OPINION--The ICT industry could definitely do with some specific checklists and guidelines for those requiring the services of a consultant or contractor.
Most people confronted with a brain tumour or a blocked toilet know enough to call a neurosurgeon or plumber, confident that they are licensed as competent to do the job (with tumours, even at weekends).
But faced with having to get a small or medium business back to work when its information technology system goes haywire (or even if it's functioning, upgrading it to accommodate an expanded business plan) can be a severe test of management acumen.
There are any number of contractors and consultants out there to call, but what particular specialisation is really needed? Diagnostics, overall systems analysis, software upgrade and installation, new systems development and integration, project management? Some will claim global proficiency in all these and many others that you've never heard of. But unlike the tumour and toilet fixers, there is no established standard of practical proficiency in most of them, no independently awarded qualification or credential subject to peer review, and consequently little redress if things go awry.
It does the ICT industry little credit to have these uncertainties as prevalent as they are, but at least the problem has been recognised. Professional organisations like the Australian Computer Society are joining with other representative bodies to set standards, define qualifications, and create skills review processes to give users some assurance that the help they hire has more to offer than a briefcase and an invoice pad.
In particular, management needs to make informed decisions on just what sort of help is needed. Once the area of expertise is properly recognised then the recruitment process can go ahead in daylight with tasks and milestones set, fee structures negotiated, outcomes adequately defined, and any performance and cost shortcomings covered by agreement.
Ours is a dynamic business with new technologies arriving almost by the minute; thus staying aware of developments in computer science is a science in itself. If it's difficult for ICT practitioners, it's that much more so for non-technical executives faced with meeting business and budget imperatives.
An important element in addressing ways to preserve business' ICT investment is to develop a series of checklists setting out the range of practitioner skills available, how and where they should be applied, reasonable performance expectations, and as far as possible the sort of costs involved.
These guidelines are being designed for the contractor or consultants' benefit too, and while it all sounds on the surface obvious and simple, there are some vexing considerations involved: privacy, professional and public indemnity, the preservation of intellectual property security, and a host of others.
About 75 percent of Australian consultant firms have fewer than four staff members, many of them relatively new to this way of doing business, having come from a range of ICT positions in corporations or at the other end of the scale, as university graduates in various business and technical disciplines.
Unless they are aware of their liabilities under trade practices legislation, of their exposure to litigation however unintentional, and above all of their need to communicate effectively with their business clients at every stage of the process, difficulties will arise.
Given an easily understood and applicable set of guidelines, business can more effectively carve projects into manageable pieces each requiring particular skillsets, and oversee budgets, milestone achievement, and quality delivery.
On the other hand, if business wants to insert another contractual layer to manage the overall project, there will be useable guidelines available for that process too.
All this will take some time, but the process is hastened by an understanding among ICT's peak bodies that it's practical help like this which will bury the trite adage that computer projects always take twice as long as forecast, cost twice what was quoted, and deliver half what was promised.
Richard Hogg is National president of the Australian Computer Society (ACS). The ACS is the recognised association for Information Technology (IT) professionals, attracting a membership (over 16,000) from all levels of the IT industry and providing a wide range of services. A member of the Australian Council of Professions, the ACS is the guardian of professional ethics and standards in the IT industry, with a commitment to the wider community to ensure the beneficial use of IT.
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