IT managers face jargon meltdown

A huge number of IT managers don't know the meaning of the three letter acronyms which plague this industry - and an equally dismal number of business managers don't have much understanding of even the simplest IT terminology.

A survey out today reveals that senior managers who work in finance departments know almost as many of these buzzwords as the supposed experts who run IT departments.

Of the respondents to the survey, which was conducted by HP, not one knew what an xSP was. ISV was another term which left all of them in the dark. Three quarters didn't know what a VAR was.

Almost a third of the respondents cited a dislike or lack of understanding of acronyms and abbreviations - which is fair enough.

But even many of the simpler terms, such as 'hosting' and 'implementation', brought an embarrassed silence from the red-faced managers.

Frank Coyle, an IT director at John Menzies, said 10 years ago people were saying there were too many acronyms and terms, a situation that has worsened in an industry obsessed by gobble-de-gook.

Coyle said: "Terms change from one week to the next. It's up to IT professionals to interpret them and where necessary use them in a way that is easily understood."

Stan Kay, operations director at the BCS (British Computer Society), echoed his sentiments, and said it wasn't that IT managers are stupid or aren't trained properly - it's more that there are so many acronyms being invented for the sake of it.

Kay said: "Acronyms are only a means to speed up understanding. They should be avoided wherever possible and only used when everyone in the room understands them."

An xSP is any service provider an ISV is an independent software vendor and a VAR is a value added reseller. But then, as a silicon.com reader, you probably knew that already...

HP interviewed 54 senior managers across a range of job functions and industries.