Work Tales IV

University of Nevada, 2003

When I arrived at the University the security manager had recently deployed Microsoft Active Directory for authentication. While it was really a very good solution and interoperability and costs were quite manageable, there wasn't much discussion about why to use it as opposed to something else. Apparently many people within information technology felt that the decision was made in a relative vacuum and that other input wasn't considered. They were right, they weren't consulted. Seeing this, it was apparent to me that in order for the rest of the IT staff to keep faith in management they needed to be able to realize the benefits of this decision. I made a point to ensure that the security manager become more involved with more of the division and that when we purchased or built other applications that they could integrate with Active Directory for authentication. Shortly after we worked out a very creative and affordable means of getting training for over 40 people in IT to get the course work so that they could take and pass their MCSE certifications. Granted, only a few people did it but they still had better skills and were now a part of the solution instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Active Directory was a good solution for the situation but the decision-making process that led up to it was not participatory and that would have staved some of the resulting separatism that was felt as a result of it but the right plan would still have included training for our technicians and using AD as the foundation for centralized offerings.