One of my former managers (who was also a good mentor) taught me a little about resource management. I eventually phrased what he taught me as the Triangle of Power. A triangle has no weak point or side. The same theory applies for having a set of 3 resources that know how to do a specific task. In my realm of Configuration Management and Infrastructure that would apply to having 3 DBA's, 3 Configuration Engineers and 3 System Engineers/IT Administrators. Titles don't have to always match the skill or task.
Why? Well for starters if you have valuable IT employees then they will be courted by numerous headhunters and recruiters. Turnover whether from recruitment or from those looking to leave a company are generally higher in IT than other fields. If one person leaves the company then at least you have 2 other resources to pick up the load. If you only had 2 and 1 left you are more likely to burn out the last man standing.
This could also be seen as having a business continuity plan for your resources. As people leave the company or even go on vacation the company doesn't stop. As a good leader part of your job is to ensure that the services you provide don't take a hit. There was a gentleman who left a company I have worked for. He specialized in a technology and was the only one trained to do the job He had a back log of work with no end in site. When he left the work stopped and there were a 'few' unhappy customers. Management scrambled to fill the void that should not have been there in the first place.
I understand that sometimes smaller companies have budget constraints. When that is a case you should look at hiring IT generalists that can do a little of everything. They won't be as good as a specialist or get things done as fast but tasks will at least get done. Better to always be moving forward than to be stopped dead in your (companies) tracks.
No comments:
Post a Comment