Acquiring and retaining talented IT professionals has always been a challenge in an industry historically known for its difficult and often stressful work environment. With modern IT projects being deployed and accelerated at unprecedented speeds, procuring the best IT managers and IT professionals has become even more critical for success. To make the situation even more difficult, many IT departments must acquire this talent without significantly taxing their IT resources.

Is your IT department losing time and money performing spin up/spin down support? Spin up/spin down support naturally occurs when resources need to be allocated dynamically on a task-by-task basis rather than focused in a single area of technology. Though it may initially appear to be a useful method of keeping IT engineering staff constantly on task, it is usually a waste of both resources and talent. IT management must determine better and more stable staff allocations and

A random act, no matter how positive or negative the outcome, is still a random act, and thus it cannot be relied upon in the future. Though you may be able to successfully complete a project or deliver a product on time, the success will have little meaning if you aren't certain why the outcome was positive. Random acts of IT may be able to carry your business forward for some time, but will ultimately fail later on– and often at the worst possible moment. The Allure of Rand

The CIO is charged with delivering on IT effectiveness. But as companies move toward an outsourced delivery model for IT services, there is some confusion over the issue of who is responsible for ensuring technology is delivering business value. Who owns this– the business or the outsourced provider? If you've outsourced some IT functions to a third party, you must deal with the issue of responsibility or risk dropping the ball during a critical time. Holding the Outsourced P

What steps are you taking to show the value your IT organization brings to your business? Are you growing your IT value? The more time spent sustaining technology and performing infrastructure maintenance, the less time dedicated to the development of technology that enhances business value. In a fast-paced business world, your IT team is only as valuable as you make it. Maintaining operations goes unnoticed, but implement technology that grows revenue and reduces expenses? T