Everyone’s job, regardless of their professional level, can be divided into three parts. These parts are named: Must-Do’s Hired-To-Do’s Want-To-Do’s The Must-Do’s portion of your job are those things that you get no credit for doing, but if you don’t do them you will have problems.  Generally speaking, they are thought of as the lower end of your job responsibilities.  Examples of Must-Do’s if you are in a manager’s role include activities such as writing employee performance reviews, formulating and tracking your annual department budget, and writing monthly status reports.  All of these activities are extremely important and must be done well. In fact, if they are done poorly, there are major downside consequences. That said, upon their completion, it is unlikely that your boss will come running down to your office and thank you for the great job you did. The Hired-To-Do’s portion of your job are those job responsibilities that you were primarily hired to perform.  For example, if you are an Accounts Payable Manager, it’s your job to be sure that all of the company’s bills are paid on time.  As a second example, if you are a Project Manager, it’s your responsibility to assure that the projects being worked on within your team are completed on time and within budget.  It’s this Hired-To-Do’s component of your job responsibilities that will be most heavily judged from a performance perspective. The Want-To-Do’s portion of your job are those things that provide you with personal career growth by teaching you new [...]

When I tell my business users about new features we have added to their software, their eyes glaze over and they don’t pay attention.  This really makes me mad.  What should I do so they will listen to me? As technologists, we love technology, particularly technology that we personally created.  This is often not the case for the business users that we serve, even if they are a techie-want-to-be or were involved in defining the business requirements.  These business users, as they should, look at technology as a tool to perform their daily tasks.  That is to say, they look at technology as a means to an end, not an end in itself. To your question, if you would like your business users to engage with you about the software you have written on their behalf, describe what you have done based on business value, business benefits, and how the software will make their jobs easier.  In effect, don’t try to bring them into your world, you should step into their world, thus describing what you have done using their terminology and perspective, not yours. As an x-software developer by profession, I would write half a dozen lines of working code and want to show it to someone.  I would do this not to brag about what I had done, I did this because I loved technology and wanted to share what I did with others.  Truth be told, I’m still the same way.  I’m the primary architect and developer of the [...]

I’m tired of feeling like an order taker for the business group I support.  How do I get them to ask me what’s needed, not just tell me what to do and what applications to implement? The short answer to your question is to begin moving toward being an internal consultant, rather than simply a technical resource.  The long answer to your question is the remainder of this post. My advice to you is to be proactive with your business users, not just reactive.  That is to say, slowly move toward suggesting innovative business solutions related to the technology you provide.  Then, over time, as your business users begin to appreciate the value of your suggestions, they will begin to come to you as a problem solver, not as just a solution provider. Moving to a proactive role and being seen as such, by its nature, is not an easy task.  To make this transformation, consider the following steps: Gain a deep understanding of the work performed by the group you support. What do they do? How do they do it? Why do they do it that way? What issues do they have that could potentially be solved using technology? How comfortable are they with using technology? What challenges and issues exist related to change? How do other companies in your industry perform similar tasks? Understand what processes, support, and project work your group (not just you personally) is currently providing to your user base. Ask yourself what technology exists within your [...]