Listen up IT Department Professionals. Here are 5 sure fire ways to lose your job quickly. Yes, you are busy doing 1,000 things, but before it’s too late, you must focus on these big issue items no matter what else your boss is yelling about.
IT Department Mistake Checklist
1. Backup and Restore
Don’t stop at Go, don’t collect your $200. Finding out your backups aren’t really working after a failure doesn’t really count for anything. This is the Holy Grail of mess ups for IT Department managers. Going down is bad, but losing data is terminal. A CIO at a hospital was doing a fabulous job implementing new cost-cutting solutions. One fateful day, there was a failure, and the hospital lost their receivable records. And on that fateful day, he lost his job.
2. Prolonged Downtime
Everyone has some downtime. It happens. However, each time your company loses business revenue because of downtime, the eyes will turn to you. Be a champion of best practices, and get the redundancy you need to survive. Your IT Department depends on it!
3. Lack of Security
There is no such thing as absolute security, but you must take reasonable steps to prevent misuse. When it crosses over to public embarrassment, you have a real big problem. It’s bad enough to get viruses or malware, but when your customer information is stolen, the company reputation takes a hit. Also, don’t forget about internal security. More threats are from internal than from the outside.
4. Failed Projects – Don’t be a Yes Man
Make sure your project succeeds! Industry estimates for IT project failure rate range from 25 to 35%. Lack of planning, communication, budget restraints, resource limitations, and quality control are the major reasons. Too many open uncompleted projects will eventually be blamed on you. Don’t get caught holding the bag on impossible. Keep the committed list small and be sure to move through projects quickly. Remember to promote your success with a before and after presentation. Outsource if necessary.
5. No Projects – Don’t be a No man
Don’t build an ivory tower to look down upon your technology-challenged co-workers. IT departments should be helpful, business savvy, and contribute to the company’s success. It sounds easier to shun end-users to make them go away, but in the end, you’ll be the one leaving. Treat them with respect, and you’ll become their hero.