My first helpdesk job was in the mid-nineties, half my customers were using a home computer for the first time. Exceeding their expectations was as simple as getting the bells and whistles to work (I still get a rush of joy hearing dial-up connections negotiate baud rates). As I jumped from the helpdesk to servers I held on to the idea of the user as customer. It gave me a chance to avoid the stereotype that was soon to be parodied all over the world; “MOVE” and “Have you tried rebooting?” are as familiar to someone asking IT for help as the infamous view of the backside of your plumber as they crawl under your sink.
Ten years after I started in system administration I was back in a helpdesk, this time for a mid-sized government organization. With dozens of departments and a random assortment of systems and networks to unify my attitude about the users was more important than ever. However what I learned there gave me even more of a view towards what my vision for IT would become. Infrastructure, the mundane, dependable, immutable parts of a business day. We should hold ourselves to the same standards we held the walls, doors, lights, and yes plumbing.
Things should not only work, but work well enough they do not impede the workflow. Triage of a stoppage should hold the same urgency as a more visceral stoppage. If you’re designing a financial approval workflow, design for not just GAAP and security, but for the people who have to rely on it day in and day out. Making a job someone does thirty times a day even a little more efficient can net you a lot of credibility with them. Business process review skills are vital as you grow with your users.
My focus has shifted as my roles have, working as the be all end all of IT, spread from contract negotiation to deployment and everywhere in between hasn’t changed my opinion about IT as trade work. Certainly not as formalized and stricture filled as other trades, it benefits us to treat it as-if it were. Doing good work that will last with the tools available, while always maintaining the kind of communication with our customers that avoids surprises.
I want a customer reaching out to me to know that they’ll get a clear, tactful, shame free examination and explanation of the issue and a solution that will last. I don’t want to end up being your least favorite plumber!