IT Management Truisms
(as compiled by Rick DeVries, Calvin College, rickdv@calvin.edu)
- If it’s not easy, users will not do it. (Or: users follow the easiest path to their own end.)
- Users don’t care about security until it affects them.
- Our convenience should not be their inconvenience.
- Users will not back up their own data.
- Standards matter to us. Flexibility matters to them.
- Users don’t like change, but they expect us to keep them up to date.
- Today’s favor is tomorrow’s expectation.
- Users don’t want to know the details. They want to know how it affects them.
- I.T. is responsible for 80% of the problems people have with their systems.
- Vendors are responsible for 80% of the problems I.T. has with the systems.
- No plan survives intact after the first contact with users.
- A temporary solution should not be better than the permanent solution.
- Desktops are part of their office. Laptops are part of their life.
- Desktop performance degrades over time as a result of user activities and I.T.’s inability to effectively manage them.
- The only thing users read in pop-up message windows is "OK" and "Cancel." All other verbiage is ignored.
- The "P" in PC stands for personal." Users believe they have the right to control their own desktop as they choose.
- We are not in the "happiness business." Not everything we need to do will be well liked by our users.
- Most users don’t care what OS they have. They don’t even care what applications they have. They do care about getting their work done.
- Users resist change if they perceive it will impact them negatively. They will embrace change if they perceive it will impact them positively.
- Customer satisfaction is a matter of meeting user expectations. We can either raise service levels to meet expectations or lower expectations to meet service levels.
- A lack of information is better than wrong information.