Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
For most personnel, the work they do seems far
removed from issues of strategy
Figure 3.3
Feeling strategic.
understand the strategic implications of an initiative, although ultimately
they too may prepare “requirements” stripped of any strategic content. As
a result, most layers of IT work on little pieces of a larger mosaic whose
design is not shared with them.
Is that lack of interest or knowledge a real problem? For IT managers,
it could be. Because funding is based on higher-level strategies, an IT
manager must necessarily be aware of the prevailing strategies so that he
can influence them if necessary. Knowing and understanding strategies
helps in anticipating new work and in evaluating the risk of a current
project being shelved. No manager should ever be caught off guard on
their projects, by a change in high-level strategy.
Some examples will help to clarify this:
A company shifted its sales strategy from selling directly to business
customers, to reselling their services through a few large compa-
nies. This obviated the need for elaborate CRM and billing systems,
and consequently these projects were abruptly cancelled.
A company had not put up an E-commerce site to avoid alienating
its existing sales channels. Only when this issue was resolved did
such projects get initiated, and quickly became important to top
management.
Knowing the Big Picture:
Gerald Weinberg has a story of a minister walking by a
construction project and asking two workers what they
were doing. One replied that he was laying bricks. The
