dummies" plan, after the famous line of books that teaches everything from Windows Vista to sex for the novice, um, user.

HR people and hiring managers, bless their hearts, would call this "soft skills," a squishy term that often insinuates that IT pros will never get it. Herewith is InfoWorld's guide to mastering those soft skills in a way that anyone with a disciplined, engineering mind can use.

By the time you've worked through this eight-step guide, you'll have a working arsenal of soft skills -- and the advantage of being able to work with users at their level while remaining fully in command of your right brain.

1. Your company doesn't exist just to employ you. Find out why it's employing everyone else, too Consider the breadth and depth of the tasks the IT department is routinely asked to perform: Keep our systems secure! Build us internal tools for updating the Web site! Craft arcane queries for our database! Cut back IT spending by 20 percent by implementing green technology!

It's no wonder that it's tempting to simply focus on the demands of the job. However, it's important to be able to look at how IT department serves the company as a whole. This way you can explain to other departments, in their native tongues, why they should pay you proper homage in the form of appropriate budgets and personnel.

[ Be sure you possess the 30 skills every IT person should have. ]

Why should you do this? "If you can figure out how to apply technology skills to what your company does and its specific business models, you can help it save money. You can help it run more efficiently," says Tom Silver, a senior vice president at tech job-search site Dice.com.