Adventures IT Leader, Barton Faced a Proble

¶ … Adventures IT Leader, Barton faced a proble It is vital that both Barton and Gordon address the Ivan Korsky problem as soon as possible, and in a way so that they do not compromise the security and quality of the work performed on the Alpha3 project. As the pair discussed, Gordon should initially talk to the IT expert and, if she is not successful in conveying the importance of finishing the Alpha3 project on time, then Barton should address the IT professional about the same issue.

Essentially, Gordon needs to stress the importance of Korsky devoting his energy to the Alpha3 project as soon as possible. However, she must frame this goal of hers in a way so that she does not alienate the revered IT tech nor make him regard the organization they both work for in a negative way.

Her framing tactics, then, should specifically include telling Barton about how excellent his skillset is and how it has been a pleasure to work with him and to work with anyone as talented as he is with his high level of proficiency in architecture, communication, and coding. Next, she should stress that she believes the work he is doing on his so-called pet project is valuable work which can potentially represent a triumph for mankind.

By both championing Korsky's abilities in IT and his cause, Gordon should be able to make Korsky more amenable to the fact that it will be acceptable for him to devote more time on his pet project after the company has met the deadline for the Alpha3 project.

She should reinforce the fact that his involvement is crucial to the company fulfilling its obligations in a timely fashion, and reference the fact that his utilization of company resources for another project is detracting from its ability to fulfill its primary obligation. Lastly, if this conversation or a similar one from Barton does not work, the company should employ the shared service method to restructure its activities and get more productivity out of its star IT employee.

IT managers can best measure and compare the output of diverse employees by evaluating the number and value of the tasks they complete. As alluded to in the readings, time is not an adequate measure of how much work employees actually do, nor of the value of that work (Austin et al., 2009, 244-245). There may be employees who complete difficult work quickly.

Thus, managers should attempt to produce a comprehensive list of all of the tasks that employees are held accountable for, and assess a quantitative value directly associated with the worth of that task to the company itself. This way employees can readily calculate and compare the output of employees. I believe that such a measurement should directly impact the contract of workers in IT departments, especially for talented employees such as Korsky.

These individuals should have monetary benefits and rewards that they can access after completing tasks worth an agreed upon amount of points each day. Even if such incentives do not fully serve to spur such employees to increase their productivity (which they should), they should provide some way of measuring how much work they are doing and if it is enough to merit their job with the organization. The primary challenge associated when acquiring, training and managing IT talent is communication.

There has been a longstanding divide between the business and IT, with individuals from each of these groups having increasing difficulty ascertaining the needs and producing work that meets the goals of representatives from these respective departments (Harper, 2013). Communication is not a primary skill associated with IT; technical knowledge and computer savvy is.

The challenge always has been and will continue to be to get members of IT to be able to adequately communicate their work and its impact on the business to business representatives in a way that the latter can understand and derive value from. That is why so many IT-based programs such as those in analytics and business intelligence, are emphasizing communication skills (Harper, 2013).

The main type of restructuring or fine tuning that an IT department will need to successfully evolve over time to accommodate the needs of the business is to either centralize or decentralize its talent into distributed groups. It is crucial to note that the needs of the business department will largely determine which of these approaches is the most feasible.

Additionally, the individual skills, experiences and talents of the IT department also factor into how the group should be restructured, since it must be done so along the lines of the specific capabilities of the group. Therefore, these two factors -- the needs of the business side, and the specific strengths and weaknesses of those who comprise the IT department -- must be well accounted for in terms of the present and future structure of IT. The shared service model discussed by Austin et al.

(2009) is an ideal situation in which to utilize a centralized approach when there are pressing.