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Article
LOOKING AHEAD
By
Rod Travers
Senior Vice President At any given time there are few technologies and management practices that warrant attention from business and IT leaders. My criteria for “warrants attention” are that something is getting considerable coverage in the trade media, and it has either the potential to favorably impact business, or it has the potential to cause trouble. Here are a few to think about in the coming year:
 | SOA. Service-oriented architecture is a conundrum to me. If you read the principles of SOA, you quickly realize it is simply a blueprint for IT done right. Some companies have operated this way for years, yet they’ve never heard of SOA. Others want to attain some kind of SOA status so they buy audit systems and architecture guidelines. Even though SOA is purported not to be a product you can buy, there are dozens of compliance systems and services and certifications for sale. If you want to get on the SOA bandwagon, my suggestion is to buy nothing. Rather, study the principles of SOA—many of which you no doubt already practice—and look also at the solid fundamentals espoused in such initiatives as ITIL, PMI, CMM, and BPMG (Google these!). Implement and sustain those practices that complement and upgrade your IT function. These might include a contemporary development/implementation life cycle, consistent project management practices, and performance measures such as customer satisfaction, schedule adherence, and financial payback. An IT function with solid management practices and consistent positive results is, voilà, an SOA environment.
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| Vista. For corporate environments, Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, represents a potentially major expense with little if any ROI. Corporate environments should make 2007 the year of “wait and see” for Vista. Let the consumers and hackers have a year to flog the system. If there is no business payback for upgrading, why do so?
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| Ethics. The stock-option and pretexting scandals of late have proven once again that no matter how much governance we put in place (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley), some people will rationalize bending the rules or claim ignorance or abdicate responsibility. Ethical behavior is not just following a rule or coming clean after the fact. The essence of ethical behavior is doing the right thing in any given situation, regardless of what others may be doing. None of us is perfect, so an occasional ethics refresher via management training or perhaps just an article in your company newsletter can go a long way toward prioritizing ethics in your company culture.
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These are only three of a dozen or more such items that are vying for our
attention. I’ll share my thoughts on a few others in a future article. In
the meantime, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
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