I am sure you have all been watching the Climate Change thing in Copenhagen. It actually reminded me of Ken's blog entry about Government IT - how to take an enormous amount of people, time and money and achieve very little.
So what has all of that got to do with IT and BSM? The answer is that all too often in IT I see people pushing their own agenda based on a frightening lack of facts rather than actually getting down to the fundamental issues. The vendors obviously do this for reasons of trying to sell you something, and it is all too easy to get sucked up in new trends and ideas. I am not asking you all to become Luddites - just healthy cynics, who ask for proof of something before blindly accepting it as the universal panacea. (Just think, if we'd all done that years ago, WINDOWS would probably have never got out the door, and we night have ended up with a robust, secure operating system!)
The good news - BSM (done right) works. I've seen it, touched it, used it and seen the reduction in TCO it can bring at customers.
- Now, do I believe that the world is getting warmer? Think so, although it's bloody cold here, the garden is covered in snow, and we've had more snow in the last two years than I can remember for a long time.
- Is the warming caused by man (and woman)? Probably helping to push it along.
- Does it matter? No idea, as everyone seems to have a convincing scientific argument proving it one way or the other.
So what has all of that got to do with IT and BSM? The answer is that all too often in IT I see people pushing their own agenda based on a frightening lack of facts rather than actually getting down to the fundamental issues. The vendors obviously do this for reasons of trying to sell you something, and it is all too easy to get sucked up in new trends and ideas. I am not asking you all to become Luddites - just healthy cynics, who ask for proof of something before blindly accepting it as the universal panacea. (Just think, if we'd all done that years ago, WINDOWS would probably have never got out the door, and we night have ended up with a robust, secure operating system!)
The good news - BSM (done right) works. I've seen it, touched it, used it and seen the reduction in TCO it can bring at customers.
Using climate change is an interesting lead in to BSM potential… I don’t believe the applicable BSM question is dependent upon determining man’s ability to influence global atmospheric conditions or the resulting remedies recommended for both advanced and developing countries. However, the question of “facts” used to promote or degenerate one’s opinions is interesting. Peter references customer’s quick acceptance of vendor BSM promises. I would venture that “facts” are too often left in the dust in technology discussions between IT and business. Too often each group comes to the table with emotional bias based on past (negative) experiences; with recent frustration based on past (unsuccessful) encounters; with communication handicaps inhibiting effective understanding of business and technology goals and assumptions; and with demands that are out of sync with resource realities.
Business executives too frequently demand results that defy basic laws of physics or common sense. Technology managers too often cloud the discussion with impertinent facts and principles. Wouldn’t rational, informed dialogues between IT and business benefit all concerned …just as rational, fact based communication would help the climate change debate?
Peter, no disrespect, but you're sounding like the "tea-party" right wingers in this country!
Here's something to read before bedtime:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/6/822520/-Freak-Current-Takes-Gulf-Stream-to-Greenland
cheers
Christian
I had to look up what the "tea-party" was!!! All I can say is wait until you are my age and then you will be just as cynical, or as I like to call it - wise!!!
I get where you're coming from. I don't think I could suffer the British or Euro bureaucracy either!
But here's what our tea-party right-wingers are up to these days - sending death threats to cartoonists:
http://www.markfiore.com/mark-fiore-blog/learn-to-speak-teabag-tea-party-response-to-right-wing-complaints
See you later, wise one!