[Sigia-l] is it just me, or is it really hard to find IAs

[Linda Kolar]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. We HAVE tried to get outsourced IAs in at the
beginning of a project. We definitely DON'T think it is possible to just
create a site map in a vacuum, so to speak. But what we've encountered
with folks that have been doing freelance for awhile is an apparent lack
of interest in parking themselves in our environment and getting
involved the way the "in house" UEAs are involved. 

I don't know whether it's just the specific individuals we've
encountered, or whether it's more a symptom of the freelance mentality,
in which people may get in the habit of being on their own to complete a
task, or even being the "one person shop" doing the initial strategy,
the architecture and sometimes even design/coding.

In other words, I completely agree with you. I was trying to state
exactly the same thing - that we've never been able to find a way to
"compartmentalize" IA nor do we believe it should be compartmentalized -
but added that the folks who were only interested in contract work (as
opposed to contract-to-hire) seemed to like to treat their role that way
(as a segmented element in the process).

- Linda

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Pawlak [mailto:bill.pawlak at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 11:20 AM
To: Linda Kolar
Cc: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] is it just me, or is it really hard to find IAs

I'm surprised you'd even bother trying to hire an IA to *just* deliver a
site map or prototype or any other singular component of what an IA
does... any good IA, when just asked to just create a site map (for
example) is bound to have lots of questions about the businesses'
strategy, goals, technology constraints, competitors...  This seems to
be a source of frustration for you, but that's just a part of what good
IAs do. So get them involved (be they in-house or external consultants)
at the *beginning* of the project.

Perhaps that's why there seems to be a shortage of quality people
available - it's the types of projects that are being offered...  I
wouldn't take a project that my only role was to produce a site map or
any other singular component of what an IA "does."  It would be a
frustrating excercise for me and I also think the client would be
getting short-changed because they would be led to believe that IAs
"only make site maps" (for example) and thus wouldn't truly get to
understand what value a competent, experienced IA can bring to a
project.

bill