Two weeks ago a peer from another part of our extended enterprise told me he didn’t understand why enterprise IT folks are always so insistent on having customers express requirements vice just naming the solution they want.
He said it should be like when he goes to Safeway to order some soda pop. He doesn’t go in and express a requirement for a cold diet beverage with bubbles and a fruit flavor. He goes and grabs a six pack of what he wants. He is smart enough to know what to pick and doesn’t need someone else saying he can’t do that just because he didn’t express the requirement right.
So I told him there were some good parts to that analogy but frankly it breaks down pretty quick. For example, soda is relatively inexpensive. The amount he would spend on a six pack of soda is really just a rounding error. IT is very expensive. Additionally, no one cares what he puts in his belly and really few of us would care if he gets a belly ache because of it. But the enterprise must remain healthy and we technologists and our leaders must care what gets put into it. Therefore, I explained, only IT professionals would be picking what technology gets into the enterprise, and others could recommend and state functional requirements, but we would be making all the decisions.
Well, it is hard to convince anyone that they don’t get to make the decisions, but if you want to run a successful enterprise sometimes you have to do that. A key to success in doing this is to always have the customer and their mission needs at the forefront of the decision and to always involve them early on. Another key to success here is to be able to demonstrate a track record of delivering real capabilities that meet the mission needs of the organization. Nothing succeeds like success.
