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Is IT becoming extinct?
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| Pete Dashwood 2008-03-24, 9:57 pm |
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<howard.brazee@cusys.edu> wrote in message
news:tg9fu35t54b3t81rr6i4lv0kvcbo0ci225@
4ax.com...
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=666
>
> (Not from where I'm standing - but I might not be standing the right
> place)
I have been saying similar things for some time.
The arrogance of IT alienated it from the rest of the organization...
(I believe this was a major factor in the demise of COBOL; users just got
pissed of with being treated like crap and grabbed any alternate solutions
(packages, outsourcing, SaaS) as soon as they became available. Added to
this, you have a rising generation who are much more computer literate than
their parents were and are quite cappable of devising their own (albeit,
"imperfect and disintegrated" from an IT perspective) solutions with
spreadsheets and databases. The resulting chaos is what we're seeing today.
Getting a hold on this and integrating disparate IT operations throughout
the company so that a coherent picture can be derived is a large part of
what some IT departments are doing. This represents a shift in IT away from
technical service and into management of information. the role of the
Technocrats is being ever diminished.)
The split between the Business and IT has always been a contrived one. Agile
methodologies recognise this and are successfully (re-)combining the two.
Is IT becoming extinct? Depends what you mean by "IT"...
I don't think IT is becoming extinct (yet...) but the need for businesses to
develop in-house IT applications is definitely under threat. There are many
alternatives and some companies are getting really good value from dropping
their IT departments. It is MUCH cheaper to simply buy the service than to
do it yourself.
In-house IT development is expensive (prohibitively so if you insist on
using procedural languages like COBOL with line-by-line hand carved
solutions...embedding your business into millions of lines of archaic
g -code), and nobody likes the IT department anyway... they consistently
treat people who are not technical with condescension and arrogance and are
not exactly warm and friendly when you need an IT service. Their track
record is abysmal, and most of the organisation would be very glad to see
the back of them. Why would you go to IT. cap in hand, when the new students
in your department can knock you up a desktop solution in a day or so that
is exactly what you need?
The role of the in-house IT department to develop and provide services will
definitely be taken out of the corporate environment and relegated to a
handful of software companies.
Long term, the Nirvana is for people to interact with, and utilise the power
of, computers, without requiring specialist knowledge or interfaces or
go-betweens (like the Priests of COBOL). When this is attained (and it is
still a fair way off, although steps are made towards it every year...) THEN
you could say IT was extinct.
Meantime, there are ASPECTS of IT which certainly are becoming, or even have
become extinct.
Have you heard anyone discussing "EDP" recently?
Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
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| Mickey 2008-03-25, 6:56 pm |
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Pete Dashwood wrote:
> <howard.brazee@cusys.edu> wrote in message
> news:tg9fu35t54b3t81rr6i4lv0kvcbo0ci225@
4ax.com...
>
> I have been saying similar things for some time.
>
> The arrogance of IT alienated it from the rest of the organization...
>
> (I believe this was a major factor in the demise of COBOL; users just got
> pissed of with being treated like crap and grabbed any alternate solutions
> (packages, outsourcing, SaaS) as soon as they became available. Added to
> this, you have a rising generation who are much more computer literate than
> their parents were and are quite cappable of devising their own (albeit,
> "imperfect and disintegrated" from an IT perspective) solutions with
> spreadsheets and databases. The resulting chaos is what we're seeing today.
> Getting a hold on this and integrating disparate IT operations throughout
> the company so that a coherent picture can be derived is a large part of
> what some IT departments are doing. This represents a shift in IT away from
> technical service and into management of information. the role of the
> Technocrats is being ever diminished.)
>
> The split between the Business and IT has always been a contrived one. Agile
> methodologies recognise this and are successfully (re-)combining the two.
>
> Is IT becoming extinct? Depends what you mean by "IT"...
>
> I don't think IT is becoming extinct (yet...) but the need for businesses to
> develop in-house IT applications is definitely under threat. There are many
> alternatives and some companies are getting really good value from dropping
> their IT departments. It is MUCH cheaper to simply buy the service than to
> do it yourself.
>
> In-house IT development is expensive (prohibitively so if you insist on
> using procedural languages like COBOL with line-by-line hand carved
> solutions...embedding your business into millions of lines of archaic
> g-code), and nobody likes the IT department anyway... they consistently
> treat people who are not technical with condescension and arrogance and are
> not exactly warm and friendly when you need an IT service. Their track
> record is abysmal, and most of the organisation would be very glad to see
> the back of them. Why would you go to IT. cap in hand, when the new students
> in your department can knock you up a desktop solution in a day or so that
> is exactly what you need?
>
> The role of the in-house IT department to develop and provide services will
> definitely be taken out of the corporate environment and relegated to a
> handful of software companies.
>
> Long term, the Nirvana is for people to interact with, and utilise the power
> of, computers, without requiring specialist knowledge or interfaces or
> go-betweens (like the Priests of COBOL). When this is attained (and it is
> still a fair way off, although steps are made towards it every year...) THEN
> you could say IT was extinct.
>
> Meantime, there are ASPECTS of IT which certainly are becoming, or even have
> become extinct.
>
> Have you heard anyone discussing "EDP" recently?
>
> Pete.
> --
> "I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
The demise of Cobol, eh?
Odd then, that the estimated value of Cobol code currently in
production is over $10,000,000,000,000. That's TRILLION.
And I'm not a Cobol coder, I code in a FAR more civilized language,
Rexx.
Mickey
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| Pete Dashwood 2008-03-25, 6:56 pm |
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"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:97307ae0-6cbf-4611-a44e-bbd0f9d1918b@e67g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> Pete Dashwood wrote:
>
> The demise of Cobol, eh?
>
> Odd then, that the estimated value of Cobol code currently in
> production is over $10,000,000,000,000. That's TRILLION.
And whose estimate is that? A totally disinterested party with no axe to
grind? I don't think so...
Tried looking for a REXX job lately?
You are tied to a platform that is going to be relegated to batch processing
and network serving, if it survives at all.
Your bosses are already looking at ways to get out.
Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
>
> And I'm not a Cobol coder, I code in a FAR more civilized language,
> Rexx.
>
> Mickey
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