Two Bears
There’s sometimes a dysfunctional relationship between IT and the business. You know what I mean by the business: everything that’s not IT. Some people will say it’s just the profit centers, but IT supports all business units, profit and cost centers, and anyway it seems everyone wants to argue that they are or can be a profit center these days – and since IT is arguing just as hard, who are we to deny them. Rather than annoy accounting, compliance, HR and the rest, let’s not argue the point. We’re all part of the business. But IT has the challenge of understanding each unit it supports in a deep and comprehensive fashion. And sometimes we’re not as good at it as we like to think.
The conversation can be like the old Johnny Carson Carnac the Magnificent bit. Business knows what they want so they tell us the answer. We work out how to get there. Without any more information we sit down and work out the question, . “It’s ‘Two Bears” says the business. “Say no more,” says IT, “we’re on it.” And off they go, working out their solution. “‘Who had porridge left?’, yeah, that’s what it’s gotta be.”
Well, being diligent professionals, we take it in iterations, or run it through a few Agile sprints, to make sure we’re refining the solution and delivering the best possible result. “‘Who’ someone points out “doesn’t quite ask the right question. We’re talking about a quantity.” We debate this in meetings, and document our improvements in successive versions of the specifications. And when we get tired of the discussion, or the deadline we arbitrarily agreed upon back at the beginning approaches, we call a meeting and proudly present our solution to the users: “How many got to eat their breakfast?”
Blank stares. Those guys on the business side, they’ll just never understand technology. “We’re in the bear business,” they say, “Surely you get that much.” Well of course we do, kinda. “So, what do we need to get another bear?”
