Information Technology Dark Side

Dave Christiansen is the founder and managing editor of TechDarkSide.com. He manages projects for a Fortune 100 financial services company and writes and talks about project management. He can be reached at dave@techdarkside.com. I’ve been thinking about this post for a couple of months now. On several occasions in my career I have given advice […]

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I’ve been thinking a lot about centralized groups lately. Centralized groups are usually created as an attempt to leverage common skills and practices in a uniform, cost-effective way. It’s most common in matrix organizations, and I’ve seen them formed for many different purposes, including: Development Analysis Testing Project Management Governance Architecture Infrastructure Centralized organizations have […]

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Once upon a time, Mike Kelly, Tate Stuntz, and I were discussing organizational change. We were observing an organization that was going through a great deal of change, some of it planned and some of it that just happened. Some changes were being orchestrated by committees of concerned people who put programs into place to […]

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Most companies these days use a performance management process that is based on objectives. As I’ve complained before, I’m not a big fan of this approach. It’s very difficult to make it work, and seems too heavyweight for me. There’s got to be an easier way. That said, let’s face facts. If you work in […]

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Following up on a previous blog, how to pronounce Indian names: I found a great explanation of how to pronounce Indian names that covers some areas I missed. And, to make it even better, the author of the site (Chad Fowler), is also a Rails advocate. More power to him! Here’s a link to his […]

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How much money does a time-tracking system cost at an enterprise level? I have no idea, but I’m sure it’s a heckuva lot more than my salary. What is the point of tracking the time of a salaried employee? I have been trying to figure this out ever since I left consulting, where time tracking […]

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Really, you should be nice to everybody. But let’s just talk about admins first. Mistreating an administrative assistant is an excellent indicator that someone is a complete jerk. There are few ways of deducing someone’s nature than watching how someone interacts with someone else who is significantly lower in the corporate food chain. In terms […]

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One of the great books I’ve read lately is Love is the Next Killer App, by Tim Sanders. It really opened my eyes to a lot of concepts that have been really useful to me in my own career. Well, now Tim has a blog, and his latest post is really very useful. It’s about […]

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I’m reading The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant right now. Why? I’ll explain that later when I finish the book and review it. At any rate, something I read sparked a lot of thoughts this morning on my daily commute in to work. It compared the philosophies of Descarte and Francis Bacon, calling one […]

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A while back I blogged about questions you should ask your potential employer that reveal what it’s really like to work at the company. Lately I’ve been thinking about the kinds of qualities I would like in a manager. I’ve broken them down into a few categories: Need to Control Ability to Facilitate Ability to […]

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