The Executive’s Guide to Information Technology, Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

The bulk of our experience in the technology field has been in consulting to companies of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries, and helping them to improve the effectiveness of their IT departments. We have worked with many struggling information technology (IT) departments and have been fortunate enough to help many of them transform themselves into highly effective, fine-tuned organizations, which deliver the highest return on investment to the companies in which they operate. We have observed a consistent pattern of symptoms and causes in the IT departments experiencing difficulties. We have captured these lessons learned and the tools, techniques, and practices that can revive a struggling IT organization.

This book is a sophisticated and comprehensive guide to running a cost-effective and efficient corporate IT unit. While we spend time describing the challenges facing IT departments, our primary aim is to prescribe a course of action for senior managers and IT staff. To that end, we provide sharply defined, specific policies, approaches, and tools for each important aspect of managing the IT function, from human resources to operations to vendor selection to project prioritization.

The techniques covered in this book facilitate a detailed assessment of current operations, and development of a step-by-step improvement plan designed to save companies significant IT expenditures, while providing measurable productivity improvements. Further, ...