11.01.11
IT Can’t Get No Respect
[Cartoon]
Why can’t IT get more respect? Doesn’t everyone realize that IT is made up of professional individuals that always try to do their best for their organization? Doesn’t everyone realize that information technology is constantly changing and IT professionals must be constantly learning? Doesn’t everyone realize how tough it is to be an IT professional?
A couple of decades ago, IT professionals were treated with great respect. Now there seems to be a belief that IT professionals are arrogant. Business folks that must interface with the IT professionals feel that they are looked down upon by the IT professionals.
When problems occur, business folks will try almost anything to fix the problem before contacting IT. This is unfortunate, because by the time that the IT professional is called, the problem may be even worse due to all of the recovery efforts attempted. In addition, the recovery efforts attempted may wipe out the forensic information needed by the IT professional to identify the problem.
When the business needs to reduce costs, IT is an easy place to find savings. Projects may be cut. Staff may be reduced. Even worse for IT, the entire organization may be outsourced.
Now, after years of automating and eliminating jobs, IT is feeling the pressure of technology replacement. Business areas like Marketing may decide to go with a SaaS provider for their information technology needs. The entire data center may be moved to the cloud. What’s next? Will it be the elimination of the CIO role?
Business management has long known that the use of information technology can reduce operational costs and provide strategic opportunities for new business. These are enterprise-level issues. These are the primary issues for Enterprise Architects.
Unfortunately, most Enterprise Architects report to a CIO. This puts the Enterprise Architects behind the eight ball. Rather than being the change that is so needed, they are lumped in with the problem. They, too, are viewed as arrogant and too technical to be business-useful.
It may very well be that IT’s best days have passed. It may now be the time for the business people to determine their own information technology destiny. The Czar of Information Technology (Chief Information Office) may be a diminishing role and a new order may be taking over.
Enterprise Architecture may be the catalyst to open up IT for all. They can do this by providing the visualization of information processing that today only exists in the minds of the IT professionals. As the visualization becomes known, the business folks will be able to, in a sense, “pump their own gas”. Information technology will be self-service.
What IT professionals need to do is stop looking for respect. Start looking to provide the infrastructure prescribed by their Enterprise Architects. Look to be behind the scene. Transition to being a follower not a leader. Follow the business folks. They know what they are doing better than IT.
Enterprise Architects are well-aware of the continuing evolution of technology. They creatively look for technology convergence that can provide breakthroughs in thinking. We are at one of those convergent junctions today. What is about to happen will give non-professional information technologists control of their use of automation in their business. No longer will they simply peer through windows and see only what applications let them see. They will be able to go inside, see how things work, and control their automation. – Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
