in reply to IT Management, outsourcing & technical skills

I feel your pain, but I wouldn't call a manager who doesn't ask his technical staff for guidance on technical purchasing decisions a "non-technical manager" -- I would call that person a "bad manager." A good manager knows that the maanger's job is not to know everything and decide everything but rather to focus and guide the team's skills to solve problems. A basic technology grounding is certainly helpful, but I've seen plenty of techies screw it up. I think that a set of skills more like those of a good sports coach (to borrow an XP analogy) are ultimately more important.
  • Comment on Re: IT Management, outsourcing & technical skills

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: IT Management, outsourcing & technical skills
by adrianh (Chancellor) on Dec 31, 2006 at 10:44 UTC
    I feel your pain, but I wouldn't call a manager who doesn't ask his technical staff for guidance on technical purchasing decisions a "non-technical manager" -- I would call that person a "bad manager."

    Agree completely. As I said before:

    Some of the very best managers I've worked with have been completely non-technical. Some of the very worst managers I've worked with have been ex-techies.

    In my experience the divide between good and bad management has very little to do with technical experience, and a lot to do with being able to trust people to do their job well and remove the things that stop them doing it.

[reply]
      I want to know the skills that are neededby an IT Manager to manage the outsourcing of IT activities.
[reply]

In Section Meditations