Customer Reviews

Adventures of an IT Leader

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is hard to criticize a book dedicated to looking at the challenges facing IT leaders on a personal and professional level. The goal of Adventures of an IT Leader are admirable, present IT in a human light using a combination of techniques from Goldratt's business novel classic "The Goal" to the case studies that are featured monthly in the Harvard Business Review.

The authors clearly know their stuff. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the authors have not been able to translate that knowledge into an effective business/IT book. While this book is interesting, well written and flows pretty good it does not provide the busienss person -- particularly one with a jaundiced view if IT, or the IT professional with the insights needed to change their circumstances.

The book seems to be written for the business person to help them understand IT. The protagonist Jim Barton is a business leader asked to assume the role of CIO without any technical experience. This again is a great goal, however there are some significant issues in the book.

I do not recommend this book be given by an IT professional to a business executive. Particularly if you want to show a business person what life in IT is all about.

Furthermore I would not recommend a business person read this book in an attempt to learn what IT is all about.

While these recommendations are harsh here are my reasons:

1. A business reader can easily interpret the book as making IT look incompetent, from managers who do not understand what their staff do (Chapter 3) to their inability to control major projects (Chapter 7), to their in ability to protect the company (Chapter 11).

2. From a business perspective, the book resolves every IT issue with spending more money. Sure the leader shuts down a project, only to pay $3 million and get nothing, then have to start the project up all over again for more money. The solution pattern offered in the book could easily support business suspicions that IT is more about spending money than creating value.

3. IT people may play well with each other but play poorly with the business. The major project (Chapter 7) that was led by the business is cancelled and pulled back up under IT. The new CIO takes over responsibility for the IT budget across the enterprise - because they cannot get infrastructure projects funded. The business and IT cannot agree on the status of projects, turning a meeting into a finger pointing session led by the IT person (Chapter 6)

4. The book brushes past major concepts and challenges in IT with short and passing explanations. Terms like shared service, web 2.0, and infrastructure are discussed in passing which undercuts their importance to the business and the future of IT.

5. That you only have to be a CIO for a year, one in which you handle a crisis but do not seem to deliver any major value, and that you will get your dream job and move up to COO at a bigger company. I know the authors had to end the book, but ending on such a triumphal note when the performance during the year was mediocre at best sends the wrong message to the business reader.

CIOs in real life who work hard, face real challenges, and make real progress. The book does not show much of this. They also have the job an average of 4 years not 365 day wonders. Its true that this is a business fable, but if you are trying to educate people even fables have significant grains of truth to them.

There are other books that describe IT better ranging from "IT Savvy" (Weill and Ross), "The New CIO Leader" (Broadbent and Kitzis), "Straight to the Top" (Smith) among others.

The authors do a good job of sequencing a set of events that IT leaders will recognize: runaway projects, de-motivated staff, security issues, etc. While this book is ok for IT people to read, it does not put these challenges in a particularly interesting light or an environment where new concepts and approaches can be illustrated.

IT professionals will recognize this environment and say that is accurate. That is a good thing. However, the book is not the story of an IT turnaround - rather it is a descriptive story based on the new CIO lurching between IT topic areas (Cost/Value, Project Management, Runaway Projects, IT Priorities/governance, IT and the board) rather than discussing the combination of things that raise IT performance. The authors have drained the story of suspense, decisions, actions and results that are essential in using the business novel format.

IVK - the fictional loan/mortgage originating financial services company has all the characteristics of a poorly run IT shop: lack of standards, a hero culture focused around the CISO, good people in management roles who seemed outgunned. While Barton, the new CIO builds up a white board with key ideas; these ideas are more accumulated than implemented. The result is an IT shop that is more transformed by events than by management and leadership.

The book uses these circumstances to introduce and review concepts that were developed several years ago such as Death march projects, power maps, IT portfolios, etc. Many of these tools are self referential as coming from the Cutter Consortium - the home of one of the three authors. IT professionals will recognize these techniques as they are well established. They will learn little from them as they are not exercised in the text - merely catalogued and described with partial samples attached at the end of some chapters.

I kept reading this book, hoping that it would get better as I agree with the premise and the need to build bridges across IT and the rest of the enterprise. Unfortunately in my experience and from reading this book - I can see where it can do more harm than good -- particularly as a tool to help business people understand IT.

Sorry for such a critical review. I am not trying to bash the book, but when I look at it from a business perspective I see it doing more harm than help. I hope that I have explained the position behind this review and my rating.

I don't think I can add much to Lee Devin's review, but I've never met the authors so maybe that counts for something.

I'm a VP in IT Infrastructure at a 250-person financial services firm. I read this book in maybe ten sessions over about three weeks and had trouble putting it down every time. Although clearly targeted at MBA classes (I got mine a few years ago so I know whereof I speak), it had none of the generic "IT management as a theoretical construct" approach that my IT management textbooks swore by. It raised specific, messy, real-world (ok, fictional but realistic) scenarios and, in true Socratic fashion, asked the reader what he or she would do. It provided excerpts of actual third-party reports from analytical firms like Cutter Consortium along with footnotes directing you to the originals.

I only wonder if the publisher has any plans to sponsor book-group meetings. I would love to get together with five or ten other aspiring CIOs to discuss the questions, and in fact am considering re-reading the book and treating it as I would a real MBA class, writing out answers to each of the questions proposed just to give myself a chance to think through them more carefully. The authors actually mention that classroom materials are available, though presumably only to professors and the like.

I am not afraid to state that M. McDonald is right with some (not all!) of his criticism about "Adventures...", even at the risk of being the only one doing this. However, I rate the book with a 5-star as it has undoubtedly more than one merit. The sheer fact that there is a book explaining the world of IT in an easy-to-read style without using technical jargon is an achievement in itself. The major aspects of a CIO's life are covered and this has been summarized by other reviewers. But there are important shortcomings. At no place is there a word about the fact that a CIO is mainly managing dependency, due to the fact that he deals with an incredibly immature computer/software industry. Faulty software (leading to crashing projects and later to system instability) and unripe technology (with especially dramatic consequences when it comes to IT security) haven't found their way into this book. A corrupted database is not necessarily the consequence of a renaming of a table; a database can achieve corruption all by itself.
There's another recently published book (that I somehow prefer) with the similar intention to explain IT to the business: Roeltgen's "IT's hidden face". This one takes a different approach as it doesn't have a story-line but works a lot with descriptive examples. Both books have things in common though: the starting point is an IT department in the financial sector; N. Carr's ideas are widely rejected; "IT is different"; the CIO's job being the most volatile one in the business; a CIO can't do his staff's job by himself, just to name these.
"IT's..." proves that these days the IT world can by no means be managed entirely, whereas "Adventures..." makes the reader believe that IT is perfectly manageable by having the right communication, the right governance or by throwing more money at the problem. The example with the DoS is to my opinion described inaccurately (as a life-threatening event for the company) when we all know that these things are daily business and should be managed quite differently than described in the book.
Being myself a business executive in the financial industry, I don't think that it can be stated that Barton did an overwhelmingly good job. He was pushed much more than he was driving.
"Adventures..." presents an ideal world, taking a somewhat academic approach. But that's fine as long as the reader keeps this in mind, whereas the other book is written by a long-term experienced CIO who describes the day-to-day challenges with concrete examples.
It is undoubtedly true that we should head towards a better manageable world in IT, but as long as we have to deal with an immature software industry, this is a dream that will not be achieved soon. "Adventures..." describes exclusively from the perspective of the CIO and his interaction with the business, but leaves out the daily challenges of the ordinary IT staff. "IT's.." offers more details in this respect as it digs much more in the "dirt".
In any case, both books read very well; "IT's..." having on top a touch of humor and "Adventures..." offering a story-line.
Both books explain the IT-world to non-IT-experts and they have the intention to close the communication gap between those incompatible worlds. There's no excuse anymore now for anyone to say "I understand nothing about IT" or "IT is for me a grey monster I want to stay away from". I suggest reading both books. The picture of what IT is about these days should be rather clear after that.

This book gets a five and the review by M. McDonald [who rated the book a 2] gets a zero.

The authors stand at the top of the list of 'people who know' IT - and yet they carry their erudition lightly. A generation of IT leaders and scores of CIOs have benefited from the work of these scholars. This book packages all that knowledge in a ready-to-go and easy-to-consume 295 page thriller.

In writing Adventures the authors innovatively and courageously stepped outside the box of academic 'yawnness' and comic-book clever business best sellers to create a dramatic narrative arc powerfully depicting:

what IT is really like;
why IT is harder than one might think;
why IT costs as much as it does; and
why IT is misunderstood by the 'Suits'

Rather than portraying IT as incompetent -as reviewer McDonald contends - Adventures does a fine job showcasing the various 'tribes' of IT. The non-IT reader comes to sympathize with and start rooting for the IT 'heroes' in the story.

This book lacks pretention. The prose is crisp [ala Hemingway] and evocative [ala Churchill].

As a futurist I predict this book ending up on many C-Suite nightstands.

You will enjoy reading the book and actually learn something at the same time.

Isn't that what a business best seller is supposed to be?

This book has turned the key points of a text book into a novel. The protagonist discovers the opportunities and challenges as we follow the story. Much better then a text book for reading.

Rob Austin, Richard Nolan, and Shannon O'Donnell have done what is truly difficult in the field of IT writing: they have written an IT book that I believe will stand the test of time. As an IT strategist, I am often struck by how quickly the information in IT journals and books become stale due to the pace of change in technology. The authors have captured highly relevant vignettes that will provide key lessons for IT leaders today and in the future.

The authors' use of a fictional hero, Jim Barton, has allowed them to take real examples, and without having to worry about hurting the original perpetrators' feelings, present unvarnished stories and the lessons that come from them. The presentation is quite appealing, and lessons apply to CIOs and business leaders alike across industries, geographies and size of companies.

"Adventures of an IT Leader" notes that IT management is not unlike business management in general. The borrowing across disciplines is useful in making this point, and in calling to the attention of business and IT leaders alike that IT is no long just the domain of the techno-geek.

This book will be of particular value to executives in transition. I have recommended it to clients who have recently been promoted to CIO and to IT executives who are changing companies especially. I also think, however, that it is a great book for IT leaders who are a degree or two removed from the CIO role who aspire to have the top role one day. "Adventures of an IT Leader" provides many lessons for the aspiring leader that will allow him or her to avoid the pitfalls that the stories describe.

All in all, this is an enjoyable and instructive read. I highly recommend it.

I appreciate and identify with the book's main premise that real IT value is driven by bridging the communication and collaboration gaps between technologists and the business. As an IT Director and former IT Program Manager, it's somewhat cathartic to read about tough lessons which have given many of us "battle scars" over the years. I disagree with M. McDonald - this book is a fine vehicle for non-IT readers to quickly gain an overview and understanding of the leadership and business challenges that are entwined in IT management. And for those that are too busy to even read your email, don't worry - this is a quick, enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Information technology is the new "IT for Management" as Corporate America tries to dig itself out of the gaping leadership hole they've created over the past several years.

Without a thorough understanding and application of information technology, Corporate America has little hope of making their organizations the well-oiled machines they used to be back in the good old 20th Century.

Authors Austin and Nolan do a wonderful job of guiding even this IT challenged management/employee motivational guru into the wonderful world of today's hyper-paced informational technological environment; where survival of the fittest has nothing to do with having the loaded gun. It's all about maximizing the resources available on the super-highway of technology, where there are no posted speed limits; only unwritten penalties of driving too slowly. For some companies currently on life support, the penalty for not keeping up with IT means they may as well pack it in; they're going nowhere even faster than before.

Essentially, these "adventures" clearly and creatively formulate the blueprint for success for any company to follow if they ever want to become leaders in their respective industries. Information technology is a most important tool for business survival, so wake up Corporate America; IT is where it's happening!

IT certainly enhances two out of the five "social appetites" previously discussed in a review of Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance; namely, "skill deployment" and "innovation". With the technological capabilities so readily available at our fingetips, this once confusing and blurred world of 21st Century business has become focused, and so much clearer now; even I can read the handwriting on the wall.

This book does a great job detailing the many challenges of running a successful IT department. It reads a lot easier than most computer related books. Taking all the normal complexities inherent in IT departments and aligning them with the overall business strategy is a requirement in today's business world. The authors did a nice job detailing this struggle while also providing a great model for how IT professionals should handle it. The authors do however highlight the large gap and/or deficiency that appear to exist with promoting a career IT employee to the CIO position. In the real world and in this book, I continue to see countless companies turn to non-IT professionals to run the IT department to help render it valid and to re-connect it with the rest of the business. All IT professionals should be required to read this book as part of their career development plan. The IT professionals that figure out how to bridge this gap will be in high demand and be able to put an end to the commoditization of the IT professional that I believe exists in a large portion of today's business world. I highly recommend this book.

As an assistant controller for Fortune 200 company, my path usually intersects with IT frequently. I was originally skeptical that this book would be beneficial to me. However, once I began to read it, I could not put it down. I devoured it! It is an essential piece of the bridge between IT and the rest of the business. Congrats to the authors, you have hit a homerun!
The book is logically designed, without being too "geeky". In my opinion, in order for IT professionals to bridge the gap to being IT leaders, they must lose their "geekiness". This book goes a long way toward bridging that gap. Some IT people might find fewer details about IT architecture, etc. in this book than they would expect. However, it seems that the purpose of this book is to bridge the gap between business leaders and IT leaders. I found the technical descriptions in the book to be like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears; not too geeky and not too hip-hop, but just right!
I found this book helpful in walking through leadership principles (it just happens to be in the IT group). Barton did not always know the next step, but relied on principles such as "doing the right thing". Even though I'm not an IT leader, I gained insights into leadership that I will be able to apply.
I was very impressed with the graduate level concepts (for example, leadership types on page 81, Moore's law on page 84, Parkinson's Law on page 99 and being useful vs. being real on page 261). The reason I was impressed is it was actually fun to read and understand. I became connected with Barton, and wanted him to succeed.
Nicely done! I found this book to be truly beneficial.