The IT Skeptic - Comments for "Keep the vendors and tech geeks away from business automation"

Peering through the clouds

skeptic — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:43:00 +0000

You're right, the Cloud is ripe pickings for the skeptical.

Readers are encouraged to click on the "Topics" button at the top of this page, where one of the topics in the tag cloud is cloud. I will continue to blog more on the cloud

personally, I'm too old to listen to robots - I ran out of patience on the video. But keep it up!

Selling the Cloud

Visitor — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:13:00 +0000

Skep - i'm surprised you've not sharpened your spear w/ the whole vendor-hype gorilla called Cloud. Check this out to get some inspiration - easily one of the funniest parodies i've seen. Now that's useful Technology!

And...

DavidT — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:18:31 +0000

this is news?

Skep, that's from the movie

Oleg_S — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:01:34 +0000

Skep, that's from the movie Zombieland (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/), which is quite nice and funny.

popular-culture-hermit

skeptic — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:12:00 +0000

I wish I had the faintest idea what that is about. The price of being a popular-culture-hermit. I've broken all those rules except the last 2

we're all at it

skeptic — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:50:09 +0000

You're not wrong.

the non-tech geeks in the business read it in an airplane magazine or see it at a conference. They lust after the cool toys, and IT has to deliver.

Sometimes it is IT management who are complicit, equally prone to tech lust.

And sometimes it is the techs themselves.

We're all at it: business, IT management and IT staff.

Rules of Zombieland

CyberJMC66 — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:04:39 +0000

Don't forget the rules of Zombieland, especially the Double Tap;

1."Cardio"
2."Double tap"
3."Beware of bathrooms"
4."Wear seatbelts"
6."Cast iron skillet"
7."Travel light"
8."Get a kickass partner"
12."Bounty paper towels"
15."Bowling Ball"
17."(Don't) be a hero"
18."Limber up"
21."Avoid strip clubs"
22."When in doubt, know your way out"
29."The buddy system"
31."Check the back seat"
32."Enjoy the little things"
33."Swiss army knife"

Sliver Bullets

ServiceSphere — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:08:48 +0000

Silver bullets kill only werewolfs. IT is a zombie. Silver bullets don't work on the UNDEAD. You need to take off the HEAD of a zombie to kill it. So aim for the CIO.

Tech Geeks, or management?

James R Grinter — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:15:45 +0000

In my experience (as a "tech geek") it's been upper management that want to use the latest, shiny gadgets ('non-tech geeks'?) - because it looks and sounds good to their management, and if it costs lots it must be good - and it's been us that point the problems could be solved just by a bit of adjusting of the processes.

Tech geeks come in all flavors...

Charles T. Betz — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:56:38 +0000

...and overengineering is not unique to computing and IT. And at its root always lies the fallacy that one optimizes the whole by optimizing one or more parts, without examining where the constraints are on the whole.

You can say that "process and culture should take precedence over technology" but I think even that formulation is too limiting. If technology is the constraint, attack it! Just be sure that it *is* the constraint.

What matters is 1) do we have a holistic sense of value and 2) can we use that understanding to pinpoint its constraints?

It's all in Goldratt.

Charles T. Betz
http://www.erp4it.com

The tech geeks are in control

skeptic — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:33:04 +0000

I agree in principle, but I'm targeting a more specific issue. The tech geeks are in control, instead of in the back room where they belong (Stevie). They bought technology because it was fashionable, and because they believed more technology is better, and they believed it would deliver productivity improvements without testing that premise.

Targeting The Goal

Charles T. Betz — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:32:40 +0000

All insights consistent with Lean and Theory of Constraints. They didn't understand their constraint to value sufficiently. They only knew the neighborhood, not the address, let alone the room of the house.

Just like a military operation gone awry... looks a lot like "collateral damage" to me. With the resulting local unrest. Thought for the day: "Targeting errors in large scale IT initiatives and military operations: a comparison and contrast."

Charles T. Betz
http://www.erp4it.com