SODEVE

In case you wonder, the last few days I’ve been busy doing projects on dotnetnuke. I did not really have much time to update this blog. So today everything has been sorted out, and I regain my breathing space to update this blog =).

 

Okay, a few days back Mr. Ramon Padilla wrote an article at TechRepublic looking at the career progress in IT. He thinks that the current practice in the workplace will put you, either in the “I” category, or the “T” category. He defines the “I” category as an employee with understanding the needs and goals of the business side, whilst the “T” category as an employee with a good handle on the nitty-gritty of technology.

 

Although I am not disagree with him, I think that the classification only applies–most of the time– in medium/big companies. If you happen to work for startup companies, believe me, both your “I” and “T” skills definitely will be put in test. I happen to know a good friend who works as the Business Consultant, Designer/System Analyst, Developer, Debugger, all in one package. Contrary to another friend which works as a Test Engineer and responsible mainly for creating test-cases for the Application.

 

So let’s identify jobs that are related to IT and try to assess which one is dominant, the “I” or the “T”

1. Programmer

   Programmer a.k.a Code Monkey (I am one!!!) is required to have a well versed skill on the programming language. In order to be able to do their job properly, they should know the technology well. If your programmers did not master the technology, prepare a huge time buffer for your project delivery date.

2. System Analyst

   System analyst will convert customer requirements into the solution design which later given to the programmer to develop. The better the system analyst, the less headache the programmer have.

I know there are many other jobs related to IT such as Helpdesk Staff, Test Engineer, QA QC, Web Designer, Graphics Designer. Which none of them I ever professionally work as, and I better not risked myself bad-mouthing a profession. These jobs are related to how the IT Infrastructure are implemented in a particular company. For best practice of IT Infrastructure implementation please refer to Information Technology Infrastructure Library.

 

If you want to share about your profession, and help me to complete the list, please elaborate it in a comment and I will be delighted to incorporate it here. You could also mailed it to me at sodeve@sodeve.net

 

I want to be an IT Manager, Should I go the “I” or the “T” way?

From my experience, to climb up the leadership ladder the “I” plays more important factor than the “T”. If we analyse IT Managers from their background, the ones from “T” category most of the time were promoted because they have better understanding on “I” aspects than the rest of his/her peers. On the other hand, it is quite common to have IT Manager with lesser “T” knowledge than his/her staffs. Remember Dilbert?

 

My Two Cents: if we want to climb up the leadership ladder, make sure we brush up your “T” skills to somewhat acceptable level, before we upgrade our “I” skill. This way we can become a manager, without having disgruntled staffs that think our hair is somewhat pointy.

 

Legends

• or refers to a high “I” or high “T” skill
• or refers to a average “I” or average “T” skill
• or refers to a low “I” or low “T” skill

Hardono Arifanto :: Apr.11.2007 :: Business & Management :: 1 Comment »

How often do we write emails in a day? For myself, at least once a day. Mr. Dan Santow advises us on how to write the email’s subject better. But why do we need to write the email’s subject better? Definitely to make us look more professional, and reduce the possibility of HR Manager having regrets for hiring a person who unable to create good subject on their emails

 

Highlight of his advises is Write it after you write the email body, and keep it short. Interestingly, folks at Lifeclever take it to the extreme by suggesting to write email with subject only. I personally think this idea of subject-only email is brilliant. Imagine when your boss email/SMS you saying that the Web Application on the production server is down. After fixing it, you could just this email:

It will take only seconds. Although you know, you still to write the report for Monday meeting.

 

But it is interesting considering that the local customs tend to promote ‘beating-the-bush’. Will subject-only emails makes us scorned? Another interesting discussion would be whether this subject-only-emails applicable when communicating with people outside your organization/clients? Since doing that might render us as being rude and lazy

 

So my conclusion would be:

1. I will take Mr. Dan Santow’s advise wholeheartedly
2. Lifeclever’s advise is good for making your communications more effective. But in the beginning you might need to give a one-time warning/ask permission about the possibility of you sending them subject-only emails in the future

Ok. That’s my take. What about yours?

 

Sources:

Get your email read with a killer subject line

Subject to Change

Get to the point with subject-only emails

Hardono Arifanto :: Mar.29.2007 :: Business & Management :: No Comments »

Communicating with higher management always require tactics and tricks. Today, after making my own mistake, my manager-Ms. Judy reminded me a very good principle. Which is ..

‘Less is more’

Reporting to higher management doesn’t require us to explain all the details, we must be able to tailor the content of our report so it won’t go too much into details. Always only provide summary of the information unless they explicitely require you to go into details.

Another positive thing for giving less information is that you will cover yourself from unnecessary questioning. Sometime the details are too distracting, our boss will forget the general picture of the problem. Thus, he/she will only comments about the details without ever address the main issue.

But this doesn’t mean we dont prepare the details, we do prepare them, but only will shown them if its required.

Thanks Ms. Judy Koh =)

Hardono Arifanto :: Jan.11.2006 :: Business & Management :: No Comments »