One of the biggest misconceptions in the world of Information Technology is that the mere use of technology solves a problem or somehow adds value to a company. This can be a dangerous notion. Although my career is still considered a relatively short one at 10 years, I don't believe I will see the day when technology is solving real business problems on its own.
Of course technology will continue to advance and enable people to do more to solve these problems. Unfortunately, in today's environment, there are still too many technologists (programmers, engineers, IT management, etc.) that think just the idea of creating a new system immediately justifies the use (and cost) of technology. The truth is, applied without the proper understanding of the problem that needs fixing, technology can actually work against a company.
Here's an example:
Let's say Joe from the Product Creation department is responsible for recording the name and description of the product he is developing. Right now, he's typing each product's information into an Excel spreadsheet that will later be passed on to others in the company to use when selling these products. Now let's say Eric, who is the Manager of the Product Systems Development team (the technologists who build systems for this business area), is out having lunch with Joe and he mentions to Eric how cumbersome his process is. Eric, being the service-oriented IT guy that he is, offers to have his development team build a system to make Joe's process easier. After a few more conversations about what Joe would like to see in this new system, Eric instructs his lead programmer to look over the idea and provide an estimate on how much work it will take to develop. After giving his estimate, this lead then proceeds to tell the other developers (another name for programmers) about the business request and gives technical designs to them to follow. Samantha is one of those programmers. She's never had the chance to even talk to Joe. She doesn't really understand why he wants a screen to enter a product name and description into. But she has technical specs in her hand that lay out exactly what she is to build. Blue collar work for a white collar profession.
Now let's fast forward to the launch of Joe's newly built product data entry application. It's a big hit! It does exactly what was asked for... less a few minor glitches. "But wait...", says Joe. "If it can just import the spreadsheet I'm already filling out, it would actually be much faster." Huh? What just happened? Samantha, in her first meeting with Joe, looked dumbfounded. Her eyes glazed over as she listened, for the first time, to Joe explain how he gathers his information for his Excel spreadsheet. He's not at his desk. He's out in the warehouse where all of the information is captured during the product design phase. It's a creative process that he is a part of. He helps create the information on the fly and enters it into the spreadsheet as he goes. Oh... and one other thing. There's no network connectivity in the warehouse. He saves the spreadsheet on his laptop to email later. That means he can't use a website applications in the warehouse. Oops! Wasn't the system we just built a web application? I guess that's trash. Oh well, he didn't really need it anyway. He just needed a quicker way to get the product information he was collecting to the different Sales departments that didn't involve emailing each one seperately. Hmmm... Guess just a way to upload the spreadsheet would've been easier. Well, lesson learned. What's this, Kim from Accounting needs an application to make her process easier. Conversation. Technical specs. Fire! Aim! The circle repeats.
Know Your Business
So think about that... their company just invested a bunch of time and, ultimately, money into building something that will now essentially go to the scrap pile. It's not really anyone's fault. It's just the way things usually turn out when business folks are focusing on the business and IT folks are focusing on the technology, but no one is focusing on how the two should work together.
A well-respected mentor of mine once told me that you have to know your business in order to grow your business. I know. On the surface, it doesn't sound all that inspirational. But underlyinig this simple phrase is a notion that can be applied to every problem you face in IT or any profession. You have to truly understand the problem before you can fix it.
In corporate America IT, that means you need to know your business. Whatever your business is. If you are on a team developing the company's e-commerce website, seek to understand the steps your business counterparts go through to keep up that website and the products on it. Seek out knowledge about the industry your company is competing in. Learn about the systems that your competitors are building. Are yours up to snuff? The more you understand about what drives your company and how your contribution as an IT professional supports that drive, the more successful you and your entire company will be.
Mind Your Business
Once an IT organization has embraced the need to build knowledge about their business, the benefits are almost immediate. Technologists throughout IT will become engaged in the success of the company. They will offer up ideas unheard before their newly acquired business knowledge. Some of these ideas will turn out to be huge successes for the company... possibly even move it ahead of its competitors.
You see, IT technologists are not just hard labor... even if they sometimes feel they are. As the Information Technology industry matures, companies are finding more and more executive potential growing out of their IT organizations than ever before. These IT-converted-to-business executives knew it was their knowledge of the company's business that got them there. Business owners and technologists alike should build this culture in their company in order to see true return on IT investment.