8 “Best Practices” IT Companies Should Avoid At All Costs

Do you know what one of the biggest mistakes IT companies make is? It’s looking for secret recipes and tricks that can help them jump-start their growth.

While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to learn from others, the problem is that, when it comes to IT companies, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What other organizations consider “best practice” might not necessarily be a best practice for you. But, eager to grow, IT businesses take this advice for granted without checking first if it fits their needs.

Here are some “best practices” that you should probably avoid:

Encourage the “Internal Customer” Policy

Every department in your IT company NJ, should collaborate to keep your business working. That means that each employee within those departments is equal. IT colleagues are not supposed to serve other employees, but the organization and its goals. When you allow other units to take advantage of your IT team, you waste precious time that they could have used to tackle tasks that help your business grow.

Sign SLAs with Your Internal Customers

Establishing service level agreements (SLAs) with your employees and invoking them whenever there’s an argument, is a sure fire way to harm your relationship with them. It tells them you don’t trust them and it defines the terms of your interactions. You should trust the hallmarks of a great cloud hosting or IT provider. Focus on building meaningful relationships with your employees and remember that if they like you, they will be more than happy to work hard without needing to be bound by a formal document.

Set Chargebacks

Chargebacks are supposed to be a practical way to increase efficiency, or more specifically, to improve accountability and cut waste. While sometimes it’s difficult to understand how the IT costs are determined, instituting very detailed chargebacks may not be the best solution. Exhausting invoices describing every little expense might stir arguments between business units regarding their accuracy.

Insist on ROI

These days it’s imperative for companies to update their technology. However, to receive the budget it needs to keep up with the changes, the IT department has to put together a thorough presentation that provides clear and tangible ROI. More often than not, this task is hard to accomplish. As a result, most attempts to improve business efficiency fail because management rejects these initiatives.

Deliver Software Instead of Results

One of the biggest mistakes you could make is to define the success of a project based on software delivery. That means that the software is finished when it meets the requirements and specifications, no matter if it does what’s supposed to or not. The first step in avoiding this issue is to define your projects considering the outcome.

Go for Both Agile and Offshore Methodologies

If you hope you can combine these two approaches to achieve better results, then you should think again. One of the main requirements of Agile development is frequent client involvement to ensure the best results. On the other hand, the offshore methodology is based on lower hourly labor costs that can’t be met under the prerequisite of Agile services, or if you have team members spread across the globe. You must pick one.

Ask for Multitasking

While some people promote the idea of multitasking for better productivity, the opposite is true. When switching from one task to another, the brain takes some time to adjust to the new requirements, hence wasting time. Your IT employees are smart, but they are still human. And, humans don’t multitask. Let them finish what they’re working on before assigning them other tasks.

Accept Projects No Matter The Requirements

When people come to you with different requests, you need to ensure that you can deliver on your promises before you say yes. Don’t think that if you’re refusing a project, you will damage your relationship with a client. Not delivering on time as discussed is likely to do your company more harm than saying no. The best approach is to consider your workload first, and then discuss what the project implies so that everyone’s in the clear with what to expect at the end.

Final Word

If you relate to any of these practices, you should reconsider applying them. But, don’t get the wrong idea: we’re not saying that these practices never work. Just that they might not suit your business. Test and experiment with different strategies before implementing them.