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The Recovering Complexaholic
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Recovering Complexaholic 1
The Recovering Complexaholic
By Michael Hugos
There's a standing joke in a lot of companies that business people never have to ask IT
how long something will take and what it will cost because they already know the
answers - it always takes a year and costs a million dollars (and that's just for the simple
stuff).
If you don't find that funny - and why would you? - then you are going to have to own
up to the fact that we in IT are addicted to complexity. And here's something else we
need to recognize: Our addiction to the complex, the expensive and the clunky is
increasingly indulged at our own peril. That's because business people have discovered
something.
They've realized that consumer IT is better than corporate IT. They are finding that
consumer IT has more features and is more responsive, easier to use, faster to install and
a whole lot cheaper to operate. I'm talking about things like the e-mail and web hosting
services from companies such as Yahoo and Google , and the low-cost or no-cost office
productivity and workflow software that companies ranging from 37signals to IBM
provide.
What is our objection to this stuff? That it's not scalable to the enterprise? That it's not
robust? Or that it doesn't feed our addiction to complexity? I think it's the latter, and I
think you and I need to stand up and say, "Hello, my name is Mike, and I'm a recovering
complexaholic. I'm interested in new ways to get things done."
Consider this scenario: You're the CIO at GlobalCorp, a rapidly growing company run by
some whip-smart business guys with a knack for deal-making and spotting opportunities
ahead of everyone else. They run operations in North America, Asia and Europe and are
expanding into Africa, Australia and South America. GlobalCorp moves into new
markets and new countries by buying companies and growing them. It exits markets by
selling off its business units in those areas.
The chief operating officer and the chief financial officer ask you to prepare a
presentation for the CEO and board of directors on how IT can help the business
streamline financial reporting and increase the visibility of operations around the world.
Some big deals are pending, and they think IT can make a difference. If you're still
feeding your addiction to complexity, a little voice in your head says, "Wow, this isn't a
simple project; it'll be more than a year and million dollars - maybe more like three years
and $100 million." If you're a recovering complexaholic, that little voice says, "Geez,
these guys are moving pretty fast; they aren't going to want to wait three years, even if
Center for Systems InnovationRecovering Complexaholic 2
they would be willing to spend the money for a nine-figure project. What else can we do
to meet their needs?"
If you're the complexity addict, you round up a group of the usual suspects and put them
to work grinding out a long-range development plan. You set a go-live date that's three
years in the future, and in the meantime, you figure everything just continues to operate
as it always has.
If you're recovering from this addiction, you bring together a small skunk works team of
business and IT people and tell them to cast off any preconceptions they might have. You
give them time frames to deliver usable systems to business people within 30 to 90 days.
You tell them everything is open to consideration, including things that have more in
common with consumer IT than corporate IT. Under your guidance, they develop a
strategy that relies on a collection of readily available IT components such as Web
portals; dashboards and alerts, instant messaging and e-mail, data warehouses,
spreadsheets, software-as-a-service offerings and small programs that can be quickly
coded, tested and put into production.
I think it's clear what kind of CIO is going to thrive in a company like GlobalCorp. But
think about this: In today's global, hypercompetitive business environment, isn't the
agility that GlobalCorp displays rapidly becoming the norm?
Michael Hugos is a mentor and practitioner in business agility at the Center for Systems
Innovation in Chicago, Illinois. He is an award-winning business architect who integrates
technology and business process to create decisive competitive advantage. He is also a speaker
nd
and has authored several books including Essentials of Supply Chain Management, 2 Edition
and The Greatest Innovation Since the Assembly Line: Powerful Strategies for Business Agility.
This article was first published in my column in Computerworld Magazine, November 2007.
© Copyright 2007, Michael Hugos.
Michael Hugos can be reached at: www.MichaelHugos.com
Center for Systems Innovation
The Recovering Complexaholic
By Michael Hugos
There's a standing joke in a lot of companies that business people never have to ask IT
how long something will take and what it will cost because they already know the
answers - it always takes a year and costs a million dollars (and that's just for the simple
stuff).
If you don't find that funny - and why would you? - then you are going to have to own
up to the fact that we in IT are addicted to complexity. And here's something else we
need to recognize: Our addiction to the complex, the expensive and the clunky is
increasingly indulged at our own peril. That's because business people have discovered
something.
They've realized that consumer IT is better than corporate IT. They are finding that
consumer IT has more features and is more responsive, easier to use, faster to install and
a whole lot cheaper to operate. I'm talking about things like the e-mail and web hosting
services from companies such as Yahoo and Google , and the low-cost or no-cost office
productivity and workflow software that companies ranging from 37signals to IBM
provide.
What is our objection to this stuff? That it's not scalable to the enterprise? That it's not
robust? Or that it doesn't feed our addiction to complexity? I think it's the latter, and I
think you and I need to stand up and say, "Hello, my name is Mike, and I'm a recovering
complexaholic. I'm interested in new ways to get things done."
Consider this scenario: You're the CIO at GlobalCorp, a rapidly growing company run by
some whip-smart business guys with a knack for deal-making and spotting opportunities
ahead of everyone else. They run operations in North America, Asia and Europe and are
expanding into Africa, Australia and South America. GlobalCorp moves into new
markets and new countries by buying companies and growing them. It exits markets by
selling off its business units in those areas.
The chief operating officer and the chief financial officer ask you to prepare a
presentation for the CEO and board of directors on how IT can help the business
streamline financial reporting and increase the visibility of operations around the world.
Some big deals are pending, and they think IT can make a difference. If you're still
feeding your addiction to complexity, a little voice in your head says, "Wow, this isn't a
simple project; it'll be more than a year and million dollars - maybe more like three years
and $100 million." If you're a recovering complexaholic, that little voice says, "Geez,
these guys are moving pretty fast; they aren't going to want to wait three years, even if
Center for Systems InnovationRecovering Complexaholic 2
they would be willing to spend the money for a nine-figure project. What else can we do
to meet their needs?"
If you're the complexity addict, you round up a group of the usual suspects and put them
to work grinding out a long-range development plan. You set a go-live date that's three
years in the future, and in the meantime, you figure everything just continues to operate
as it always has.
If you're recovering from this addiction, you bring together a small skunk works team of
business and IT people and tell them to cast off any preconceptions they might have. You
give them time frames to deliver usable systems to business people within 30 to 90 days.
You tell them everything is open to consideration, including things that have more in
common with consumer IT than corporate IT. Under your guidance, they develop a
strategy that relies on a collection of readily available IT components such as Web
portals; dashboards and alerts, instant messaging and e-mail, data warehouses,
spreadsheets, software-as-a-service offerings and small programs that can be quickly
coded, tested and put into production.
I think it's clear what kind of CIO is going to thrive in a company like GlobalCorp. But
think about this: In today's global, hypercompetitive business environment, isn't the
agility that GlobalCorp displays rapidly becoming the norm?
Michael Hugos is a mentor and practitioner in business agility at the Center for Systems
Innovation in Chicago, Illinois. He is an award-winning business architect who integrates
technology and business process to create decisive competitive advantage. He is also a speaker
nd
and has authored several books including Essentials of Supply Chain Management, 2 Edition
and The Greatest Innovation Since the Assembly Line: Powerful Strategies for Business Agility.
This article was first published in my column in Computerworld Magazine, November 2007.
© Copyright 2007, Michael Hugos.
Michael Hugos can be reached at: www.MichaelHugos.com
Center for Systems Innovation
