It’s Lame to Blame

Edit: This is still an issue today.

Originally posted March 15, 2011 on AIXchange

I enjoyed reading this article on some of the turf wars that go on in IT:

“IT pros do battle every day — with cyber attackers, stubborn hardware, buggy software, clueless users, and the endless demands of other departments within their organization. But few can compare to the conflicts raging within IT itself. Programmers wage war with infrastructure geeks. IT staff butts heads with IT management. System admins battle for dominance. And everybody wishes security would just leave them alone.”

I can certainly relate to this. In fact, I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen server guys blame network guys who blame SAN guys who blame operations guys who blame management. At one point or another, any IT group may be viewed as “the enemy.”

From my server-centric point of view, even when problems are addressed, it can be frustrating. Often the server guys will tell the network team about some connectivity or response-time issues. The network team fixes the problem, but they seldom share the solution. It can really seem like they don’t want you to know what they did. You just get those infamous words, “try it now,” and the network problem magically vanishes. Sure, we’re all glad things are fixed, but there’s value in transparency. If we know the specifics about a problem with network connectivity or, say, accessing a LUN, we can remind the network folks or the SAN folks of what they previously did, should it happen again. We could save them time, if they’d just keep us informed.

I don’t mean to paint the server folks as angels. I’m sure I’ve told various users to “try it now” while neglecting to explain the source of the problem. I’m sure many admins, when asked why the time is wrong on the server, or why applications cannot resolve a hostname, or why users cannot login, or why users have the wrong home directory, or with any number of issues, respond with “try it now.”

I suppose part of the reason for turf wars stems from the fact that, in larger organizations, these groups often have different team members with different skill sets, and many times individual team members use only their own hardware, with no cross-training. The network guys work on the network switches, the SAN guys work on the SAN switches, the server guys work on the servers.

So everyone’s isolated — except of course, when there’s a problem. Then everyone must work together. And for the most part, everyone is a professional. Still, there are times when people are more interested in deflecting blame from themselves and their team. No one wants to cop to a mistake. Honestly, these turf wars could make for a great reality show — if only more IT people looked good on camera.

So how do we resolve turf wars? Start by remembering that you’re all in the one organization, and that, despite the many different areas of IT expertise, everyone in IT really has a stake in the computing environment.

Especially as organizations grow, it’s vital that everyone be kept informed of changes to the environment. To accomplish this, these changes must be documented, even if documenting changes typically unleashes unwanted bureaucracy. For instance, a new server is brought onto the raised floor. A ticket is written, and the notifications fly. I’ve seen these new-server tickets reach everyone from the network and SAN team to the backup and monitoring teams. While the bureaucracy frustrates me as much as anyone, these processes and procedures are generally in place for sound reasons. No one is looking to slow down your server build, but other teams do need to be informed of changes that will eventually impact their workloads as well.

That’s why we should play nicer with one another. Give those in the “other group” the benefit of the doubt. Assume we’re all doing our best.

More from the article:

“Down the road someone will ask, ‘Do you know so and so?’ and you’ll say, ‘Yes, he walked out on us and took our passwords with him.’ It’s a small industry. The only things that have meaning in this life are your name and reputation. Lose them and you’ll never get hired again.”

If you’re always combative and causing drama, people may stop working with you, or avoid you until they are forced to work with you.  It really is a small world and people will remember your interactions with them. It’s really in your best interests to make the effort to get along with others. And that will make everyone’s days that much easier.

One more snippet:

“The most important decisions a CIO faces aren’t about technology per se, but about business outcomes. And that may never enter the mind of an in-the-trenches IT grunt. ‘I’ve had a lot of discussions with a lot of very tech-savvy CIOs,’ he says. ‘But at the end of the day, the business decisions they need to make aren’t based on sexy technology — they’re based on business outcomes. There’s pressure on the CIO from the CEO to deliver business value. The IT guys are focused on the technology in their particular tower.”

In other words: Managers may have a completely valid reason for denying a new technology that you recommend.

It’s natural to get caught up in our areas of expertise. But remember that we’re not only supporting servers, but applications and the users of those applications. We’re all providing value to an organization.