Make it Work

Is often the motto of the freelance techie, and make it work you can often do. Some of the most talented innovative and resourceful people I know are technicians, and many of them pride themselves on making things work. However, sometimes the “˜make it work’ motto is one that can get you into a lot of bother, especially when providing technical support, help, fixes or advice for larger organisations.

Due to the current trend to find someone or anyone to blame/sue in the event of a problem, it is important to make sure that when providing support, you know what the guidelines are and are able to follow them. Rules may be in the form of

Laws ““ data protection, data security, computer misuse, international business, copyright, intellectual property and many many more laws are in place surrounding the use of IT. If, as a supporter of IT systems, you are enabling others to break some of the rules by allowing them the tools to do so, you may also be held liable.

Company rules and regulations ““ again, if you enable people to break them (for example by allowing them to access a restricted website across a filtered web service), who is to blame ““ you or them? If they are caught, it’s likely that you’ll be the one pointed at, in spite of the fact that it won’t strictly be your fault.

Industry best practice ““ this is often optional, but the best practice is there for a reason, and is often based either on closing loopholes or the best company rules and regulations.

“˜Make it work if it’s right, document it and make sure it fits in with the rules and can be understood and followed by other people’ is much more in keeping with what you actually mostly do, and this is far more acceptable and easy to manage.

I know, as I said, lots of talented people who are technologically aware, and capable of fixing most things with a KitKat wrapper and a bit of gum. But it really has to be a case of not doing things just because you can. (Sorry to be a spoilsport guys.)

If you are new to this and have not had a formal education in IT, systems and system support in its varying guises, you can quickly learn the rules in a number of ways; either asking to take part in a work placement at a large and formalised IT support company, taking a formal qualification (one of the vendor qualifications or similar) or by offering to work for free at one of the better industry leaders if you have such a thing near to you. Other than that, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time with your nose in a book, and ask a lot of questions!

A generally helpful source for computer laws across the globe is included below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology_law