Working as a contractor and want to change how IT is run? Forget it

April 26, 2011

Dear Bob ...

I read your article, "Run IT as a business -- why that's a train wreck waiting to happen," quite awhile ago.

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I first read it when I was starting on a contracting job with one of the big names in town. A year later, and on the verge of being outsourced, it is now making even more sense.

How do you think I (and a few people in my boat) could change how IT is being run? Especially given that we're always being looked at as outsiders.

Any thoughts?

- Contractor

?

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Dear Contractor ...

You're employed in a staff augmentation role and want to know how you can change how IT is run at your client?

Answer: You can't. If you were consulting in the sense of providing advice on organizational effectiveness to the company's CIO and executive leadership, you'd be in a position to have some influence. If you were an employee in IT who was considered one of the department's top performers, you'd have the credibility needed to at least nudge the CIO in a better direction.

Depending on your role, you might have a strong enough relationship with the manager of the area you're working in to provide some ideas on how to make that area more effective. For example, if you're a contracted systems administrator and see opportunities to improve how the company manages server configurations.

That's about it, though. In a staff augmentation role, you're officially an outsider. There are a lot of advantages to being in this position, but having an organizational impact isn't one of them -- the flip side of the coin that says you can mostly ignore all the internal politics of the place.

- Bob

This story, "Working as a contractor and want to change how IT is run? Forget it," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bob Lewis's Advice Line blog on InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/it-management/working-contractor-and-want-change-how-it-run-forget-it-018?source=rss_infoworld_blogs

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