Division of labor

This morning my wife's car wouldn't start. So she called me. And I fixed it.

In my house anything under the hood pretty much falls to me.

Is that the way it should be? Should all women assume that car maintenance and repair is an area for some man in their life?

Of course not.

There is no should here. In my family we've simply discovered over the years that some of us are more or less interested in taking on certain types of tasks.

Now that we have a common understanding for how we’ll handle most types of work, we're all pretty comfortable with how we've divided it up.

So what about managing your business software systems? Who should be responsible for what types of tasks?

The short answer is: There is no should here.

You get to decide what tasks you'd like to take on yourself, or allot to your team, or assign to an outside specialist. You'll decide this based on your assessment of people’s interests, stress levels, skill sets and aptitudes, and your own cost/benefit calculations.

Here's the thing:

There is no right or wrong in dividing this work.

There are common patterns that you might draw from — such as the notion that the CEO should not be caught up in answering every user support request, or that high-value early-stage planning and architecture is a good candidate for pulling in an outside expert.

But you don't have to follow those patterns. You can take on any tasks yourself if you wish, or assign them to whomever you decide.

Don't let anybody convince you that you have to do it one way or another.

Just be sure you're making a reasonable assessment of concerns such as cost-to-benefit, efficiency, and most importantly: measurable business outcomes.

All the best,
A.