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The Name Game
Posted: Aug 21, 2006
Michael Roper, Sr. Architect, Fannie Mae |
BT is as relevant now as DP, IS, MIS, and IT were in their day. And I have lived through each of these names over the past 30 years in the work, so I can say that with full confidence.
IT is certainly broader than either information or technology. Technology is less important today than the skills and knowledge of the personnel who deliver products and services to the business. As technology vendors continue to consume one another, their products become even more ubiquitous, making it ever easier to implement and use those products.
Unfortunately, the target we always seem to miss, and what has always been the biggest challenge, is to add some real value to the business. Any service or product, technical or otherwise, should be of some use to the business. The better the business use (efficiency, time to market, bottom line...) the higher the value. If the value is not there, then why spend the money?
To slam the two (B&T) together, leadership needs to be honest about the skills and interests of the current IT workforce. For example, IT staff love to noodle with technology and this typically does not add business value (except for true R&D projects). IT staff also adore complexity and build solutions and data structures to justify complex management. This certainly does not add value to the business - more staff, and more senior staff are required and the results are less than useful.
For a long time, business managers have generally accepted that there is some business value in IT and toss large budgets our way. Yet the true ROI for IT services, products, and projects is rarely produced. And when ROI is presented, fuzzy and intangible factors are used to obscure the real numbers in an attempt to show some value.
We have talked about this for years in the industry as "business and IT alignment" or "business-driven IT." And this is still the missing link between business and technology. Putting the two concepts together may encourage change, yet it is unlikely to produce the intense cultural and philosophical change that is needed.
Until the leaders of any organization (including IT or whatever we call it) take on the responsibility for defining and delivering business value, the name of that organization is secondary.
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