IT People
 |
Doing More with Less
First edition
ISBN 142087988X
( by: Kern, Pultorak, Dublisky, Giudicelli) |
The pressure on Information Technology professionals these days comes from all directions, non-stop. Today’s businesses mandate doing more with less, and the demand to do so is heard loudest in the halls of the IT department. IT professionals are expected to pick up the slack and have no choice but to be more productive!
Arguably running the business of IT is as or more difficult than managing any business because of demanding customers, reduced IT budget, continuous 24*7 global infrastructure support, increasingly complex infrastructure, negative perception of IT, an intensified political atmosphere, rapidly evolving technology, and constant change.
Predictably, but unfortunately, in the face of all these demands, IT staff are burning out. While many IT executives have worked hard to implement key processes and technology elements to build the ideal computing environment, they have yet to sufficiently tackle perhaps the most important element: IT people. Often, IT staff have a poor quality of life and are not performing at the level they are expected too. So what is it going to take to address the IT people issue? Much more than effectively implementing processes and acquiring the best technology money can buy. That will help, but it will not guarantee success. The answer is to focus on IT People.
And that is just what this volume sets out to help you do. IT People: Doing More With Less shifts the focus to the people. This is as it should be, because while it is right to focus on getting the hardware, software, networks, and processes right, people are the resources that ultimately make a difference in getting results. And since people costs are often the largest part of the IT budgets, and people problems are often the biggest source of frustration in IT departments, and since for many our focus has been elsewhere for what seems an eternity, it could be that a focus on IT people is long overdue.
This book is intended for every IT professional who faces the constant challenge of performing a big job with ever-shrinking resources. Whether you are a manager or an individual technician, this book is for you. It will help you improve your ability to plan your work, meet your commitments, and do so while being an effective political actor. Our aim in this book is to provide you with tools that will not only help you to deliver greater value to your organization, but to do so in a way that provides a greater degree of job satisfaction and quality of life.
About the Authors
Harris Kern
Harris Kern is the author of 26 books. He is recognized as the foremost authority on providing practical guidance for solving IT management issues and challenges. He has devoted over twenty-five years helping IT professionals build competitive IT organizations. He combines the experiences of an IT executive, self-help expert, performance coach, and sought-after consultant for the benefits of clients worldwide.
Harris’s clients list reads like a who’s who of American and International Business. His client list includes Standard and Poor’s, GE, The Weather Channel, NEWS Corporation, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal (HACTL), among hundreds of other Fortune500 and Global 2000 companies.
Harris is the founder and driving force behind the Harris Kern Enterprise Computing Institute (www.harriskern.com) and the best-selling Enterprise Computing Institute series of books published by Prentice Hall. As founder of the Enterprise Computing Institute, he has brought together the industry’s leading minds to publish “how-to” textbooks on the critical issues the IT industry faces. The series includes titles such as:
- IT Services,
- IT Organization,
- High Availability,
- CIO Wisdom,
- Managing IT as an Investment, among others.
Harris is also one of the world’s leading self-discipline and peak performance experts. He is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at business and IT management conferences. Harris’s passion is to help people excel in their career and personal life by guiding them on how to acquire discipline. He pioneered the Discipline Mentoring Program™ and IT Performance Mentoring Program™. Harris is the author of:
- DISCIPLINE: Six Steps To Unleashing Your Hidden Potential
- DISCIPLINE: Training The Mind To Manage Your Life
- DISCIPLINE: Mentoring Children For Success
Harris introduces a formula of success for the IT professional. His vision brings the world of IT and self-discipline together to properly address the people issues in IT. His goal is to arm IT professionals with the right tool to empower them to become more productive not only in their career but also for their personal life as well. His latest “discipline oriented” book is title IT PEOPLE: Doing More With Less.
Joanne Giudicelli
Joanne Giudicelli is a passionate consultant, author, and university professor on the many facets of human capital management. After a ten-year career as an IT professional, a seventeen-year career building and running a medium-sized search firm, she has coauthored HIRE POWER: A Radical New Strategy for Defining and Executing Successful Hiring to be published in Spring, 2006. She has helped developed and teach courses to graduate students (MS, HR program at Golden Gate University) in both Performance Management and Managing the Employment Function.
Joanne spends her free time with her husband, her three sons, and the many dogs and cats that she considers family. She is usually accompanied by a Guide Dog for the Blind puppy-in-training, a program in which she has volunteered her time for the past five years.
Helene Dublisky
Helene Dublisky is an IT executive, certified executive coach, and author. With more than twenty years in IT management, Helene has worked with large and small organizations in the for-profit and the non-profit environments in the US and in Europe. She is coauthor of HIRE POWER: A Radical New Strategy for Defining and Executing Successful Hiring to be published in Spring, 2006. She teaches in the Masters in Information Systems program at the University of San Francisco where she has developed a class in organizational politics and power, and also teaches courses in Human Resource and Project Management.
Helene lives with her husband and her dog in the San Francisco Bay Area, and enjoys cooking, reading, walking, and scuba diving.
Dave Pultorak
David Pultorak is a recognized authority in the management of IT. He has devoted nineteen years to helping organizations better manage IT for business value. Prior to his nine years in consulting, he spent ten years at Johnson & Johnson, where he managed client support and data center operations. David holds a Masters degree in IT and Organizational Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been an adjunct professor since 1989, most recently at Philadelphia University, and is a founding member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Organizational Dynamics. David is regularly featured in leading industry magazines and Web sites, including BetterManagement.com, Data Center Management, Support World, and ITSMwatch.com. David’s most recent books are the popular “MOF, A Pocket Guide” (Van Haren Publishing, 2003), which has been translated into six languages; and “The Definitive Guide to IT Service Management for the Adaptive Enterprise” (Realtime Publishers, 2004). In addition to ITIL and MOF, David has earned a number of technical certifications, including Novell CNE, Microsoft MCT and MCSE, ICCP CCP, CDP, and CSP, and HP Certified Consultant.
