How do great I.T. Managers run their departments? I am looking for a playbook on how to run a steamlined I.T. department for an organization of 500-1000 people. McDonalds has a handbook on running a restaurant from soup-to-nuts. I want the same for an I.T. Department. I have searched the Web and Amazon and cannot practical, tactical information on managing an I.T. department. I can easily find literature on high-level concepts like ITIL, SOA, and 'Runnng I.T. Like a Business', but nothing practical like 'How to run a helpdesk', 'How To Keep Track of Software Licenses' or even 'What does an I.T. Manager really do?'. What are the things that your I.T. department does that make them great? How do I get a blackbelt in I.T. Management?
posted on Feb 20, 2007 - 22 answers

I am moving into a IT Manager / CTO role for a company of about 200 people and am looking for advice, books, and websites on how best to manage a IT department. Most of the stuff I have found is geared toward very large organizations. Implementing ITIL and SOA is a little hardcore for an organization of my size. I am looking for straight-forward best practices for things like asset management / inventory, desktop management, security / audit, helpdesk, etc. etc. Anybody out there already doing this successfully? Any good blogs or websites other than TechRepublic. I am looking for real-world solutions and not a bunch of frameworks and jargon.
posted on Feb 23, 2006 - 8 answers