Why reward systems fail to deliver IT transformation

The plan for an enterprise-wide service-oriented approach was great and well thought through. So why did it fall flat on its face in the implementation stage?

It may come down to the way IT professionals and managers are rewarded. James McGovern points to one of the most vexing, and often overlooked, aspects of any IT-driven transformational effort -- rewarding the right behavior.

• Rewarding programmers for lines of code produced, or based on program complexity: This doesn't help, James says, because "we don't want more complex or difficult programs."
• Rewarding developers based on long hours worked: Working 16 hours a day may be "just a sign that you did a terrible job of estimation and planning up front, and that probably there is a great deal of code-rewriting going on," James says.
• Rewards based on salary surveys: Basing IT salaries on industry averages means at least half the companies out there are paying more. The economy is showing signs of heating up, and with it will come a scramble for talent -- and lots of defections.
• Rewarding people based on the number of problem statements they closed: "This is problematic because some people will solve multiple problems with one problem statement, while others will open and solve as many problem statements as they can to inflate the number of problems solved."