8 Things We Hate About IT: How to Move Beyond the Frustrations to Form a New Partnership with IT »

Susan Cramm is Founder and President of Valuedance and a recognized industry expert on information technology leadership. She has consulted to executives from a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Toyota, Novartis, Whole Foods Markets, and Sony. She is an award-winning writer and author of the Harvard Business Review blog “Have IT Your Way.”

Why can't you get what you really want from IT? All you desire is a ready-and-willing partner to help you exploit IT to drive your business. Instead, you get endless rules and regulations, not to mention processes, projects, and technologies that deliver too little, too late, for too much. It's frustrating!

How to build a relationship that puts you firmly in control and produces the business results you need? In The 8 Things We Hate About IT, Susan Cramm provides the answers.

Start by understanding differences between operational and IT managers - in backgrounds, personality, pressures, and incentives. Cramm explains how differences prevent operational managers and IT from communicating what, why, and how they do what they do.

Citing case studies and stories, the author then presents practical strategies for overcoming the difficulty. These include seeing things from your IT partners' perspective, developing a single version of 'truth,' and assuming accountability for IT just as you've done for management of your firm's financial and human resources.

Brutally honest, provocative, and filled with sound advice, this book reveals that the key to solving the IT problem is decidedly un-IT: it's a deeper understanding of human behavior, including how to apply your leadership skills to the world of IT.

Introduction 1

1 You Need Service, and IT Needs Control 15

2 You Need Results, and IT Needs Respect 29

3 You Need to Focus on Tactics, and IT Needs Strategic Alignment 43

4 You Need IT Funding, and IT Needs Returns 63

5 You Need On-time Delivery, and IT Needs Quality 85

6 You Need Customization, and IT Needs Standardization 107

7 You Need Innovation, and IT Functions in Bureaucracy 125

8 You Need Good IT, and IT Can Become Great 141

Appendix A A Primer on Fast-Cycle Development 157

Appendix B Emerging Technologies 161

Appendix C Key Responsibilities of the New Business-IT Partnership 167

Notes 171

Index 181

About the Author 193