The role of IT in Business Agility
"Bill Walton" <[email protected]> Wed, 22 Jan 2003 13:17:49 -0600
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.programming.extreme-customering |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <050c01c2c24a$f411a240$6401a8c0@dp2000> |
------=_NextPart_000_0509_01C2C218.A9219830 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Bill Tozier made a very interesting observation on the xpAdoption list toda= y that I'd like to take up here because it raises a question that I believe= can only be answered by the business-side. His post is at http://groups= .yahoo.com/group/xpAdoption/message/924 if you want to read / respond to it= there. Bill commented that, while working in the manufacturing sector lat= ely, he's observed the following. > "Leanness is optimality in those aspects of the business=20 > process you can control; agility is being optimally capable=20 > of handling what you can't control." [my consolidation of=20 > many authors] > This tagline invariably gets a nod from any manager in the=20 > manufacturing sector, including quite a few who are in charge=20 > of software and IT divisions in their companies. I've observed=20 > this, though: presented with the same argument for agile=20 > software development, in the same exact setting, there is=20 > much less enthusiasm. Indeed, several folks (C-level and=20 > elsewhere) have pointed out that they don't believe agility=20 > has much business value for their IT/development operations. Bill's last sentence above matches my experience, and I have not been able = to figure it out. In "Business at the Speed of Thought," Bill Gates posits= that an organization's IT is the company's Digital Nervous System. While = I found the book self-serving and a bit too focused on email, I found the a= nalogy compelling. And it raised the same question for me that Bill Tozier= seems to me to be asking. Do any of you have any experience or speculatio= n on why agility in one area of the business is seen as important while agi= lity in an enabling function, IT, is not? Best regards, Bill ------=_NextPart_000_0509_01C2C218.A9219830 Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.3315.2869" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bill Tozier made a very interesting observation on the xpAdoption list today that I'd like to take up here because it raises a question that I believe can only be answered by the business-side. His post is at <A href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xpAdoption/message/924">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xpAdoption/message/924</A> if you want to read / respond to it there. Bill commented that, while working in the manufacturing sector lately, he's observed the following.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> "Leanness is optimality in those aspects of the business </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> process you can control; agility is being optimally capable </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> of handling what you can't control." [my consolidation of </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> many authors]<BR><BR>> This tagline invariably gets a nod from any manager in the </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> manufacturing sector, including quite a few who are in charge </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> of software and IT divisions in their companies. I've observed </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> this, though: presented with the same argument for agile </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> software development, in the same exact setting, there is </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> much less enthusiasm. Indeed, several folks (C-level and </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> elsewhere) have pointed out that they don't believe agility </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>> has much business value for their IT/development operations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bill's last sentence above matches my experience, and I have not been able to figure it out. In "Business at the Speed of Thought," Bill Gates posits that an organization's IT is the company's Digital Nervous System. While I found the book self-serving and a bit too focused on email, I found the analogy compelling. And it raised the same question for me that Bill Tozier seems to me to be asking. Do any of you have any experience or speculation on why agility in one area of the business is seen as important while agility in an enabling function, IT, is not?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Best regards,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bill</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <br> <br> <tt> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<BR> extremecustomering-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org<BR> <BR> </tt> <br> <br> <tt>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo! Terms of Service</a>.</tt> </br> </BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_0509_01C2C218.A9219830--