Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

IT Organization that knows no tech

I am one of the employees that joined AT&T decades ago. I moved from developer to architecture to project management. I get repeated feedback that i should pressure development team to provide resolution/mitigation and i am responsible for strategy. This seems like repeated pattern as i was told this in several other organization. Project Managers/Scrum Masters are seen as nothing more than paper pushers at AT&T. However, my management is pushing me real hard not to even facilitate conversation intelligently between 2 different application.

Most Directors i have worked for in my career here at AT&T know anything about running tech organizations. If we need to fix issues at AT&T to get it back on track. We need to start looking at Level 5 to Level 3 that sets the tone for the organization. These folks just breed incompetence and encourage paper pushing while paying IT salaries.

So many layers of management even at Level 2 - SRPM, Client PM, Go-to-market PM, value stream PM, TSM, IT PM, IT PgM, CDO PM, Application Scrum Masters. All these on medium sized initiatives.

There is no need to have a VP manage just these PMs, if you are not responsible for any application. We have more management people in IT than folks that actually are doing the work.

Outsourcing these application to vendors is going to manifest this problem if company doesnt take cognizant effort to retain right type of employees.

Current mentality is that if you are in TX, you are good. what a joke! Leadership from TX hires a local manager for each of these initiatives and a manager for each vendor by application.

Again more managers than workers.

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| 1712 views | | 11 replies (last February 11, 2020) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+13nBXC6Y

11 replies (most recent on top)

Assignment of formal COEs are in works. But the efficiency of existing COE's and the value that they bring is also being taken into consideration.

COE's do not know the application as well as the outsourced partners do(with AT&T employees going with outsourced partners and had the opportunity to stay and know the latest).

Eventually COE's become nothing more than Front-door.

For every project fully outsourced, COE's usually carry a 10-20% overhead. Not sure if they bring the value after years of outsourcing.

COEs have no true control or authority over vendors. so it does not matter whether they are AT&T or IBM or Accenture etc.,

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Post ID: @5arf+13nBXC6Y

COE for applications were generally the Management for the SE Team. SE Teams have been outsourced to IBM along with their Management hence why they are with IBM for the apps outsourced to IBM. AT&T has not put in place new COE for applications in the vendor management team and as the prior person indicated if you check MOT's it lists the COE's. I also have noticed if an app has gone to IBM the COE is now there also and no new COE's identified in AT&T vendor management or otherwise.

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Post ID: @4onz+13nBXC6Y

Not True. Check in MOT's which lists the COE for an application then Contact the COE and ask then whom they work for? I do it on a daily basis as I am a Lead PM and have to chase systems on a daily basis for outages and escalations. The Management COE's for the majority of Apps are not with IBM. I know them by name for the 80 plus apps the projects I manage use. The majority of COE's that I would have to go to for application issues supporting business services are now IBM employees. This is a fact and AT&T MOTT System lists all the Application COE's so this is easy to verify. As I said contact a few and ask whom they work for and you will see the majority are with IBM at least for the AT&T apps supporting business enterprise services. Fact

Per your note below: COEs are not IBM, they are internal AT&T employees or Augmented staff. However, they do not know what they can ask these vendors.
Also remember these outsourced team were their colleagues. so they trust them.
There was term coined by one of the VPs of these organization "CIO as a Service".

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Post ID: @4wnr+13nBXC6Y

COEs are not IBM, they are internal AT&T employees or Augmented staff. However, they do not know what they can ask these vendors.

Also remember these outsourced team were their colleagues. so they trust them.

There was term coined by one of the VPs of these organization "CIO as a Service".

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Post ID: @3mku+13nBXC6Y

The COE's are with IBM now also? That is like the fox watching the hen house,,,LOL

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Post ID: @2dhy+13nBXC6Y

Once they get rid of the rest lazy scum managers things gonna be alright, good luck at Walmart.

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Post ID: @2hnf+13nBXC6Y

What COE's? The folks we previously knew to Contact and were the so called COE's for the applications are also now outsourced to IBM with the applications?. COE's are long gone for the majority of applications as they cleaned house for the large percentage of applications. Look in MOT's for the Application COE then contact them and the majority are now with IBM.

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Post ID: @2hda+13nBXC6Y

This is so true, dumbing down tech resources and build in structure barriers to keep projects from being successful. Business Analysts are being told do not help users to develop business processes, the org doesn't want to get over committed on resources. Hands are tided, requirements coming are debated round after round with no firm process to hang on to. I've been around the block a few times, never have I've seen this level of dysfunction on the fundamentals. All the outsourcing looks good on paper, internal charge back cost is so obscene, we all are in the wrong business.

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Post ID: @1yja+13nBXC6Y

What a cluster.

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Post ID: @gxj+13nBXC6Y

Do what your brain says is right. The outsourced companies need to keep experienced ex-AT&T people to prove that they can manage the apps successfully. Offshoring work will occur but not as fast as some think. If you have apps with conflicts, escalate to the COEs and ask them to resolve the conflicts. COEs (c-ap of everyone, aka everyone's c-ap) have to resolve issues more often now.

At some point, there will be less managers to muck things up. Probably in next 3 years. Don't give up. Results matter. If you can help the COEs, do it and get thanked by the apps as proof that you made a difference. Then show your boss that conflict resolution is a good thing.

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Post ID: @bog+13nBXC6Y

You’re saying too many chiefs and not enough “Indians” ?

I crack myself up.

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Post ID: @ctd+13nBXC6Y

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