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F E A T U R E

Lessons From the Field: Beyond ROI

March 5, 2003
By Jonathan Feldman

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Stupid Manager Tricks

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	In this article
	Introduction
	Managerial Accounting 101
	Clear-Cut Challenges
	Upgrades and Fuzzy Logic
	Executive Summary
	Stupid Manager Tricks
	Epoll Results

Users and experts we interviewed cited these as top reasons that IT managers end up in the doghouse with top management. Avoid these and you'll have a lead on business credibility.

We hate it when IT managers and staffers:

• Don't go out of their way to understand the business side of their companies.

• Don't communicate clearly.

• Talk 'geek speak' at management meetings, thus guaranteeing that they will always be viewed as outsiders.

• Justify projects based on cost savings associated with replacing a system but fail to decommission the old system.

• Get too friendly--or not friendly enough--with end users.

• Take sides in political wars.

• Advocate the sexiest technology over the best solution to a business problem.

• Ignore the rudiments of accounting, purchasing, accounts receivable and accounts payable.

• Call 'them' the Bean Counters. Only in BOFH-land can you get away with not playing by 'their' rules.

• Tell users that a technology will be nirvana, only to be confronted by the grim technical reality--and the lousy job of having to readjust user expectations.