Constructive debate is an important component in healthy organizational dynamics. However, once a decision is made, the whole group needs to get on board and forge ahead. An organization can’t afford to have an IT group mired in its own political quagmire. The CIO must make clear the organization priorities and insist that the whole of the group move toward that goal. Benny Sisko shares with you one story of IT infighting gone bad.

A friend of mine recently took a break from his daily routine to do some consulting for a few days. Specifically, he helped another organization roll out a new email infrastructure based on Exchange. The company was running a different system and is in the process of moving toward a Microsoft stack. Prior to his onsite visit in early May, my friend helped the organization design the new Exchange-based infrastructure after which they asked him to help them in person.

What did he find upon his arrival? There is significant infighting internally in the IT group with one group initially refusing to support a particular need. This refusal would have doomed the project, but after some wrangling, the refusing individual eventually relented and the project could move ahead. At this organization, Active Directory is apparently supported as a part of the overall responsibilities of the network group, while the Exchange system is supported by the applications group – these are different units within IT. As you know Exchange is heavily dependent on AD, so high levels of cooperation between the two groups are essential.

A little background: The company moved toward Exchange at the specific behest of the CEO and with the full support of the CIO, who also made it a priority project. There are good reasons for the migration and the merits of the migration are not discussed in this posting.

Continues @ http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=1661