RSSTime to lob a Molotov cocktail
So, speaking of revolutions, it strikes me that this one isn't being evangelized very well. Nick Carr has turtled, turning off blog comments and going largely off the radar after the brief flurry following his publication of "The Big Switch." Werner Vogels' most recent post covers the study of Drama in London, for god's sake, and he usually doesn't post anymore on utility computing models unless he's plugging a specific Amazon product. Other proponents of new ways of doing business in the IT department are scattered among a dozen different technology focal points, from utility computing, to situational applications, to SOA, to social networking. Many of them are downright hostile to CIOs and existing IT departments, advocating overthrow and ruin (well, I guess that's what a revolution is, isn't it?). There are CIOs who are making headway in adopting a holistic approach to bringing these new techniques and technologies into the business, but they tend to be focused on their own problems, and aren't thinking much or talking to anyone about the big picture.
So I am putting up a new site, AgileOperations.net, to talk about, and keep track of, developments in not just new technologies but in the new process models which they allow us to apply to the fundamental mission of IT: supporting and accelerating the business.
Why now? It's about time, isn't it? This week's discussion of the Hackett Group report recommending more cost control, more management, more cuts is not unique. Lorraine Lawson recently wrote on IT's dilemma in knowing the "right" way to do things, but having to simply make do instead with limited resources… more limited now than ever. Lorraine points out that both business and IT leaders need to understand the accommodations necessary in this environment, and accepting that "making do" is going to happen a lot more frequently than "doing things right." The danger to IT shops lies in a failure to adapt to this reality even as the market around them does. As Lawson says, "…if IT can't let go of how things "should" be, I suspect it will create even more of a divide between IT and the business. And that's another battle IT won't win."
Agile Operations is about making do in a way that is right. It provides a philosophy of IT operations which will allow CIOs and IT managers to work within the constraints of business expectations and limited resources without constantly feeling that they are failing in providing "book" solutions, and while pushing much of the responsibility back onto the business units… but without constantly saying no, managing demand, or cutting services.
IT shops are beginning to understand this. Coming out at nearly the same time as Lawson's article, Microsoft's Nick Malik posts on the topic of Agile Architecture, which he describes as "…the act of producing enough architecture to meet the needs of the project, and nothing more, and producing it in a timely fashion, with a minimum of effort." Agile Operations proceeds in the same vein; rather than focusing on architecture, however, we look at all IT services in this light. In simplistic terms, Agile Operations is the Information Technology version of lean manufacturing… just-in-time, efficient, quality service delivery.
This topic has been on my mind for a couple of years now and I have written about it off and on. I don't flatter myself that I've had any effect on the larger progression of the industry, but it seems at least as though others are coming to similar conclusions. As yet, there has been little recognition that all the trends mentioned at the top of this article are related, or that there may be a coherent philosophy by which they may be applied. It's time to change that.
If you have examples of the use of agile in your IT operations, send them to me, or if you are a firm specializing in such techniques, stop by the AgileOperations.net site… we're looking for sponsors and participants!
