--- In [email protected], "Kirstan Vandersluis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This says it all, Rob. It is our responsibility as technologists to > adopt a "business-oriented" attitude. Looking back on my projects of > the past, the successful ones included close work with the business > side, a true partnering between IT and the business. When > requirements were tossed over the wall to IT, the result was usually > failure, or at least unsatisfied customers. This business-partnering > is a strong success factor whether or not SO principles are being > applied, and is even more critical when applying SO principles.
I'm glad that we agree on the concept! Allow me to take it one step further--the notion of "partnering between IT and 'the business'" is a view that tends to also create a divide. It presents things such that "the business" and IT are independent entities and must therefore forge an explicit relationship of some sort to work together. If "unsatisfied customers" refers to the "internal" customers of IT, this also creates a divide. The notion of internal customers is very destructive, IMO. IT is part of the business. This is an unqualified statement. There is no need for IT and "the business" to partner. They are one and the same. IT is a business group that collaborates with other business groups (manufacturing, logistics, HR, finance, etc.) to devise systems that are intended to achieve business goals. What's discouraging is that it is generally IT that creates this divide. IT trained the other groups to view themselves as customers. IT tends to detach itself from the rest of the company. -Rob
