Guild Companies--Shaking IT Up: IT Is Like an Airport

Working in IT is difficult. You put in long hours, deal with too much stress, and don't always have the greatest relationships with your customers. Okay, we can be honest here: You think some of your customers are idiots. Well, have you ever stopped to think about what your customers think of IT? As rough as our days seem to be, have you ever thought about the hours and stress we add to our customers' lives? Have you ever pondered the possibility that we are the idiots?

It's okay if you haven't thought about this. It's not that easy to stand in those other shoes. But I've discovered a way that those of us in IT can educate ourselves about the IT-customer dichotomy for the mere cost of a roundtrip ticket.

There's an even better way. Trade places with the troubled accounts payable clerk at your company or the manager of the manufacturing facility at your company, just to name two possible examples. Then start requesting services from IT. You'll soon get a good idea of how we are perceived by the rest of the company. But as good as that sounds, it might not be very practical. It might be tough to switch jobs with others inside your company, even on a temporary basis. That's why I've come up with another way to obtain the proper perspective of IT, one that can be accomplished on your own time, as well as while you function in your current IT role: simply visit your local international airport.

Actually, you'll have to do more than visit the airport. You will need to engage yourself in the whole airport and airline experience to really get the picture of IT as viewed by the rest of your company. Here's what you do: Imagine that the airport is the IT department and image the airline flights are the services that are normally requested by your users. The employees of the airport and airlines represent the hardworking IT professionals, and you, of course, are the valued customer, the user of applications.

If you have ever flown before, I'm sure you can already see the similarities--even if you possess the twisted view of IT that is so prevalent among IT professionals. Both entities provide services that are much in demand and both cause many of its customers to seek therapy before and after said services have been rendered. (If you were not aware of that second similarity, please read on.)

Let's start with your arrival at the airport. You've already requested and paid for your flight, and up until this point, things look pretty good. You may even receive your service on time and on budget. You take a look around and notice that the lines are short, thanks to the new self-service check-in capabilities, and you stop and think, "Wow, the airport is really on the ball with this new feature. These people really have their act together." You might even whistle a familiar tune as you make your way to the self-service machine. Once you've entered your information, the nice lady behind the counter calls out your name. You stroll up to the counter with your check-in luggage, ready to hand it over, and the nice lady tells you that you'll have to take your luggage down the corridor to be x-rayed. You're a bit thrown, but you rationalize the effort, figuring that the airlines are being more security-conscious. Besides, you had no wait to check in, so you're still ahead of the game.

So you drag your luggage toward what you think is the x-ray line. As you step through an opening in the roped-off area, a nice gentleman asks if he can help you. You smile and point to the x-ray line and say, "Nope, I'm just going to get my luggage x-rayed." As you try to move on, the man informs you that this isn't the line for x-rays; it's for ticket purchases and baggage check-in. He then points in the same direction as you were headed but tells you that you'll have to walk around the roped area to get in line for the x-ray machine. Okay, it's a bit inconvenient, but the line is short and you still have plenty of time to make your flight. You wonder why the nice lady at self-service check-in couldn't have taken your bags to x-ray, but quickly banish the thought because you don't want to get all worked up.

Now you've walked all the way around the roped area to a line that has suddenly grown quite long, and you realize this line is blocking the path of people who are in the ticket purchase and baggage check-in line, and they're not happy about it. Both customers and airport staff seem confused. Some of the bags are being loaded onto a truck, to be taken away to be x-rayed, while other folks are being asked to wait in line for pre-x-ray screening. What? Pre-x-ray screening? What on earth is that? The less-than-pleasant airport employee tells you that his job is to check each bag, manually, for certain residue before sending it to the x-ray machine. You ask if that is something the x-ray machine can't detect, and he says, "No, it's just a redundant check." You say, "Oh" and nod your head as if you understand, even though you couldn't understand more, but you don't want to upset the man who has the power to plant something in your luggage and have you arrested.

Time is running out, and you haven't even made it through security. You start thinking paranoid thoughts and become certain that the airport did this on purpose just to drive the customers mad. Questions flood your mind again: Why couldn't the self-service lady have taken your bags? Why did some bags get to avoid the pre-x-ray screen while others did not? Why do they put the x-ray area in the same area as ticket purchase and baggage check in? Why, why, why?

So it is with this attitude that you make your way toward the security line. The line is longer than you think it should be, given the time of day and the lack of people walking around. It turns out that they only have one of the many security machines open, and that airline employees on their way to their flights keep cutting in front, thus holding up the line even more. On top of that, the ladies checking identification and boarding passes before allowing you to wait in the absurdly long security line are rude, when not completely ignoring you, and are yapping at each other about what happened at a party last Friday night. Now time is running out. What should have been a leisurely trip to your gate has become a race against time. Just then, an announcement is played stating that you should be at your gate at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure or risk losing your seat. You laugh a sick, demented sort of laugh and begin to think evil thoughts. Then you become certain that you are on a game show or a new reality TV series and that the host is going to come out at any moment to tell you what you've won.

At that moment, while fighting back the urge to drive from L.A. to Orlando, you realize: This is the type of anger, dissatisfaction, and utter dismay that IT customers must feel.

We consistently underestimate our projects. We delivery mediocre solutions, and when we try to fix those solutions, we often make things worse. We are condescending to our customers and have the audacity to think they need us more than we need them. In short, we are a service department that doesn't seem to know the first thing about service, and this is exactly what I was feeling about the airport and the airlines with their delays, lost luggage, poor customer service, and mystifying procedures.

Well, you end up making your flight that day and everything works out just fine. The service that you purchased was delivered on time and on budget. You went through some rough spots to get to that point, but in the end, all was well. Then you realize something else: Just as an IT department, the airport and the airlines may not always run smoothly; however, the airport and airlines almost always deliver. Sure, there are times when flights are canceled or delayed and luggage is lost; those are the exceptions, and they're often caused by forces that are outside of the airport's control. Can we say that about IT? Do we deliver most of the time? Are our customers happy in the end? I think not. So the next time you're at the airport cursing some long line or some unbelievably stupid procedure, remember that our customers--the users--would probably pick the airport and airlines over IT if asked which provided better service.