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Technology in the Work Place...How important is it?
I am the technical manager for the R&D department of a large company. One of the things I am very concerned about is the ability to attract new people to come work with us. As I look at how we do our jobs, I am very concerned that our work processes and the technology we use to capture our intellectual learning is woefully out of date.
I am opening this question up to a forum that I consider to be very well informed and very bright. I also know that many of you are younger than I am and have the world view consistent with the age of people that we would hire.
The big question is, "If you were to work for company, and particularly one that does research, how would you envision the technology resources (IS, work systems, etc...) to be structured. Please take this from your ideal state perspective.
This really is a serious question, and I am looking forward to seeing the responses.
I am opening this question up to a forum that I consider to be very well informed and very bright. I also know that many of you are younger than I am and have the world view consistent with the age of people that we would hire.
The big question is, "If you were to work for company, and particularly one that does research, how would you envision the technology resources (IS, work systems, etc...) to be structured. Please take this from your ideal state perspective.
This really is a serious question, and I am looking forward to seeing the responses.
Comments
How does Google do it? Simple, they offer free breakfast (before the work day starts), free lunch and then free dinner (after the work day ends) to keep you there longer.
Didn't MS have a policy of free "high sugar" snacks all around the building?
I would need more information than you provide to give you a better answser.
Primary Issue: Communal Knowledge Sharing
The primary issue we have in our group is knowledge management. We have no training program, no consistent method of finding Subject Matter Experts when we have a question or problem, and no community focused methods of communication. Our department has all the knowledge we need for every one to be successful, but no way to get it out. The main problem is we’re all over the country and don’t actually work with each other (we work with our project teams); even though we do the same jobs and have the same problems (audits, PMO executive reviews, etc), we have limited methods of communication (email and conference calls).
In my two years with the company, I have been consistently trying to get a wiki started for our group. This would provide a one-stop-shop repository of our communal knowledge. This limits brain-drain when someone leaves, provides a resource for new-hires, and frees up SMEs time from answering the same question over and over. On top of that, ‘fire-drill’ situations with rapidly changing issues can be managed in full view of the entire PMO . . . something email does not do well.
My barriers for implementing a wiki for my PMO are as follows:
1. Price: We’re the technology group so we have almost no budget. Virtually everything we do is billed incrementally back to projects. We don't have $20-40 in start-up costs and ongoing maintenance costs . . . though I could easily hide that much in one of my projects. This means that approval has to go pretty danged high and no one over my head is willing to stand up for the idea.
2. Buy-In: No one seems to be sure that people will buy into it . . . which I completely understand. I’ve seen wiki’s in the wild fail . . . interestingly enough I cannot find a benchmark for a failed wiki in a corporation (though I’m not sure I would find one).
3. Socialized Corporate Secrecy: For some reason my company has a strong corporate culture of not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing . . . which means the openness idea of a wiki is difficult to swallow. Each time I bring it up, “security†becomes an issue; who has access to change this? how can we only have our department see it? We are a generation of people who expect to be able to find anything we need by filling out a search function.
Other Issues:
• Hardware doesn’t cost that much. Giving us nice computers, monitors (plural), and other random peripherals is a cheap way to keep us happy. I know budgeting for them is a pain but seriously . . .
• Training is fun. Most of us want to learn more and if we aren’t learning, we’re moving on.
• Corporate secrecy is a pain. One thing I really like about my job is I’m the only person who works in both the Data Center PMO and a Software Development PMO (two of many). I get to see both sides of the tracks. For some reason, we aren’t encouraged to communicate with these other groups and often times don’t even know they exist. Data Center PMs are always dealing with the hardware people, they have well documented processes and do it well, but the Software PMs never see these documents and find the hardware people difficult to deal with. Similarly, the Software PMs are always dealing with the business side of things, while the Data Center PMO only has about 15% business funded projects. Why can’t these groups go to the Project Management Wiki and find documentation on each others group? Why must each group have security on their intranet webpage’s? It’s hard to swallow is all.
• More to come . . . maybe.
This post reflects only the views of me and not the views of my employer.
Keep the comments going...I am really appreciative of every one's help.