When a congressman blatantly ignores the public interest and votes for legislation that benefits a major campaign contributor, we often deem it business as usual. But when an IT manager lobbies for more resources, nurturing organizational alliances and making deals to garner support, we don't quite know what to make of it. After all, maneuvering of this type could diminish the probability that IT decisions will be made rationally, based on a thorough assessment of costs and benefits. Increasingly, the IT decisions made by managers are influenced by non-technical factors in an environment where managers at all levels are struggling to effectively leverage PCs and other equipment that allow market leaders to make information a strategic asset.
Information technology is the top issue on senior management's agenda.
Meanwhile, engineers and programmers frequently appear oblivious to the strategic issues that keep senior management awake at night. After all, they're busy enough trying to find the best way to push those bits down the wire a little faster. To borrow from popular psychology, we might say that senior management is from Mars while the IT organization is from Venus. It's time for IT managers, and network managers in particular, to recognize that success is not always the by-product of being right. Information management has become the most politicized issue of the modern organization, and to be successful themselves, the techies need to get in the game.