information technology

Often, there is a lack of insight into what goes on within an IT department. As a manager, it can be difficult to know the statuses and updates of all the delegated projects going on at a given time. Or, if you’re an employee, you may spend hours resolving a ticket only to learn that a colleague solved a similar issue last week, last month or even last year.

By helping employees share their knowledge across the department, and creating direct communication channels, you can start to bring method to the madness. The following are a few examples of how to achieve this, all of which can be easily be implemented with IT work management software that integrates IT help desk, project management, and timesheets.

1. Organize all processing data and notes on past projects that could be useful in solving common issues. This will bring efficiency to your IT department by helping your team avoid repeated troubleshooting of previously done work or research.
2. Encourage employees to share information with their colleagues, without adding extra steps. CC or BCC each other on ticket-update emails, and save them for later reference when similar issues arise. Alternatively, an email feature in most ticket and project-management programs allows individuals to send messages to multiple parties, and the data is saved within the software for future reference.
3. Review project statuses and communications on a regular basis, and use this information to update your team and share best practices routinely. You can likely piece together a method for this using email, ticket-management, and other systems; however, a more scalable solution can probably be found in work management software, which provides dashboard views and reporting capabilities.
4. Have team leaders and project managers gather information regarding the amount of time each person has put into active projects, their expected availability and what pillar of work they should focus on. This will keep the order of what’s assigned to employees, whether projects are on track to meet deadlines, and who can step in to help on under-staffed or slow-moving projects.
5. Gather relevant information in one central location to create a reference library. This will help everyone in the department advance in their capabilities due to the ambient knowledge shared by the team. Also, this repository of information and standard troubleshooting processes will help with new employee training.

Designating a common place for your department to centralize information will undoubtedly generate an overall sense of clarity and cohesiveness to your workplace. And, feeling connected to peers through communication is an essential tool for your department’s collective success.

What struggles have you experienced due to the lack of information sharing or poor communication? How did you resolve the issue?