Adjusting the Enterprise IT Organizational Structure to Solve the Troubles of IT Team Growth (Transfer)

In the rapid development of enterprises, IT teams also have to face the troubles brought by speed.

"How long has it been since the organizational structure of your department has been adjusted?"

Recently, I often ask my colleagues this question at some industry gatherings, and the answer I usually get is "It hasn't been adjusted since its establishment" or "It hasn't been adjusted for a long time." When asked why they did not adjust, most of the answers were "We are a functional organization, and there are no new functions, so we don't need to adjust", "Isn't it good now? Adjusting the organization will move a lot of people, The damage to the organization may be great, and we still focus on the pursuit of stability.” 

If the IT director also regards the IT department as a tool-type department, then the voices of other executives in the enterprise will naturally emerge - "Anyway, IT is a tool, as long as it is convenient, so be it." In fact, under the circumstances of drastic changes within the enterprise, fierce market competition, and the overall economic environment is not optimistic, can the IT department really stay out of this economic storm?

When I first started working in management, I felt that management was about managing people and managing directors, and I had a very weak concept of organizational operation. At the time, to me, the org chart was supposed to be something that wouldn't change for a long time. However, with the accumulation of management experience, I found that the organization of the IT department should definitely make different adjustments to follow the different development periods of the enterprise. I've had the privilege of going through the growth, acquisition, stabilization, and downsizing phases of the same business, gaining experience running an IT organization at different stages of business development.

I remember that when I first arrived at this company, the company was in a period of rapid growth. At that time, the most important thing for the whole company was speed, so all organizational configurations were based on how to exert speed as the top priority. Correspondingly, the configuration of the IT team at that time was the most traditional way - divided according to the field, roughly divided into several groups such as infrastructure, ERP, CRM, etc. according to the field, and the IT staff also followed the specific system. What they provide is a "one-stop" service - everything related to this system, from interviewing user requirements to writing requirements documents, programming, to consulting on common problems, and solving system problems, the person in charge of the system is all-inclusive. During this period, the organizational adjustment of the IT department is nothing more than moving employees from one pit to another. The IT leader only needs to ensure that one radish is one pit, and that each "radish" is not malnourished.

In retrospect, the pros and cons of organizing IT teams by domain are clear.

In order to minimize the operational shortcomings of an organization that configures IT teams by domain, I employ a number of complementary practices to fill in the gaps.

1. Strengthen the training and post-training assessment system. Since the enterprise is in a period of rapid growth, the number of new employees entering the company is relatively large each time. In order to improve the ability of new employees as soon as possible, enterprises usually carry out a lot of training. For IT employees, such training has two main directions: one is purely technical, such as programming, writing project documents, etc.; the other is experience inheritance, such as effectively communicating with internal users, guiding user needs, and resolving Conflicts with users, etc.

After the training, the more important thing for IT managers is the assessment, otherwise the training effect cannot be confirmed. The assessment of our company is generally not carried out in the form of test papers, but a practical assessment, using a virtual project for assessment, on the one hand to test the ability of newcomers, and on the other hand to enhance the newcomers' understanding of the project. I think the comments in the final grading session are the most helpful part of the whole training for newcomers.

2. Adopt the apprenticeship system. After one or two months of training, it is obviously impossible to pass on all the experience to the newcomers, and it is obviously irresponsible for a newcomer who has just graduated from school to discuss business needs with internal users. The apprentice's approach was adopted naturally. This method actually has two advantages: on the one hand, it allows the newcomers to gradually grow up, and on the other hand, it "raises" the position of the elderly, and prepares some "seeds" for future organizational expansion.

3. Appropriately increase the proportion of experienced personnel when recruiting. In general, experienced people get started faster than newcomers, and their immediate responsibilities are correspondingly larger. In the fast-moving stage of the enterprise, the "instant strength" of experienced employees can be a good complement to the IT department.

4. Arrange informal communication with the new person. According to the organization and operation of the personnel in the field, the pressure on newcomers is undoubtedly huge, because their roles are not much different from others, and because their credit has not been accumulated in place, the pressure from internal users is on the contrary. Big. At this stage, if the IT leader does not keep an eye on the newcomer, it is easy for the newcomer to "kill". At this time, if the supervisors at all levels can communicate more informally with the newcomers, it will be helpful to relieve their pressure.

5. Establish a regular project reporting mechanism. This reporting mechanism IT leaders should not only look at the status of existing projects, but also allow project leaders to put forward their own views on future planning. This kind of face-to-face formal communication can not only improve the reporting skills of relevant people, but also a good opportunity for IT leaders to review the working conditions of employees and understand their development potential.