IT Manager : Assessing Capability

My first week as an IT Manager revolves around assessing the department's capability to handle projects.

Below are the things I consider important and the questions I want to have answers during my recon operation :)

1. People
- What is their personal opinion about their department?

• This is to get a general perception about the current culture within and to know what steps to take if you want to lead

- What are the team member's skill level?

• This is to personally know what project you can assign to whom and on what specific role.
• To know who can mentor whom and who needs what training.

- What are the key applications that the staff are supporting/maintaining?

• To know who to contact if something happens to certain applications, this is to establish your fire fighting capability.
  

- Get their opinion about their salary?

• This is to equate their perception on what the external market can offer and to take action if something is off on the salary grid.

- Get their opinion on other department?

• To know the general relationship of IT department with the rest of the company. Giving you idea on how to deal with the process owners given the current situation and create some changes moving forward.

2. Processes
- What are their current processes/standards/practices?

• For you to have an idea of how things work internally, you just don't recommend sudden process changes based on what you want. There is a possibility that their processes are better than what you want to propose, so keep an open mind and listen.
• Know the meeting schedules, how they handle projects from requirement gathering to implementation, know their project management methodology, how they document, coding standards

3. Resources
- What is their current hardware specs?

• To know if they are given enough resources for them to be able to perform tasks they are assign to.

- What are the software installed in their workstation?

• To assess the function, importance and relevance of the tools they are using, it will also answer if it's worth upgrading/migrating to a better technology.

- What are their research capability? - Books, Magazines, Internet Access

• For you to know if the company is re-enforcing their thirst for knowledge and ability to grow.