IT Management
Table of Contents
Supervision of the IT Department
Priorities
Supervision generally focuses on the following key priorities:- We are not embarrassing ourselves (like having our website down or other systemic problems).
- We are meeting requirements and deadlines for projects.
- That staff have the technical resources needed to do their jobs.
- Our data is up-to-date and represented properly.
- We're making improvements where possible.
- Our work is in line with the department's priorities
Tasks
IT Supervision includes, but is not limited to the following tasks:- Equipping staff with the necessary skills, knowledge, and feedback (including technical guidance, code and design reviews) to perform the functions of their jobs. Basic Overview of IT Operations
- Assigning responsibilities and/or tasks to staff.
- IT project management, including providing time estimates, monitoring progress, and communicating the status of the projects.
- Quality monitoring.
- Identifying and communicating high priority issues and needs to their supervisor as well as their direct reports.
- Realigning resources with needs as needed.
- Evaluating reports and providing guidance.
- Providing regular reports to their supervisor.
- Working with other departments as needed.
see:CategoryManagement for additional Management training
IT Project Management Guidance
Project Management GuideTime and Task Management Guide
Template Phases of Web Projects
2014 IT Operations Audit with comments
Known Issues
General Recurring Issues
Inadequate Staffing (historically)
The rate at which our programs and processes have changed, expanded and improved over the years has not kept up with IT staffing. We have been operating at a staffing deficit in IT for years, and a backlog has accumulated. Due to the large learning curve in IT, staff turnover impacts them greatly, and IT interns are often a performance negative to the department.Cross-Departmental Challenges
Other departments are largely dependent on IT. Without established communication channels, IT would be constantly interrupted and their time to actually resolve these problems would be minimal. Even with the channels set up, this can still be an issue, which tends to increase with the amount of people we have in the office. Reporters of issues tend to overestimate the priority level of the issue they want to be resolved. Some IT staff can be overly accommodating with staff on low-priority issues, which ultimately leads to burnout or sacrificing higher-priority tasks. Because of the volume of inputs that IT inevitably deals with (between mantis tickets, automated notifications, emails, etc.) it is easy for high-urgency items to be missed if they are only submitted as an email or mantis ticket. Thus, high-urgency items should be communicated through multiple channels (gchat, verbally, etc.).Expectations and Results
Oftentimes election-cycle projects are not initiated until late in the cycle, causing an unexpected crunch time which then competes with other priorities. Also, we have had difficulty defining measurable goals for IT, expressing or demonstrating progress in IT to non-technical audiences, and marketing IT progress in nice packages for fundraising purposes.Recurring Project-Related Issues
Timelines
Past projects we’ve undertaken have suffered from inaccurate timeframe estimates and missed deadlines. Part of this is the inherent difficulty in determining how long IT projects will take, because unexpected challenges while arise with any new project. “Scope creep” (the scope of the project changing and increasing after original estimates for the project is given) is another common issue and is related to inadequate initial requirements. Drifting requirements and the fact that we generally get feedback from higher-ups only at later stages can also produce a hiccup near the end of the project.Project Management
Many problems with previous projects may have been prevented or resolved better had there been a clearly-established, proactive project manager. Working with external consultants has been particularly challenging, because it requires lots of communication, greater-than-expected needs from internal staff, and managing a lack of understanding that external providers have. These external providers tend to give unrealistic deadlines which they then miss by a long shot, but we have little control over helping get it back on track by the time we figure that out.In practice, the National Director has historically provided some project management functions, but this it is not sustainable to expect the National Director to perform day-to-day project management functions in light of other responsibilities. It is often not practical for IT staff to perform day-to-day project management functions in light of other responsibilities, and is often not the best match or best use of IT staff skillsets. Vote Smart is not currently equipped to provide training that in itself will prepare staff for Project Management responsibilities.
General Recurring Issues
Hiring and Retention
- Explore how we may better retain IT staff.
- Don’t hire IT interns or other staff unless they can be helpful from the get-go.
- Continue job postings for specialized roles.
- Don’t be too conservative with paying for job postings at specialized sites that may attract the talent we need.
- Access existing connections of staff members to identify possible new hires.
- Consider hiring people with singular skills for hybrid positions, for example, focusing on automation within the Research Department.
- Work to improve the technical skills of general staff.
Staff Development
- Get IT staff formally trained in Project Management.
- Ensure staff within the IT department are being cross-trained on other responsibilities within the department.
Cross-Department
- Ensure general staff are following the appropriate communicating and reporting procedures as it relates to IT and that IT staff are clear on what to prioritize.
- Offload non-technical administrative tasks from the IT department where possible (for example: user administration, job postings, reference checks, etc.). Consider hiring or assigning someone outside of IT to be a dedicated project manager.
Expectations and Results
- Work with IT and the Board immediately following an election to develop upcoming priorities, objectives, goals, and expectations for the department for each election cycle, and corresponding staffing levels. It would also be good to define how we are measuring results/success. If there is a deficit in staffing, work with the Board to realign expectations with resources and decide whether an external consultant would be a net benefit.
Recurring Project-Related Issues
Timelines
- Work with IT staff and the Board to develop clear milestones for larger projects that correspond with our larger communications schedule with the public, foundations, and members. Separate out internal and external deadlines with a large cushion, assuming IT’s estimates will take three times longer than expected. Internally, create incremental deadlines to measure progress and to ensure we’re on track.
- If meeting deadlines is in jeopardy, initiate a “bubble” around key staff for that project, where they are only to work on that project and only to be interrupted for the highest of priorities. We have found this to be highly-effective in the past.
Requirements
- Work directly with IT staff to develop comprehensive written requirements and scope with the Board at the onset of the project (allowing for feedback and revisions).
Project Management
- Designate a project owner/manager for every project. Clearly establish authority and responsibility, and encourage the project manager to be proactive and communicative.
- Develop system for reporting on IT project status to the Board outside of quarterly board meetings. Establish a feedback schedule and process.
- Consider hiring someone to perform project management functions. A sample job description is located in the HR drive.
Upcoming Issues
Institutional Knowledge
- Hire additional staff member to fill gap if position is filled internally consultants.
- Secure former IT Staff Mike Shultz, Clinton Adams, and/or Brian Koontz as consultants.
Staff Resource Levels
Critical Operations
3 Staff members is the bare minimum the IT Department must have to sustain some critical operations: a Director, a Sys Admin/Dev Ops, and a Full Stack Developer.Priorities
- Perform necessary tech support, network administration and systems administration to ensure critical internal operations can continue in other departments.
- Ensure that the website(s) are at least functional and accessible to the public and not misrepresenting data.
- As time allows, complete outstanding projects for which we have made external commitments.
Impacts
By focusing only on high priority tasks, we will add to the backlog of low and medium priority tasks, and have limited time to devote to other projects. The pace of work on external projects will seem excessively slow; perhaps three times slower than expected, due to high-urgency interruptions. We would also rely on workarounds and short-term solutions rather than long term solutions which would be a net benefit.Risks
- Quality of work may suffer without another set of eyes to review, bounce ideas off of, or someone with a technical background to consult.
- If one or both staff are absent or leave the organization, impacts may be felt organization-wide.
- This may compromise our ability to fulfill promises to foundations, members, and other external parties as well as our commitment to voters and giving them timely, accurate, relevant information. To manage risks, we would have to explore ways of reducing expectations and decreasing the workload of the IT Department.
Well-Functioning
A well-functioning IT Department requires approximately 4-5 total staff members covering general operations, plus additional staff may be needed for special projects.Additional roles to those listed above include a Database Specialist.
Growth-Oriented
Any staffing above and beyond our “well-functioning” staffing needs would permit us to test and implement new ideas and focus more on long-term investments in our infrastructure.| File | Last modified | Size |
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CategoryITInfo
