Copernicus, you helped the world understand that the sun doesn’t resolve around the earth, could you please help technologists realize that they are not the sun?
This week’s situations:
1. US IT Director says “the project can’t start until resources are assigned”; translation: hold everything, no marketing, business or financial work can occur until technologists are assigned.
2. CRM Vendor in India delivers project plan only containing technology activities, and worse, only containing vendor activities. Where are process design, data scrubbing, org restructuring, acceptance testing, and training?
3. Hong Kong application manager begins coding their anticipated solution before the business has even confirmed the scope and scale of the problem.
4. IT QA Manager sends out mind-numbing files of detailed test results to high-level business execs without any summarization or conclusions.
5. Agile consultant argues that Agile software development method should be used to run business strategy projects. I guess that means incremental and iterative development of marketing, process, partnership contracts, funding, staffing and supply chain development.
Five events in one week. The common thread? Technologists stuck in their cubicles. Shockingly bad
news for technologists includes:
• The goal in technology projects is not to implement technology.
• A project plan containing only the technology work is not a complete plan.
• The project is not over when we migrate to production.
• Software development method is not of universal value to the production of business deliverables.
And of course
• The iPhone is not the perfect phone for everyone.
• The person with the most gadgets and functionality does not necessarily win.
Although technology is increasing its value and presence in our lives, it is not the goal. If technology does not make people’s lives better, it is of little or no value. Let’s figure out how it will improve people’s lives before we develop it and keep a healthy respect for the users as we develop it.