Managing Technology
Welcome! Most items here in the Managing Technology section of Dennis McDonald’s Web Site reflect my thinking on how people and organizations use information technology to support management, collaboration, innovation, and communication.
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Entries in Retirement (7)
How Much do People Need to Understand Technology to Manage It?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 01:25AM Jeremiah Owyang’s post Gen Y Enter Stage Left, Baby Boomers Exit Stage Right got me to wondering how much people should understand about technology in order to manage it in an organization.
Is "My Dow Network" a "Social Network"?
Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 01:38PM I recently spoke with Trish Bharwada of The Dow Chemical Company. Trish manages My Dow Network, a web-based online membership service launched in 2007 that targets retirees and former employees of Dow.
The CIO in a Large Financial Services Firm Discusses "Baby Boomer Brain Drain" and His Real Staffing Concerns
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 02:00PM Updated on Friday, September 1, 2006 at 12:41PM by
Dennis D. McDonald
Several things stand out based on this interview with Oscar in combination with information gleaned from my previous interviews and research:
The IT Director in a Large Manufacturing Company Discusses "Baby Boomer Brain Drain"
Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 01:24PM Last week I interviewed “Ferris” (not his real name) about how his company is handling the pending retirement of senior IT staff. Ferris is the IT Director in a large manufacturing company. Ferris’ company doesn’t have the mix of custom legacy Cobol and Assembler based mainframe systems that Boris the Insurance Company CIO has.
An Insurance Company CIO Talks About the "Baby Boomer IT Brain Drain"
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at 08:07AM Updated on Saturday, August 5, 2006 at 09:30AM by
Dennis D. McDonald
Last week I interviewed “Boris” (not his real name) about his and his company’s handling of the pending retirement of senior IT staff who are critical to the maintenance and operation of a number of his company’s business-critical mainframe legacy systems. I was initially interested in learning whether Boris thought that modern social networking and collaboration tools might be useful in documenting and transferring the specialised expertise staff needed for maintaining critical systems. Instead, the discussion took a different direction and revealed some underlying issues that go beyond technology enabled knowledge sharing.
Age Discrimination Considerations in IT Staff Knowledge Transfer
Friday, July 28, 2006 at 11:08AM Back on July 17 I wrote about the potential impact of pending retirement related “baby boomer brain drain” on IT departments, especially those heavily invested in supporting legacy mainframe systems. As a followup I asked for research interviews with several CIO’s I know in order to get a better handle on the issue and to find out whether emerging Web 2.0 and social networking and collaboration technologies might be supportive of knowledge transfer to younger staff.
As Senior IT Workers Retire, Will IT Expertise Also Disappear?
Monday, July 17, 2006 at 01:19PM Updated on Friday, July 28, 2006 at 11:52AM by
Dennis D. McDonald
Updated on Friday, September 1, 2006 at 12:43PM by
Dennis D. McDonald
Once upon a time I helped manage a complex post-merger system consolidation project where two mainframe based systems were being integrated. The client hadn’t done a lot of projects like that and hired outside consultants to help with the project planning, management, and execution. We found out quickly that a few key client staff members were extremely scarce resources. One was a senior consultant who had been brought back by the client after his retirement. He was, hands-down, THE absolute expert on the target system’s very large and very complex database. I’ll call him “Alex.”