What are we doing?

Today I had the opportunity to present at the National Computing Center Think Tank.  The NCC have a fantastic remit to bring together practitioners from the private and public sector to explore the current realities.  Add to this the vendor invitations where folks like me can share our observations with no axe to sell, and it makes for a really great discussion.  Awesome stuff.

Prior to this invitation I prepared two documents.  First I wrote a blunt paper based on my observations and feedback via Twitter.  Second I wrote a Prezi for that to share the findings in ten pieces.

I did this as part of an experiment to see what I could learn via you, Dear Reader, via Twitter.

I found out some amazing things as you will read in the attached documents:

  1. Silos are tribes with good features and bad.  They are human evolutions of Division of Labour.  The more opaque the walls, the more tribal the knowledge, the worse that IT will be.
  2. IT and Silos are under attack from customers (give me more for less), from Staff (everyone hates me, and I hate my job), and from Vendors (I want to eat your breakfast and your supper, but you keep your lunch).

The clear message is that change is happening, it is painful, it is variable, and in the IT Professional’s view it is better to be rushing for a different train instead of staying on the same one.

One comment from an attendee that “vendors lie to you” was something I personally found difficult: just like I’m a football fan but not a hooligan, I’m a responsible vendor and I want to do business when it makes sense and when my customers are successful.  No doubt there are bad sales people like there are bad customers.

I feel like I’ve learned a lot through this exercise and I am indebted to the many wonderfully smart people who took the time to read my draft paper and email me their feedback: your honest responses amazed me!