Holoom

Beware the gangs of IT. They might not wind up being as mean as street gangs or bands of hooligans but they might put up a decent performance of Nerd Side Story.

When you start your professional path it is only logical that you group with people who tend to think and act like you do, while some people with somewhat opposing worldviews become your natural enemies. All around the world IT shops are the perpetual battleground for traditional enmities that come with the trade. It’s unavoidable and in fact quite necessary because the opposing characteristics of these gangs generally prove useful for the overall goals of the company they work for. I submit to you the ones I’ve experienced firsthand.

Creative vs. Pragmatic

People such as graphic designers are a creative bunch. They constantly bet on the muse for their everyday work and if they can’t they start to feel uneasy. On the other hand, developers are practical people, they like to get their jobs done with as much efficiency as possible and will gladly let go of any flamboyant solutions if a very practical shortcut will do the job. Have you ever seen a user interface devised by a developer? They are only usable by well… other developers.

In the old days it was very common to hear a developer yelling because he or she despised the inconsistency infested, poorly formatted HTML received from the graphic designer who undoubtedly produced it with the graphic view of IDEs such as Dreamweaver. Designers used to not care for HTML standard compliance at all and churned out pieces of unintelligible spaghetti code full of missing close tags (to say the least).

I understand the overall adoption of CSS as not only a developer but a graphic design standard has somewhat proven beneficial for this particular interaction, by setting a common language that facilitates cooperation. Also IDEs have gotten a lot better at identifying non compliance to standards, but this was just an example; you will always find room for argument between such opposing types.

Sales vs. Operations

Until I started working in presales a common phrase I used to hear (and sometimes used) was “How can these idiots have sold this?” After starting my presales management experience the phrase slightly changed to “How can you idiots have sold this?”

It’s a very old and common enmity and yet one of the most explicit symbiotic dependencies. They need each other but don’t really care for each other.  Sales people have a sales goal which more often than not, does not include the outcome of the project execution. Operations on the other hand is in charge of executing within reasonable profit margins, schedule and quality.

A very common misconception is that at the end of the day sales should care about what they sell because their clients will be unhappy if the outcome is bad. More often than not, they just don’t and here’s why:

1. The project’s end line is so far ahead in the future that it looks like a dot to them.
2. Sales quotas are usually very cruel and competition is fierce.
3. The end price for a project is not set by your sales team, it’s usually set by the market (i.e. if someone is willing to bid on a project for the price of a pair of socks, then your sales rep must bid for the price of just one sock)
4. In order to maintain their good rapport with the client they can always fall back on the fake indignation card when things go to the crapper. “My operations team is not delivering? OH NO!!! I will raise some hell.”
5. Most times operations has no influence and no real presence during the sales process.
6. Sales people are compulsive yes-sayers.

Companies stand to benefit from the clash of wills between these two clans if they were to introduce mechanisms that encouraged cooperation:

1. Bonuses for sales if projects are finished in time and budget.
2. Penalties for sales when the latter does not occur.
3. Operations assisting sales in the sales process with an equally strong voice.

Although I’ve seen some pretty decent efforts in that direction I have yet to see these pair working together as a unit.

Security Specialists vs. Everybody

I’d rather shovel guano for a living than be in charge of the network security of a company. These guys have a well deserved bad reputation. They are often ill mannered, unpleasant and generally bad ass to everyone around them. And that is precisely what they need to be. Show me a nice CSO and I’ll show you a company with security issues.

While your average office person does not give a crap about nothing and just wants to come to the office, read their personal mail, blog, tweet, chat via IM, browse Facebook, read the online news, download that tasty Paris Hilton video and oh… yes… get the occasional hour of work done; a good security specialist needs to be able to see the five thousand or so security violations your everyday working habits hold.

As an average Joe you will want to work and be comfortable at your workplace whereas a security specialist will try to maintain a network running and operational for everybody to be able to work comfortably and sometimes that just requires that they be mean to you.

I do not foresee any changes in this particular clash of wills because whenever security has evangelized a flock, new heretics will surface with virus infested pen drives at the ready.

Opposites Construct

The setting of opposing goals will usually result in confrontation between the different factions in IT. However, while the developer will push towards a faster, more efficient user interface, the creative department will make sure that it’s not an eye sore. If done respectfully, through clear channels and with room for balanced opinions, these little everyday battles will result in the benefit of the whole team.

If, on the other hand, a company was to take sides in these disputes by supporting one over the other, no good will come out of it. As an example, check out Microsoft’s product policy. It’s better to get to market presto and then put out a series of annoying service packs and updates than to spend one extra month in the kitchen. It’s greed over quality. And that’s a song more popular than the happy birthday.

Shuje

On my next post I will explain why the chicken went across the road.