Chad Roberts, architecture director at Cigna Group Insurance, said: "We had to realize that we have to think about the business first and technology second," Roberts said. "Whether we like it or not, we are order takers to the business. If I'm a claims guy, the last thing I want to do is talk to an IT guy about SOA and how that's going to help me in the future when I've got systems that are failing today."
Some random thoughts: * IT is part of the business. Stop encouraging the gap. * SOA is about planning and archictecture. Systems failing today is (generally) about operations. Those are two different discussions. * Viewing IT as order takers is widespread. For many aspects, that view is exactly right--software ordering, installations, desktop managment, etc. At other levels, like the business planning and strategy level, an order-taker view is simply wrong. * From an IT'er perspective, if you're satisfied with being an order taker--that is, extracting requirements from functional teams and creating solutions--you're just asking to have your job outsourced. The value IT must bring is an inherent understanding of the business that you're in. You should be as knowledgeable about business activities as anyone. If you're not, then become so. Your job is viewing your company business from a tech perspective. If you focus only on the tech and not on the business, you're not doing your job. * From a non-IT'er perspective, if you view IT as order takers, then you're missing the bigger picture. Push your IT folks to know and understand the business as well as you do. Their job is to view the business through a technology lens--make them do so. With shared understanding it is much easier to collaborate to come up with powerful solutions and systems that focus on business first. -Rob
