Business and Tech Knowledge BOTH Needed! (Was Re: Position postings )

[curr at mnsinc.com]

Darryl, I wanted to respond to this:

--- On Fri, 15 Nov 1996 06:39:28 -0800  Darryl West 
<darryl.west at snark.slq.qld.gov.au> wrote:

>Which is why when I wrote my USMARC to AUSMARC conversion program I got
>an experienced librarian to give me the information I needed to complete
>the work successfully...

>Lets face it. There are mindsets and approaches gained during the
>attainment of a degree and in a field that give a person an edge in that
>field. For me I have a good feel for computers because of my training
>and exposure, This means I am a good computer person to have round. (
>though my librarian peers may disagree ) but I would be a useless
>librarian. If I have a library problem I go ask a librarian.  While I
>advocate empowering users of a system I firmly believe they can be best
>developed by the people who understand computers not by people who
>understand libraries. 

Darryl, I was the librarian (until recently) at a consulting firm of 
computer systems analysts, and most of the analysts there do work very 
similar or identical to what you do. While I think there is some truth in 
what you say above, I think it is only one side of the coin. At the place I 
worked at, they did indeed have people who "understand computers" in great 
depth, more than you and me combined, and frequently there was no choice 
but to send somebody to a client's site who knew nothing about the industry 
or its practices, and usually they could do an adequate job, sometimes a 
lousy or fair job, at best. Rarely a really good or a great job. 

However, when they had somebody who *also knew the business* of the client, 
if the consultant knew computers AND knew about insurance or banking or the 
petroleum industry - quite apart from the computer systems end of it - they 
usually did, at minimum, a good job and often a great job. I know for a 
fact that analysts who had significant business knowledge of a specific 
business, besides the technical, *always* had an edge over applicants who 
lacked business knowledge. 

Of course, there was a time when I was in that company when there was an 
obvious prejudice in favor of technical types. But that changed when they 
found the techie types had a way of botching jobs because they were so 
ignorant of the business type they were working in. And in that kind of 
consulting environment, serving Fortune 100 firms primarily, botching up 
$1,000,000 jobs too much for clients could sink a consulting firm. 

So what this gets down to is this: although you are likely exceptional and 
do a great job yourself, even though you don't know much about libraries, 
IMHO a lot of your brethren out there (I'd say the majority), do fair jobs 
at best and frequently crummy jobs doing the tech stuff without knowing 
about libraries. The non-tech managing librarians don't know enough about 
technology to know the difference between a good/great job and and 
fair/crummy job, and I've seen *many times* how tech types can hide their 
mediocrity behind a cloud of techno-jargon and geek-speak, among other 
ways. 

Hence, getting people who have both technical AND business knowledge, I 
think, is the best objective  - it's not "either/or," though it is not 
always possible. And please know that what I'm saying about needing both 
technical and business knowledge is what every recent book on managing 
computer technology is saying, and this often comes from authors who were 
once wholly in the geek camp! Of course, library hiring decision makers who 
have not read those books (made with dead trees) are finding out or will 
find out the hard way about needing BOTH types of expertises. 


>I have seen to many wanna be techo's who 'have the experience' but who
>in fact end up at a result by sheer brute force and ignorance rather
>than any understanding and who end up wasting my time and their's.

No doubt about the above, but what I said earlier about techies messing up 
due directly to their ignorance of a business is my reply to this.


Cliff Urr
E-mail: curr at mnsinc.com
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Date: 11/15/96
Time: 11:11:54 AM