Customer Reviews

8 Things We Hate About IT: How to Move Beyond the Frustrations to Form a New Partnership with IT

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Susan Cramm provides a comprehensive and detailed description of the current state of IT and the friction IT has with the business. The book reflects Cramm's significant experience with existing IT models and practices.

Cramm's point is that "No rational person hates the people within IT, but everybody, IT and business leaders alike, hate the current IT system." Page 155. Cramm intends to address this point by having the business participate this current system.

Unfortunately, the book's advice is to have the business executives get more involved with the practices of the current IT system that everyone hates. This becomes apparent as you read the book and understand its central premise that it's the business's responsibility to make IT work.

I do not recommend sharing this book with a business executive to get them to suddenly wake up and say - yes I have been neglecting IT all these years and it is my fault. Cramm suggests that business leaders will come to this revelation on their own. (pages 141-144) The book does not make a strong enough argument backed by real examples of how this works.

If you are going to convince business leaders to spend more time on IT, then you need to present hard evidence, what others are getting by spending more time. You cannot just assert that it is the right thing to do. I can see where a business leader could read the book and take away the idea that this is IT restating old arguments and shifting responsibility away from IT and onto the business. That is an understanding may do more damage than help.

Weill and Ross's book IT Savvy does a better job and is heavily footnoted in this book. I recommend IT Savvy as the book to give to executives to understand more about why they should pay attention to and invest in IT.

This is a book that IT professionals will gravitate toward and IT analysts will praise for its accurate and compelling discussion of the core IT principles and how they address the fundamental tensions between IT and the enterprise in terms of the 8 things we have about IT. In that regard it is better for IT professionals than for the business.

The 8 things are helpful as an accounting of what is wrong in IT and the IT business relationship, but Cramm stops short of providing the level of advice, tools or insight into how to improve on the situation. An example is the discussion of business cases (p. 73-77), which basically says you do a business case to get projects priorities. A few sentence discussion of using a case to drive benefits realization is on page 97.

Here are the strengths and challenges that I see and are the basis for my comments.

Strengths:

* Recognizing that the business / IT relationship has reached a critical state that has an impact on business performance and their competitive future.

* Cramm does a good job of pointing out the tension between a business unit specific view on their operations, versus IT's common need to take all business units into account and have an enterprise view. This is a powerful point and one of the things at the root of the relationship that could have built upon.

* Well structured around the tensions that pull at the business and IT relationship along terms that both business and IT professionals will recognize.

* The tool on how well you are managing the IT asset (p. 145) is helpful and would have been better placed at the start of the book so the business reader could understand how much of this applies to them.

* The description of the core/common IT processes is clear and accurate providing business leaders with an understanding of the practices they need to participate in.

Challenges:

* The intended audience for the book is the business executive who is reading to be convinced to spend more time with IT and follow IT processes and practices. Unfortunately the text can get confusing as the book slips into tech tone and provides only a general reasons why executives should spend their time with IT versus concentrating on other tasks.

* Cramm's argument assumes that IT is the way it is and cannot be expected to change. The possibility that the standard IT practices in the book may not be effective at attracting the right level of business attention is not seriously addressed.

* The book does not contain examples of what to do, what works, the experiences of real CIOs and business leaders facing this situation. This gives the book a disconnected feeling that will not convince an executive to give up a portion of their scarcest resource.

* The advice is uneven in places. The advice is not new and these are standard practices. The author does not take advantage of new developments that are specifically intended to address these issues. For example, the book quotes Weill and Ross's work in multiple places, yet the governance advice offered does not recognize Weill and Ross's groundbreaking, actionable and practical work.

* The book organizes itself around the 8 things, but it also tries to organize itself around the IT investment process. This makes the structure a little confusing. It also gives the business reader the impression that their only involvement is to get IT projects approved, rather than realizing value from IT.

I am sorry, but I do not believe that the book will get the executive to understand IT, appreciate it or be willing to invest more of their scarce time in this staff function. Here is a final example from the book:

"What IT professional in her right mind has the time or inclination to go out looking for what might be when it's hard enough dealing with what is? Yet this is exactly what business leaders want their IT organization to do. They want IT to show them how to exploit the current tools and discuss future possibilities about how IT can be used to drive the business. This never gets to the top of the IT priority list. " Page. 127.

Paraphrasing this quote: IT cannot do its current job; much less create the innovation the business wants, so innovation that drives the business does not get done.

That is why, I believe that while Cramm has done a nice job covering IT's traditional relationship gap with the business, the book does not provide enough to achieve the goal of having the business engage in IT's current set of practices and processes.

It is hard to write a less than stellar review and if you have read this far I hope that you can see the rational for the points I have written. Thanks.

I've been in the business of applying technology to business for 45 years. Cramm's book squares well with my 36 years of in IBM working directly with clients on their issues. For the last nine years I have applying that experience in higher education. There is nothing in this book that I have not encountered and been occasionally bloodied by.

Cramm is on target in a clear and clarifying way about what needs to be done by business if the potential value of technology is to be realized. Crisp writing (except for the occasional "yank the bandage off" phrase) regarding the critical issues is engaging and informative. Cramm's critique of the approach to managing the IT assets is constructive with suggestions as to what to do liberally sprinkled throughout the easy-to-read book.

This is a recommended read for the executive who is wondering what to do about IT. I would likely make it assigned reading for my client executives were I still in the consulting business. As it is, I have some other ideas as to how to use the book in the context of some of my current responsibilities.

It is regrettable that the issues and recommendations are too easily recognizable by many of us who have been in IT for a long time. One is left to wonder how much progress has really been made in generating value through the application of IT. Perhaps this points to a void in the higher education curriculum.

It occurs to me that a subtitle for this book could be "We have met the enemy and he is us." Ah, the prescient Pogo.

OK, as an IT guy- I love this book. Even if it is about hating IT.

The truth is that the things Susan Cramm identifies as hated by business people are things that we in IT aren't so crazy about either.

The real value in this book is Susan's plea for the folks on the "business" side of the house to own their IT; to think of it as THEIR tool for getting THEIR work done as opposed to a kind of neutral service that should do their bidding. That kind of attitude change would make a tremendous difference in an organization's ability to leverage its systems for real competitive advantage.

There are practical suggestions here for building the sort of partnership that we need between business and IT. I think that those suggestions are both realistic and attainable, even if they are likely to nudge us all out of our comfort zones. In other words, don't expect just a theoretical discussion of how things oughtta be... there's real guidance for how to get there.

As for readability- I rarely use a highlighter in a book, but a quarter of the way through this one, I made an exception. It's full of interesting factoids and quotable quotes and I wanted to be able to find them again when I needed to steal them.

Finally, for what it's worth, I also enjoyed what struck me as a uniquely female sensibility around some of the thought here. Two quick examples...

In relaying an illustration of one IT manager's plight she describes his much-cultivated business alignment as being "like the alignment of a husband and wife with separate bedrooms and separate vacations."

Later she says that "Dealing with the typical IT department is like trying to date someone difficult. There's the promise of something life-changing, but the day-to-day realities are painful...".

There are about 50 manager-level business leaders in our organization. I'm seriously thinking about getting every one of them a copy of this book, in hopes that they will find themselves captured by the compelling story-telling before they realize that they've had their thinking changed.

I preordered the book because I have heard Susan speak, read what she has written for Harvard Business Review and follow her tweets. I had high hopes for the book based on her previous works as described; also being that she has been in both a CFO and CIO role. She has the experience of demanding impact from IT and delivering high value with IT. Having over 25 years of IT leadership experience, I conclude that she has held to the high expectations by delivering insightful points of view in this easy to read piece too. Many pages contain insights that are commonly faced in the daily work of a CIO. The book is worth the read, just so the typical CIO knows that he/she has company in the effort to bring value to his/her organization. The concepts and ideas will help build the bridge to high value returns.

The premise of the book is to ensure there are good relationships in building and executing an organizations technology. The book endorses a joint ownership model to make sure there is good accountability on the part of IT and the business. It is essential for business staff to know IT and IT staff to know much about the business. Business leaders that cannot read financials are not as valuable, the same is analogous for technology. Business staff need to have a basic knowledge of how to leverage, justify and exploit technology to innovate or create a competitive advantage.

The point many organizations get stuck in is that the back office items are easy to automate and justify as a priority. At least twice in the book the recommendation is to get the most value out of technology by implementing technology to improve the customer experience by delivering technology to improve the front line staff or enabling the customer. I echo this philosophy to ensure maximum IT value.

I am not sure this would be the only book to give to the business staff, but maybe a heavily highlighted copy or a group read with discussion would maximize the value. The book promotes a relationship model, what better way to build that relationship then by reading and discussing this material in a book group format.

It is common knowledge that IT is intrinsic is all aspects of business, especially going forward in a flat world. This makes it essential to get the value out of every aspect of the business, especially IT. I recommend this book to move an organization closer to the potential ROI. The ultimate goal for all involved is to deliver maximum value to the business and its customers. Nice work, awesome insights Susan!

I've been watching, analyzing and writing about the intersection of IT and business for 21 years, as former Editor in Chief of CIO magazine. The pace at which things have evolved in incredible. Today, IT is built into just about all aspects of business, from the very products companies sell (just look at the Kindle!) to the ways in which they create, store, market and distribute them. All of this requires not only that IT professionals get more involved in all parts of the business but that all parts of the business get involved in IT. But how do they go about it? So much about IT is mystifying and mysterious to business managers and leaders.
"8 Things We Hate About IT" is a wonderful guide to help clear away the confusion and show business people how to get involved in all stages of the IT process, from planning how to best use IT for business value to making the right decisions quickly to engaging effectively during development and operations. Thoroughly researched and reflective of Susan's hands-on experience (she's both a former CIO and a former CFO), this book is a must-read for anyone interested in demystifying IT and providing more effectively leadership of their own function or business unit as business becomes more digital. In the process, readers will gain a better understanding of how to improve IT-business collaboration to benefit the enterprise - and the people within.

This book does a very good job of giving a number of audiences a worthwhile read, with valuable takeaways, for immediate use. It provides insight to both IT and Business leaders as they set strategic direction on corporate initiatives and attempt to drive alignment across their organizations to achieve success. It also serves as a practical guide for IT practitioners and the business resources working together on initiatives conception through delivery. It highlights how not to get caught up in the day-to-day challenges that exist, but to move beyond the typical barriers to achieve real business value for your company. As someone who has worked in IT and Business consulting for over 13 years, I appreciated the books balance between presenting research, experience, and common sense advise.

The real question becomes ..."What will you DO with the information?"

I only wish Ms. Cramm had published her book sooner. It would have made my job of bringing the IT department into strategic alignment a whole lot less painful. The idea that business leaders need to have their own skin in the game when it comes to successful IT implementation was initially so foreign that I was beginning to wonder if I was the crazy one. Then I read 8 Things We Hate About IT and started passing out copies!

I only wish I could put your book in my blender then pour it over my oatmeal each morning for "food for thought". I marveled at how you were able to be so complete and concise about your 30 years of experience. Your whimsical approach to such an otherwise dry subject actually made your book a page turner for me.

Susan's writing style is quite enjoyable and this book is a good read. The premise of the book is to help non IT leaders understand how IT departments function and how to get the very best out of them while understanding IT from the IT department's perspective and vice versa.

Some senior executives may choose not need to read this book as good leaders identify, listen to and work well with all their functional departments. However, history is riddled with examples of great organisations that failed due to a wide range of factors, ranging from bad decision making to not listening, to, for example their IT department. This book aims to get such executives on board while helping all the other executives to understand the role of IT much better.

An excellent book to help IT personnel as well enabling them to create lasting relationships with business leaders within organisations.
Plenty of references are provided for further reading and the book is succinctly written.

In 8 Things We Hate about IT, Susan Cramm has done a great service for corporate America. By exposing a full taxonomy of the ills that can strike the Business/IT partnership, she offers a potent way to determine where you are and where you need to take your Business/IT partnership.