Are Tech Teams Perceived As Not Helpful?

Continuing on the subject of tech teams not being invited to evaluate technical solutions, tech teams have responsibility in this, too. Sometimes they aren’t perceived as helpful forces by other teams in the organization. I can think of a few reasons that contribute to this perception.

One is that sometimes they don’t have the domain knowledge that would allow them to understand how the organization operates, and what problems it faces. This shows when they interact with project managers and functional teams. Who wants to work with a tech person who doesn’t know what they are talking about?

Then there’s the fact that some tech teams don’t demonstrate interest in the organization’s problems or on looking for solutions, even when their members have significant business domain expertise. They prefer to play a passive role; limited to waiting for the next support incident to come in, or for the time to perform the next scheduled maintenance.

Last, do they appreciate the need to keep up with the advancements in their fields of expertise? This is critical for specialties that evolve at a rapid pace, such as business intelligence, reporting, and web and software development. These teams see their ability to formulate solutions limited when members don’t work on updating their skills.

Tech teams that have a culture of communicating with the functional counterparts and improving their business domain and technical skills are better prepared to face these challenges.