Why "Running IT As a Business" Is a Bad Idea 364
snydeq sends along a provocative piece from Infoworld, arguing that the conventional wisdom on how IT should be run is all wrong. "Bob Lewis dispels the familiar litany that 'IT should be run as a business,' instead offering insights into what he is calling a 'guerilla movement' to reject conventional 'IT wisdom' and industry punditry in favor of what experience tells you will work in real organizations. 'When IT is a business, selling to its "internal customers," its principal product is software that "meets requirements." This all but ensures a less-than-optimal solution, lack of business ownership, and poor acceptance of the results,' Lewis writes. 'The alternatives begin with a radically different model of the relationship between IT and the rest of the business — that IT must be integrated into the heart of the enterprise, and everyone in IT must collaborate as a peer with those in the business who need what they do.' To do otherwise is a sure sign of numbered days for IT, according to Lewis. After all, the standard 'run IT as a business' model had its origins in the IT outsourcing industry, 'which has a vested interest in encouraging internal IT to eliminate everything that makes it more attractive than outside service providers.'"
Re:He is dead wrong (Score:4, Funny)
His IT 'business' targets delivering the lowest possible acceptable product and uses monopoly power to set the price.
You have an IT department that does not do this? Are you hiring?
TFA beat us to it! (Score:2, Funny)
"[Fawaz] likens IT's proper role to that of an engineer designing a car."
Dammit!
IT is not a business, (Score:1, Funny)
it is actually an interpretive dance.
Re:He is correct (Score:2, Funny)
...The same thing could be done with incidents maybe at the category level...
It sounds like you work with HP Service Manager... shudders
Re:He is correct (Score:3, Funny)
You're close. It's far easier to just make sure the head of accounting's computer has a little... eh... mishap every once in a while, then miraculously save the company from a SOX audit at the very last minute with lots of overtime. This should be good for at least five years or until you get a new head of accounting, whichever comes first. Repeat as needed.
Alternatively, I suppose one could simply hire the BOFH [theregister.co.uk]....
Wrong Model... (Score:3, Funny)
Squire!
Yes My Lord?
Call the Wizards of IT, and tell them we want louder keyboards.
At once my liege! The Wizards will want a description the problem with the current keyboards...
Of course. Tell them I can not hear the serfs toiling in their cubicles!
Man, is it too early to start drinking?