I do have a compelling vision for the next paradigm but first we need to make IT history.
The first decade of the 21st Century is all but ended and yet we remain firmly stuck in the outdated IT-centric paradigm of the 1990s, a paradigm that puts IT at the forefront and pays scant regard to the true subsidiary position of IT as a mere facilitator of Information Systems.
Despite nearly twenty years’ awareness of the IT productivity paradox, there is much evidence that disappointment and unexpected cost are still the most likely outcomes of investment in IT.
That’s why I want to make IT history, by making IT history.
I want to facilitate a paradigm shift, which is long overdue. Moving forward from IT will be part of our natural evolution which has already seen our profession move forward from previous operating paradigms: Computing in the 1950s, through DP in the ’60s, EDP in the ’70s, MIS in the ’80s until we all lovingly embraced IT as the sexy new paradigm of the early 1990s.
Over the past two decades, developments in information technology have far outstripped our ability to devise effective information systems; because too many initiatives now originate from the perspective of the technology involved, rather than the overlying purposes of the systems to which the technology is being applied.
Consequently many IT initiatives do not actually translate into the intended vehicles for success. By sustaining the IT paradigm we continue to put the cart before the horse and simultaneously weaken the horse by denying it the proper sustenance and attention it warrants. We inevitably end up with some very expensive carriages and a pile of dead horses.
The IT paradigm is redundant and we need to move forward quickly to a more effective paradigm, if we genuinely wish to address the huge gap that continues to grow between the expectations for technology and our level of achieved business value.
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