Meet Terry White

“Terry White is one of the most original thinkers in the field of IT management, whose ideas have become widespread in recent years. He became one of the first gurus of the IT industry who stated the need for a radical change in the approaches in the work of IT departments in order to meet the new business requirements of the beginning of the 21st century. Achieving this goal was for Terry his main mission as a theorist and practitioner in the field of information technology management (Professor: UK)

For more than twelve years, Terry White has been engaged in consulting activities. During this time, he worked with many companies, advising them not only on IT management issues, but also on business strategy in general.

In early March, Terry White comes to Russia for the first time. Within the framework of the international conference “Corporate IT Strategies in Russia and the CIS”, held by Adam Smith Conferences, he will hold a master class “Measuring Economic Efficiency and Tomorrow IT Projects”. In addition, next week, within the framework of cooperation between Thematic Media and the Business in RU-style Club of the Higher School of Economics, he will meet with students from the HSE and other universities.
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Habrahabr together with the publishing house “Grevtsov Publisher” and the book boutique Boffo invites everyone to take part in an online interview. Until February 29, you can ask your questions to Mr. White in the comments on this topic, and on Monday (March 3) Mr. White’s answers to the most important and relevant ones will be published.

In addition, the authors of the three best questions will receive prizes. The main prize is a dinner with Terry White at a Moscow restaurant. The authors of the questions, who took the second and third places, will receive as a gift a book by Terry White “What does the business want from IT” with the author's autograph. (Terry White and the contest organizers will determine the winners personally.)


Biography

Terry began his career as a geologist in South Africa, but soon became interested in information technology. He worked as the Director of Information Technology at a large machine-building enterprise. During his work he:

- reduced the number of critical errors from 22 per month to 1 in two months;
- created a change management department whose task was to help the company's business units to extract the maximum benefit from the information systems they use;
- introduced the practice of benchmarking in the work of IT-services, and his company constantly kept in 5% of the enterprises of the engineering industry, the most efficient use of information technology;
- introduced in his department the concept of an autonomous working group, according to which the department’s employees themselves set themselves tasks and rigorously sought to fulfill the planned indicators;
- introduced the principle of "universal assessment of results", according to which each of his employees evaluated not only his work, but also the work of his superiors and subordinates
created the “Department of Architecture” even before the concept of “IT-architecture” gained universal recognition in the IT industry;
- created a call center for IT, for which it was necessary to develop special software, since the very concept of the call center was so new that nothing of the kind existed on the information technology market;
- created a laboratory for testing applications, in which its people tested new software and tested new concepts for the benefits that they could give to the company;
- was Chairman of the Information Technology Management Division of the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA). While in this position, he introduced the tradition of monthly “breakfasts for IT directors,” which they gathered to discuss common problems and share innovative solutions.

As chairman, he also founded the award “The Best IT Manager of the Year”, as he was absolutely confident that the director of information technology at the company should play a more prominent role and that outstanding success in this area should not go unnoticed. The award has been awarded for 14 years.

His areas of interest include such areas as the development of IT strategies and business strategies, the organization of IT activities in an enterprise, the monitoring of IT effectiveness, the management of projects and changes in IT, and the budgeting of IT. In addition, Terry is also involved in information technology management and logistics in the field of IT, in particular, in procurement of complex integrated IT systems for businesses, helping enterprises to acquire those systems that best meet their needs, at a price that they can afford. He works with both private business and government organizations.

He is the author of numerous articles for a wide range of newspapers and magazines and has two monthly columns in highly respected journals. A recognized authority in the field of information technology, he advises industry journalists on the current state of the information technology industry.

Terry is the author of three books on IT management: Reinventing the IT Department; “What does business want from IT” (What Business Really wants from IT), which has already been translated into Russian; and also “Speed ​​up the Mess” - about the features of IT management in small business ”. He also co-authored several books on project management and risk management, as well as future trends in IT management. In the near future, he plans to write two more books - “What does IT want from business” (What IT needs from business) and “How and what to buy - IT material and technical support” (How to buy stuff - procurement for IT). He regularly speaks at conferences.

Many of Terry’s ideas have been adopted by Butler Group, an IT research company. He also participated in the development of Val IT, the IT corporate governance methodology (the next generation of COBIT), designed to maximize the benefits that IT services bring to their companies.

The goal of his life is to ensure that IT departments cease to be an auxiliary element of the business and begin to bring real and tangible benefits to the business, helping companies improve their business performance, achieve the realization of the benefits that were planned for the implementation of IT systems, and directly participate in creating new products, developing new markets and new distribution channels.

Terry travels a lot and mountaineering in his free time. He conquered several peaks in the Alps, the Andes, as well as in various mountain ranges of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China.

About the book "What does business want from IT"

The book "What does business want from IT?" Terry White offers a revolutionary new approach to the role of IT in the company. The traditional “I work in IT” becomes unacceptable. Instead, a new one is required - “I work in business.” The purpose of the book is to change the way of thinking in that situation when IT-specialists are at a deadlock, focusing exclusively on IT-products. The book reveals the secret - what can be done to help IT make a truly significant contribution to increasing the company's profits. The book offers practical examples and schemes that will help to understand and implement this idea, transforming it into account the specific specifics of the business.

The book is addressed primarily to senior and mid-level managers, for whom it is important to know: IT can exceed all their expectations, as well as IT specialists, who have long since come to take their place in the management of the company.

The first Russian-language edition of this book appeared thanks to the efforts of the publishing house “Grevtsov Publisher . ” You can purchase this book in the Boffo book store!