Category: Work Tech

Is your IT professional certified?

There are a lot of IT professionals out in the market and in can be difficult to differentiate who is knowledgeable enough in the technologies you use.  If an IT professional is serious about their career, they should regularly invest time in obtaining and maintaining relevant certifications.

Why use a certified professional?

  • Demonstrates specific, in-depth knowledge.
  • Shows commitment to learning and professionalism.
  • Gives the customer confidence and value-for-money services.
  • Gives the professional access to additional support and other resources.

When hiring, don’t be afraid to ask for a list of their specific competencies  and certifications.  They should be able to explain their skill sets and how it is relevant to your business.  Anyone who has recently acquired certifications is dedicated to keeping their skills up-to-date.

So when you are looking for a professional, look for their certifications. Coupled with demonstratable experience, this should assist in choosing someone to help you and your business.

We’re not building a nuclear submarine

I’ve worked in an enterprise alongside a development team building a new platform for processing home loans. When I started I saw the project schedule – to be released within about two months. About three years later, a first version with 50% functionality got released.

The premise for the project was simple enough, and that was to speed up and automate the processing of home loans for quicker and more accurate approvals.  The underlying process was established in the existing system, and on the face of it seemed like an easy win for the development team.

So what went wrong?  From the sideline, I could see a few obvious problems:

  • The project was setup for a complete replacement, and not chunked up into modular parts.
  • The specification by the business analysts was detailed, perhaps too detailed.
  • The scope was changed multiple times during the project.
  • Project management was lax or at times non-existant.

Frustrated with the project, the business owner several times exclaimed “we’re not building a nuclear submarine!”.

Although this was a development project, it can be very easy for similar problems to occur on any type of IT project that you may embark on.  So what can we learn from this?

  1. Define your requirements clearly and succinctly.
    It isn’t necessary to go into minute detail, and perhaps use some agile methods, particularly for software development companies.
  2. Break the project into well defined deliverables.
    The adage deliver early and deliver often holds true in some respects.  This should also help stabalise a technology platform and hopefully deliver results that are immediately visible.
  3. Ensure there is a project manager and they are up to the task.
    The project manager should have regular updates on progress, assist with any roadblocks.  They are also required to put the brakes on scope changes, and keep the business abreast of the development efforts.

While this is only one example, its always a good idea to do a reality check with the stakeholders through the project.  This is to ensure expectations are clearly set.  Also makes for a happy client.

The business <> IT imbalance

I’ve been working in the IT Industry for some years now, and I feel something is wrong.

Far too often there seems to be an imbalance with what someone wants and what someone gets.  This may be as simple as a service call, or complex as a development project.  But this can work both ways.  Unrealistic demands from within the business with limited resources cause pains for IT professionals as well.

Some days it is difficult not to be frustrated from either side of the ‘fence’.

So what can we do to resolve this?  Time for the business and IT to get together and establish some expectations.  Sounds easy, but its quite complex.  Sometimes sacrifices may be made be it scope of projects or quality of service.  Or innovation and new ideas may ways to deliver better solutions with less money.

This is one topic I’m looking to explore as part of this blog, and hopefully there will be something we can all learn to make this less wrong and more right.