Thursday, March 5, 2009

Mind the Gap not the Name

As mentioned in my post ESB for an Orphan, Business & IT alignment is one of SOA's Value Propositions. Do we need also to change the name of Information Technology (IT) to another name reflecting IT's new role as Business related technology?
George F. Colony, Forrester Research founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer thinks it should be changed to Business Technology (BT).

About three years ago, he posted his view in Forrester Research's Web site and initiated a very interesting discussion. Forrester's analysts and other IT or BT experts presented their views and their comments on George Colony's view. Some participants agreed with him, while other suggested other new names replacing IT. Surely, some participants thought IT should remain the name for IT. I do think that the issue was not resolved and therefore I am posting again my opinion. Comments are welcomed.

My Opinion titled: Mind the Gap not the Name

I read George Colony's view and the comments to it. The only agreement is no agreement about what a new name for IT should be if any.


The real issue is the gap between IT and Business. George Colony is right: Business can not function without IT, but IT is also a main obstacle to business growth due to no Business and IT alignment and the current inflexible IT architectures.
I think that in the past we (IT people) focused on new technologies and architectures (and perhaps new names and acronyms) instead of servicing the business requirements.

based on many clients' organizations, is that we (IT people) can do more in order to reduce the gap. In my opinion, SOA, if properly implemented, would reduce the gap for the long term.

As far as the less important naming is concerned I have no acronym to offer.
If a new acronym would emerge the following elements could be part of it:
Information, Processes, Services.
I agree with Phil Murphy and others that Business should not be a part of that acronym.

Should Technology be part of it?
I am not sure.
Technology is a broader term referring to other non IT technologies, which may be essential for some business segments (e.g. Mechanical Engineering technologies in Automobile or Airplane industries).


No comments:

Public Cloud Core Banking: Hype or Reality? - Revisited

  More than 4 years ago I was asked if Public Cloud Core Banking is a Hype or a Short Term Reality? If you had read the post, you would prob...