Tech Predictions 2009: Slow IT

« The Incognito Banking Corporation and the Fairy Godmother 2.0 | Main | What Happens Next? EU and Obama ask the same question »

When I first read Carl Honoré’s bestseller ‘In Praise of Slow’ I was devastated by his now famous example of speed-parenting. A few years ago, he was so obsessed with speed and efficiency that he actually liked the idea of One-Minute bedtime stories. Honoré read about it in a newspaper, impatiently standing in line at an airport gate. While figuring out how to get the complete series as fast as possible through Amazon, he suddenly realised that things had gone way too far. Being a father of a two-year-old son, he already found himself involved in nightly confrontations, his son fancying long, carefully told stories and Carl trying to find the shortest stories and the most efficient way to tell them (you know, why not have Snow White and the 3 Dwarfs...?). All because emails were waiting, calls had to be made, decisions had to be taken and every minute seemed to count.

The experience changed his life and since then, Carl Honoré has been one of the proponents of the Slow Movement: people that believe that the important things in life need to be done at the right pace, with careful dedication and a genuine love for foundation and quality. Where slow is already having a profound influence on cooking and dining (Slow Food actually started the whole movement), industrial design, travel and parenting, I predict that 2009 will be the year of Slow IT.

Here’s why.

Businesses depend on technology. One year of applying our TechnoVision approach in practice has shown that no business transformations exist without the crucial, enabling role of information technology. But to many people, technology is difficult to understand and evolving at an intimidating speed. No industry has produced so many buzzwords and nowhere else, trends come and go so easily. On the other hand, you don’t need to be a professional to see the potential of technology: especially now, solutions are readily available through the Internet and in our private lives – buying things, communicating with others, being at leisure – we know all too well what technology can do for us.

It makes us even more impatient in applying information technology to address our business challenges. Then again, we don’t have the time. Many IT departments are kicked around by the circumstances: fighting fires wherever they appear, dealing with botched-up, antiquated systems, heterogeneous infrastructures, incompatible interfaces, undocumented specifications and shattered, often overlapping applications. Between two breaths, business and IT people may find a few moments to discuss requirements, ideas, plans (speed-dating, really). Then it is back to the usual.

Some may turn to workarounds to deal with the situation. The business side may create its own, isolated solutions. And they are likely to add to the un-integrated mess that needs to be dealt with tomorrow.

For all the wrong reasons, organisations may start to practice agile development. Not because they want a better understanding of the real business needs and a more intimate alignment between business and IT, but because they think the approach delivers fast results without the need to carefully understand, plan and design. Put it in a time-box and all your worries will be over.

It is just a matter of time before we will have the One-Minute IT-strategy.

Especially in 2009, where on one hand the budget for IT is under pressure and on the other hand technology provides the tools to address the downturn, the need is greater than ever to slow down. Not in terms of doing everything at a snail’s pace. Much more in terms of striking the right balance between a well-architected, carefully crafted platform and ad-hoc solutions that solve business issues on the spot.

It is about taking the time that is needed to attentively go through the portfolio of projects and systems , so that decisions about continuation or termination can be based on insight, facts and real business value.

It is about really sitting together to discuss the IT strategy of the organisation. Not in a rushed workshop of just a few hours in which half of the participants does not show up – there is always an emergency somewhere – and the other half is checking Blackberries or running in and out to answer phone calls (the latter being one of the most saddening examples of the way we let ourselves being ruled by technology). Strategy is crucial to the future of the company. It deserves the proper amount of dedication, also in the preparation and the finishing process.

It is about using the principles of Enterprise Architecture to create a platform for continuous business change. This is not a paradox: only on top of a simplified, secure and flexible foundation of building blocks we can orchestrate and change solutions on a daily basis. On-the-fly processes, instant collaboration, mash-ups and real-time intelligence: we definitely need them to deal with the hectic business requirements of today and tomorrow. But not in a breathless, ADHD style that quickly will only agitate us more. Instead we need the confidence that we took exactly the right time and dedicated exactly the right focus to create a true architecture for change.

This is the world of Slow IT, the art of careful technology. And as 2009 is bound to be a transformational year, I am convinced that a renewed respect for properly timed and crafted technology solutions will be the unmistakable trend.

There is much more to tell about Slow IT. So much more that it is worth to write a book about. And although I cannot already tell when the book will be finished (it’s ready when it’s ready, remember), I will be most happy to share some insights with you while writing it. Just monitor SlowPlanet, Carl Honoré’s hub for the slow movement, where I will be frequently blogging on Slow IT from now on.

And thank you for reading this item, even if you got it through Twitter on a late Saturday evening.

Posted by Ron Tolido on November 29, 2008 in Strategy | Digg this | Seed Newsvine

TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.capgemini.com/cgi-bin/blog/mt-tb.cgi/709

Comments

# on November 30, 2008 12:25 PM, Jon Mulholland said:

That sounds like a book well worth putting some time aside to read - looking forward to it!

A slight tangent, but have you read 'Getting Real' by 37Signals (http://gettingreal.37signals.com/)? Although written with start ups in mind there are many similar themes, it has some some good 'keep it simple' principals worth remembering for all size of business / technology challenge.

# on November 30, 2008 1:51 PM, Ron Tolido said:

Hi Jon. You are right, this should be a book that you want to take time for to read. This is what I like about Carl Honore's book: no short, flashy text bites of just a page and cliff hangers every two minutes but good, solid chapters that you should read as a whole....

Thanks for the link. Definitely an area that should be included in the thinking about Slow IT. I'll definitely dive into it.

# on December 2, 2008 5:48 AM, Dacia said:

For the year leading up to the turn of the century, IT resources were bound up making sure disaster did not hit when the clock struck midnight on that special night. Outsourcing was at its highest, for overseas firms who made a specialty of Y2K (year 2000) preparedness.Being able to exert more effort or tension quickly and then revert to a lesser tension in a beat, requires practice, prediction and musicality. Again, mechanics and quality. For example, more exertion is required in the core muscles for faster tendus than slow, for faster degages than slow. And, faster shifts of tension.
------------------

Dacia

http://www.widecircles.com

# on December 2, 2008 5:49 AM, Dacia said:

For the year leading up to the turn of the century, IT resources were bound up making sure disaster did not hit when the clock struck midnight on that special night. Outsourcing was at its highest, for overseas firms who made a specialty of Y2K preparedness.Being able to exert more effort or tension quickly and then revert to a lesser tension in a beat, requires practice, prediction and musicality. Again, mechanics and quality. For example, more exertion is required in the core muscles for faster tendus than slow, for faster degages than slow. And, faster shifts of tension.
------------------

Dacia

http://www.widecircles.com

# on December 2, 2008 5:51 AM, Dacia said:

For the year leading up to the turn of the century, IT resources were bound up making sure disaster did not hit when the clock struck midnight on that special night. Outsourcing was at its highest, for overseas firms who made a specialty of Y2K preparedness.Being able to exert more effort or tension quickly and then revert to a lesser tension in a beat, requires practice, prediction and musicality. Again, mechanics and quality. For example, more exertion is required in the core muscles for faster tendus than slow, for faster degages than slow. And, faster shifts of tension.
------------------

Dacia

http://www.widecircles.com

# on December 19, 2008 9:11 AM, Sandeep said:

In 2009, the economic downturn will greatly impact green IT investments. There is no doubt that organizations are reducing IT investments in light of the economic downturn. Many have argued that the reduced price of oil and economic pressures will kill the green movement.

http://www.commediait.com/

# on January 2, 2009 6:18 PM, Chander Wanchoo said:

Good one...Has a good start, and very well said. I feel that there is & will be slow-down in IT spending for the first half of the year 2009 and at some point it has to pick up. IT gives an edge to have same or better efficiency at the same or lower cost.

# on March 10, 2009 3:25 AM, side said:

good article ı wonder with technology. ı will follow ur blog

# on March 31, 2009 8:33 AM, Ryan M said:

Thanks for the Intel Link. I agree with the problem statement and situations for Workers and Management. I am playing around with cyn.in collaboration suite, similar to yammer and is promising to do more than messaging part. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_from_cynapse_activity_streams_on_the_company_desktop.php

# on March 31, 2009 2:15 PM, katha said:

Hello,

Great Blog I will definitely bookmark your blog. I am also having a blog related to IT http://itresearchnews.blogspot.com/ which gives latest analysis and trends in IT industry in the present recession period. I would appreciate if you could kindly bookmark my blog too.

# on April 5, 2009 1:14 PM, simondelliott said:

This is an interesting point of view. The "Slow IT" idea needs to incorporate the organic nature of todays systems.

For example a system like a wiki can start as just 2 page intro to a teams function with some good links, and can end up as a vital component of a manufacturing system, or as the distribution point for external content.

Rather than getting all the Arch technicians and product guys into a room to plan out the features, why not plant a seed and see if it grows. Some will die, some will grow to maturity.

This way of approaching IT with the long term and "Slow" point of view is far more effective. (as long as you are using low cost seeds).

An expert IT gardener needs to understand the soil and seasons of IT infrastructure. To help them out Ive tried to make a guess at whats going to happen in the future, I hope you enjoy
http://www.simondelliott.com/blog/2009/02/technology-predictions-to-2030/

Again ... its a good POV, Im amazoning the book now.

Thanks for the article
Simon

# on April 23, 2009 1:04 PM, Richard Veryard said:

Have posted something to my blog linking the concept of Slow IT to Albert Borgmann's analysis of technology (which I think everyone should read).

http://rvsoftware.blogspot.com/2009/04/slow-it.html

# on June 26, 2009 2:29 PM, lida said:

Thank you so much for content, you would track;)

# on December 11, 2009 6:01 PM, Antalya evden eve nakliyat said:

Good article. Can I use it on my blog?

# on December 22, 2009 1:16 AM, Samanyolu dizisi said:

Very useful article. I want to use on my blog. When I use it I can give you backlink. Thank you admin.