For all IT Management people, have you ever been in a situation like this one?

Question

I've been into IT for the last 16 years, since programmer to CTO ( My actual position ). For all that time I'd bosses who either were IT people or were CEOs from an IT company, so all my bosses knew something about IT and I could work on IT projects with them knowing what I was doing.

Now, I've been for the last 2 months in a company that is a nonprofit organization, my boss who is the COO has no knowledge regarding IT.

Recently I had a long conversation with him ( He made the request to do it ), and told me he saw no good things about my work since I got into the company. I told him that I was searching for OLAP tools for the company ( Since there is no tool to do mining into the DB ), also that I was working with our TIC providers for the new site and deciding which shall be best for 3 developments we have, basically I'm doing my job.

Have you been into a similar situation? If so, what did you do in order for your non IT boss to understand what are you doing?

Answer 1

Yes, but not as the CTO. My situation was an IT project where I was the project manager and the sponsor was a techno peasant. The main thing I did to keep him in the loop (and out of my kitchen) without patronizing him was to clearly define the deliverables in lay terms then provide him regular progress updates. I have some IT related experience but I'm not an IT guru. I think this helped because I know that most managers and executives figure you are feeding them a line of bull when you start spouting off the acronyms. They figure you don't expect them to ask for clarification because they don't want to appear dumb but they also figure you know this so you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Mine didn't need to understand the minouche of every aspect of my work but he did need to know that we were at least making progress. In fact he has an obligation to do so. It sounds to me like your COO needs to be kept up to date a bit more without running to him at every decision. If he turns out to be a micro manager you should shop for another job. There's a lot out there right now.

Answer 2

I'm a long way from your situation, but this is what I'd do.

I would compile a list of things that I have done for the company, and use it as a backup. If he says something like that again, you can start listing things off to him. I would then ask, or try other means to figure out what HIS priorities were and I would make them my own priorities (using common sense of course). I might ask what he would recommend that change? I might set some goals and ask his advice about them. This would give him the impression that you are trying to improve things and have a structured way to do it, and it would allow you to get some feedback on what he thought was important.

To start with I would pick Analysis Services from Microsoft as my OLAP server. I've used in before, and I like it. It's fast and easy to work with in my opinion. There are some things that I don't like about it, but there are also a lot of things that I do like. To start with you could use Excel Pivot tables as the client tool.

Also, our company did a TON of investigation and research into the right reporting tool and our investigation showed that Business Objects provided the best overall reporting functionality. Business Objects has OLAP tools. That would be my long term recommendation.

Answer 3

Sir ,I 've seen that non-profit org.s are really bad in employee hiring./ positioning ppl right. I hope your boss gets some IT lessons. Mybe you can yse your weekends for training him. /only if ih accepts you as his tutor. Since you are an Technical expert. I guess it will be an advantage for his as well. and is gonna be for the better of your organisation. But now he will accept your offer only if he cares for the organisation.

So its testing time for him and you too!!

Best of luck both of yu !

Answer 4

Now you have another part ot your job that of teacher....translating the foreign language of IT into something the guy who signs your pay checks can understand...People have heard "THE COMPUTER IS DOWN" bullshit so long they don't know what to believe...Give it a Go....Good Luck