Who's in charge (of IdM) around here?

Several years ago I flew to Lexington, Kentucky to visit a large printer manufacturer. Very nice people, and they had this amazingly long hallway in their factory that was almost a mile long. But one of the things I remember most about that trip occurred at the airport.

I traveled there with two other guys, and we ended up walking behind two ladies and three kids. As we walked toward baggage claim, the women walked faster and faster, and the kids, the oldest of which was no more than ten, fell behind. The women were oblivious. Eventually we lost sight of them altogether. At one point, the kids stopped to look out the window, and WE, complete strangers, were the ones who told them to keep up. The two women were long gone. We actually walked a little slower so WE wouldn’t lose the kids.

Once in baggage, we had to scan for the women, who were at the far end. We then had to point them out to the kids, who would have otherwise have been lost. As a parent, I was fairly horrified at the stupidity of these women, who, once the kids ran up to them, said, “Well, THERE you are.”

I wanted to say, “Yeah, there they are, after we escorted them, AFTER you practically abandoned them.” Dumb dumb dumb. Apparently they assumed that total strangers were going to make sure their kids found them.

You should NEVER assume that other people will be doing the job. ANY job. Or that things will magically happen. My kids will leave dirty dishes next to the sink, and assume that magically they will end up in the dishwasher.

Somebody has to OWN every job, every process. Validation, verification, candle on the cake, must be the responsibility of a real person. In the last year, I visited a client where terminations triggered various notifications to a variety of departments, so they could each handle their piece of it, but no one party OWNED terminations. So if at any point, one or more target systems were not corrected (i.e. the terminated user was not removed), it might never be caught. Nobody was going over the checklist. Everybody just assumed that everybody else would do their duty.

At another client, terminations were SUPPOSED to trigger notifications to everybody, but sometimes these “fall through the cracks.” The backstop was a monthly HR report. More recently I spoke with a place where that backstop window was ANNUAL.

When somebody doesn’t do their job in a timely manner, then automatic escalations should kick in. Your manager, your peers, somebody sharing your role, should be asked to pick up the ball. Of course, if you’re in the airport, the task of watching your kids should not be delegated to total strangers who just happen to be in the area.

For critical processes, somebody has to be in charge. They must be accountable. Nothing magical happens. Don’t let important tasks “fall through the cracks.” And don’t lose your kids in the airport.