“This is the digital world IT must keep up with–one where Apple can view a $40,000 car as an accessory to the iPhone.” – From IT Is Too Darn Slow
The IT world definitely needs to learn to move quicker, and that means that we need to be more solid in our infrastructure. The basic tasks of setting up a server, getting it configured, building indexes, setting up maintenance, etc. need to be smoother and easier that more time, and more importantly, more resources can go to building new systems.
The more that I work in business, the more that I think that there truly is more to a company just maximizing the amount of money you can make. We often say that a business exists to maximize profit, but we never seem to care about the profit we can create outside of the money on the bottom line. There are all sorts of goodwill, long term growth, market share and more that often aren’t considered when running the business.
This blog post tries to talk about how the business ought to get a makeover and establish new habits each year, just as many of us try to do with New Year’s Resolutions when the calendar changes. It’s a great goal, and while I’m not sure how many companies would try to evolve beyond the next quarter’s bottom line, I do think this is worth passing along to your management.
In our departments, we often talk about maximizing our value to the company. Getting an amount of work done that helps the business and justifies the costs that we incur in technology and staffing. I would like to think that most of us in technology do look forward, consider the applications we build and the systems we develop as long term investments, and we build them with the idea that they will provide a long term value, not just for the next quarter.
It might be worth setting up your own wisdom committee inside of your IT department, with the goal of ensuring long term value from the department.
I saw a very interesting blog at 37 Signals on the quote “the things you do more often are the things you get good at.” It’s aimed more at a business model, talking about the idea of building a service for free without having an idea of how to later convert that to profit.
However I think there is something else here. For most of us, outside of running our own business, the things we do most often are the things that we are interested in, or that speak to us. They are the things we like, and if we are self-aware, we recognize these things and look to build them into our life.
Life is short, and your career is a big part of that. I recommend that you understand what you like to do, and then find a way to do more of it in your career. And enjoy your job more.
Voice of the DBA 