This is a re-post of an article that I wrote back in 2015.

“The State of California cannot successfully complete large IT projects.” This was the sentiment that I heard right before joining the State of California. Over the last 6 years, I have personally seen this statement confirmed but not for the reasons you would think. The problem does not lie with the “worker bees”, IT Engineers but with IT management. I know that this is a bold statement but as you read on, I think you will agree.

These large and small IT projects are more than often a “vision” of an IT Manager or IT Executive. The IT Manager or IT Executive usually does not have any real technical understanding of how to achieve this vision so they immediately bypass their technical staff and go to a Vendor outside the State. The vendor receives unclear and incomplete requirements and rather admit that a project has failed, the State IT Manager or Executive goes all in spending and wasting taxpayers’ money until the project finally fails or until they retire and someone else inherits their mess. This is a very simplified example but nonetheless, it is true. At the end of the day, the Manager who began the project is never really held accountable for the failed project. The State continues with the same insane behavior. Every now and again, a new Manager or Executive comes along with great lip service but never really changes things.

So how do we change this? Firstly, I do not believe it is enough to hire just anyone to manage IT professionals. I know that there exist different schools of thought about this. One school of thought is that a manager simply directs the employees’ work and/or deals with HR matters. While this is true, I subscribe to another school of thought where a manager should also have knowledge and understanding of what their staff does. For example, someone who majored in Business or Finance should not be leading a Networking Unit or a Data Center without experience in that field. What do they know about this kind of task? Even someone with a degree in Information Systems may not be equipped to be an ISO or CIO. There is a particular understanding that is required to do the duties of those jobs well and we see the result of not having that knowledge in failed projects that simply suck taxpayers’ money. Would you hire an Artist to manage an Automotive shop? Would you hire a Career Attorney to be Chief of Surgery at a Hospital? For some reason, people think it is ok to hire just anyone to manage IT workers and projects. Even within the IT field itself, there exists a diversity that cannot be matched horizontally. For example, programmers typically think differently than network engineers. While there is a level of coding required to configure network gear, the concepts of routing, switching, and firewalling are vastly different from building a Java-based application. A better example would be in the case of the medical field; a Neurologist is vastly different from a Rheumatologist. They both study medicine but in two vastly different areas of the body. It would not be beneficial for either to lead their respective departments. What guidance could they offer?

To sum up this first post up I recommend the following:

• CIOs, CISOs, IT Executives should have senior technical SMEs on their interview panels.
• An alternative to the above suggestion would be to create and have Technical Managers that can serve on the interview panel.
• IT Executives should not be able to talk to Vendors directly; their “vision” should be realized by the technical staff that works for them. In the event, the technical staff and middle management cannot meet the required expectations, middle management and the technical staff should reach out to Vendors to assist them with the project. This way, clear expectations, and goals can be set by SMEs.
• IT Executives should be held responsible for any projects they sanctioned even if they have left the department or agency, retired, or left State service. As the Captain of a ship, they are ultimately responsible for the actions of all under their control and that should include poor Vendor Management. Quite simply, if you are not willing to take responsibility, then you should not take the job.
• Lastly, a State Enterprise Architecture Group should be created to fully vet any IT initiative within the State prior to the legislature and Governor’s approval. One example should be the removal of mobile phones. The Governor made this sweeping change without fully understanding the impact on smaller State departments. Had he been advised by “the men on the ground”, he could have better understood the impact and worked to find a better solution.