Very commonly companies have to make important decision about what they should do. These decisions typically involve a number of different departments (legal, HR, finance etc), all of which provide an important and necessarily piece of input to the Decision. For some reason Tech seems to be frequently forgotten about during this step in planning.
Failing to plan….
Due to the expanding info-tech nature of work it is critical that technical considerations are taken into account during planning. This includes things like giving tech a seat at the table, including team members in planning meetings, and ensuring they’re included in updates. You wouldn’t, for example, not include Legal in a big decision, why is IT any different?
Planning is a very important thing (citation needed). Even the smaller projects or initiatives need time to be shaken out. Schedules need to be determined, resources need to be found (or borrowed… or stolen…) and communications need to be setup. There are a ton of moving parts that need to be managed, such as figuring out what teams are involved, and who is responsible for what. Many projects share some amount of requirements, for example having a unique email, that tend to be better understood by the project teams. Almost every project, however, can benefit from additional technical expertise, and this is where a breakdown frequently occurs.
While many pieces can be managed without technical support, almost every aspect can benefit from a technical view point. This may involve tools that the project team is unaware of, help developing an ideal process, or access to key systems. All of these decisions also will require some about of IT help, even if it’s just setting up an email alias or standing up a file share. Generally not having the tech teams involved early will result in either a mad dash at the end to get them up to speed, or a diminished project result.
“Just IT”
This boils down to mis/pre-conceptions about IT itself. After all, IT just pushes a button and the thing works. It can’t be THAT hard to setup a new email alias, so why include them at the kickoff meeting? This is only compounded as projects become more complex. (If you don’t understand the underlying concepts moving 2,000 workers around your HRIS seems like an easy thing, just a button, right?) . This apparent lack of appreciation for the complexities of modern information systems results in IT being left out of the loop. Several times I have been looped into projects with only a few days before go-live and asked to complete what should be 3 weeks of work in 3 days.
Including tech at the start of the project helps avoid these types of situations. On the one extreme is tech saying they’re not needed, but on the other is avoiding a massive complication. This may also require some amount of discretion depending on the topic (e.g. a super-secret merger or HR event may require more selectiveness), however, tech teams are used to handling highly sensitive data so it’s just another project to them. At the start finding the right person(s) on the technical side may be a bit of a challenge as the help desk expert may not know anything about the HRIS side of the house (and vice versa). One way around this is to include one individual from each tech team at least is consulted and asked if they might be needed. Another method would be to approach your tech leadership and ask them who the best individuals to include are since they’ll have a good idea of who’s best suited for the task.
Business + tech = win
Once tech is regularly involved you’ve given yourself a number of advantages. The least of which is IT becoming aware that something is going on. This doesn’t seem like much, but is a huge step in the right direction. Like any team they have restricted resources, so we’ve now given them a chance to put your ask into their planning cycle. This helps eliminate the possibility of not having the right resources available to do The Thing (or giving folks premature grey hair…).
Even better, it also allows IT to point out potential problems with your approach. While I have great faith in my business partners, tech is not their area of focus. Frequently this results in them sticking to habits / easily available things (google sheets, anyone?), resulting in tunnel vision. Maybe there’s an easier way to communicate with everyone, or maybe you’ve forgotten about some restriction. More diverse brains, earlier in the process, can only help.
If a technical resource cannot be included (maybe you don’t have one yet, or maybe they’re slammed), another approach is to find someone on your team who is more technically minded. Maybe this individual has worked in tech before, or works closely with the tech teams currently. While this person may not be a technical expert they should be able to at least point out areas where tech should be involved. The goal is to find a way to get a technical viewpoint on your project as early as possible.
All together now
Many, if not all, parts of a businesses project can benefit from including technical resources as early as possible in the process. At the very least you’ll avoid last minute scrambles, but more likely you’ll enhance the overall project in ways that are hard to see at the start. You’ll also build a better relationship with those teams, improving overall operations and helping improve future projects. Your tech teams will thank you as well, since they’ll feel like they’re part of the great team instead of being delegated to being “just IT”.