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

For most business managers, the relationship with IT can be summed up in a word: frustrating! Exploiting technology often requires sorting through convoluted processes, data, and systems only to, find requests mired in red tape and projects late and over budget. But here's something you probably don't know: those things you hate about IT? Your IT leaders hate them too. So stop complaining—and start collaborating with the people who can help fix the problems.

In 8 Things We Hate About IT, acclaimed IT expert Susan Cramm argues that business and IT leaders fail to understand the very different pressures their counterparts, face. Business leaders want technology to drive immediate results; IT leaders must do so while, promoting the long-term interests of the enterprise. To resolve this paradox you need to forge a new partnership by better understanding the needs and concerns of IT—and use that insight to get what you want in a way that works for everyone. In candid, practical terms, Cramm outlines what the new business/IT partnership should look like—with a payoff that will be well worth the effort.

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.

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.”