Compound Thinking

Asset Tracking for the New IT

What is the largest asset in your IT Department? Do you have processes to measure and track it?

If you thought of your server farms, the intellectual property tied up in one of your products, or all of the computers and software licenses that you have to manage, you’re safely in the majority. If you thought of the people you work with, and their skills, knowledge, experience and talents, you are in the minority but unlike the first group, — you’re absolutely right.

In Peopleware Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister highlight the remarkable discovery that some programmers are ten times more productive than their average counterparts.

Not only that, but the best predictor of any single programmer’s productivity is that of his immediate co-workers. This means that the best and worst tend to cluster.

It is almost shocking to believe that you can achieve a 10x productivity advantage over your competitors. But if it’s true, can you afford to not to make this your highest priority?

It’s also shocking to discover that annual salary is not good predictor of programmer productivity– which means that you might not even have to pay anything for that 10x productivity advantage!

So any IT Manger’s number one job ought to be getting and keeping the right employees, with the right mix of knowledge, skills, and talents. And tracking employee skill, knowledge, and talent ought to be a central job responsibility.