04.01.10
Will Our Dreams Come True?
[Cartoon]
When you talk with contractors for any major repairs on your home, it seems as though most anything can be accomplished in two weeks. When you talk with IT about any major repairs, it seems as though everything will take at least eighteen months.
General Motors, Ford, and other automobile manufacturers can have new models available for purchase in eighteen months. Some models can be provided in even less time as they build on existing components.
So when will our dreams come true? When will major IT efforts be done in less time at less cost?
For years, there have been many great innovations that have helped IT deliver more reliable and cost-effective solutions. Unfortunately, the size and complexity of the solutions needed has outpaced the innovations of improvement. The outcome is that most businesses are stuck with what they have and the IT group applies duct tape solutions to keep the software running.
Our dreams can be realized. It will require some hard work because IT must change how it provides solutions. This change requires that the business management hold IT accountable for business components that can be assembled and reassembled when needed. These are components designed to provide value to the business.
This is not a new concept. There are and have been multiple approaches to componentization over the years that have brought some improvements. What has more recently occurred is the recognition that the primary issue of componentization is not how to construct the components, but rather the definition of the business value the component provides through interfaces. The interfaces are more important than the components.
These interfaces are the connectors to business services. As such, the two terms are often used synonymously. When talking with business managers it is more appropriate to use the term “business services” and when talking with IT to use the term “interfaces”.
For the dream to be achieved, the business must control the definition of the business services. This is not an IT issue. It is the responsibility of IT to assure that the business services are provided either by purchase or acquisition. But, IT should not attempt to make the business decisions.
Describing business services can be overwhelming for most senior managers. This is why the new role of Enterprise Architect has begun to emerge. Enterprise Architects can help the management determine the business services needed and work with IT to map the services to interfaces.
I guess you could say that Enterprise Architects can make dreams come true.
Closing the Business / IT gap
