How To Talk To Your IT Department
If you’re not a programmer yourself, or work in an office where you deal with an IT department, there are a few things to keep in mind when getting help from these guys.
Don’t Demand Anything – Unless Fred reports directly to you, you’re not going to get anywhere if you crash into his Star-Wars-laden cubicle with guns drawn. The second you start getting pushy with old Fred, the second he’ll “suddenly realize” that your problem is going to take 2-3 days to resolve. So, in short, be nice to Fred and let him steer the conversation. After all, he knows how the system works and you need his help – if anything, bring an extra Mountain Dew along with you to help grease the wheels.
Don’t Expect to be Coddled - Fred probably isn’t going to hold your hand. He’ll either fix the problem for you or give you some possible fixes that you should try out first. If he goes for the latter, your best bet here is to write it down. There’s nothing that will annoy him more than you coming back 2 minutes later asking “What was I supposed to click again?”. If it’s a multi-step solution, jotting it down will further ensure you execute it correct (and you’re likely to impress Fred in the process). If you can’t follow instructions, expect resolution of your problem to come much slower than if you had. That actually segues nicely into the final point.
They Like it when You Listen – Fred isn’t a magician. In fact, a good programmer is one of the most logical, analytical people you’re likely to come across outside of NASA. So, while many of the details of his work may be Greek to you, his solution (and likely his explanation) are probably pretty logical.
How To Talk To A Programmer – [CrankingWidgets]
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Comments
Ernie Oporto says on March 6th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Actually, it would be best if you emailed Fred or the helpdesk. The same way it is easier for you to multitask and sort through emails, help make it easier for Fred by letting him multitask his customers. He wants to lifehack, too.
— Another Sysadmin Dude
Dan Pickett says on March 10th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for posting this – I think the largest problem in my experience is that people expect their IT department to drop everything when they need something “urgent” Usually, you’re already working on four other people’s “urgent” projects at the time. Treat your IT coworkers like you would anyone else in your organization – with professional courtesy and an understanding of their often hefty workload.
Wardy says on February 5th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Some really good points but I think you should add …
In my company i am “fred”. No one has the sort of knowledge i do, no one else needs it day to day so why would they.
When a problem does come up telling “fred” that “that won’t work because you know better” will only
tell fred that you are arrogant and have only come to him as a last resort despite the fact that you feel fred isn’t actually interested in what you have to say.
Whilst fred might not understand your exact role in the company inside and out fred has a very understanding of the logic involved with that role and what you need to acheive.
Explain to fred clearly that you need to get a from b to c but d keeps happening, the more detail fred has the more likey he will come to your aid in a timely fashion as a problem that requires little or no investigation would be better resolved quickly to prevent overheads in the long run.
Trust that fred knows his job, so amny people under estimate what fred actually does … my job involves data that represents eaach and every person in each and every building in the surrounding 50 miles of land so if you can’t get person 109,192’s address to change on the system then fred may be aware of a more global problem and will not bore you with the details of it simply responding “i’m on it and will get back to you”