Comments on: A Means to an End http://www.digitaldiner.org/2008/06/06/a-means-to-an-end/?&owa_from=feed&owa_sid= Gavin Clabaugh's irregular blog on irregular things. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:26:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: A. B, http://www.digitaldiner.org/2008/06/06/a-means-to-an-end/#comment-2655 A. B, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:27:44 +0000 http://www.digitaldiner.org/?p=289#comment-2655 "....a meeting of international grant makers, funders, and other philanthropic types. Good people all, I am sure. Nevertheless, at this meeting, these folks were busy patting themselves on the back about their successes with Darfur. The successes, it seems, were many — increased public awareness, social networking sites, widgets and mashups, letters to Congress, web site visitors, etc, etc. All their outcomes were terrific; all the measures spelled success, with a capital “S.” ..." I must have been on the same meeting... I would agree with your thesis and accept a blame as an IT guy if only all those good non-IT people were able to communicate to me their goals with a basic logic... Your metaphor of the waiter from my perspective is : Client: "Bring me something to eat... - I am hungry" Waiter: " we have A, B , C on our menu..." Client (breaking the presentation) ; " Oh, I trust you - you know the best...." The dissatisfaction from delivered IT projects is stemming from not knowig at first what was required... THE GOALS are very rarely communicated to the IT guys... “….a meeting of international grant makers, funders, and other philanthropic types. Good people all, I am sure. Nevertheless, at this meeting, these folks were busy patting themselves on the back about their successes with Darfur. The successes, it seems, were many — increased public awareness, social networking sites, widgets and mashups, letters to Congress, web site visitors, etc, etc. All their outcomes were terrific; all the measures spelled success, with a capital “S.” …”

I must have been on the same meeting…

I would agree with your thesis and accept a blame as an IT guy if only all those good non-IT people were able to communicate to me their goals with a basic logic… Your metaphor of the waiter from my perspective is :

Client: “Bring me something to eat… - I am hungry”
Waiter: ” we have A, B , C on our menu…”
Client (breaking the presentation) ; ” Oh, I trust you - you know the best….”

The dissatisfaction from delivered IT projects is stemming from not knowig at first what was required… THE GOALS are very rarely communicated to the IT guys…

]]> By: Eugene Chan http://www.digitaldiner.org/2008/06/06/a-means-to-an-end/#comment-2621 Eugene Chan Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:06:57 +0000 http://www.digitaldiner.org/?p=289#comment-2621 This post smells a bit like an ad hominem (or should I say ad geekem) attack against IT projects and managers. False outcomes are hardly the province of IT projects or IT tools. Bad or non-existent project management exists everywhere. Think the Big Dig. Rumor has it that the Great Wall was rife with overruns and high fiving until the Mongols just went around the wall. Let's think about it in the reverse: what are ways that IT and communications tools salvaged a project that was in danger of capsizing? This post smells a bit like an ad hominem (or should I say ad geekem) attack against IT projects and managers.

False outcomes are hardly the province of IT projects or IT tools. Bad or non-existent project management exists everywhere. Think the Big Dig. Rumor has it that the Great Wall was rife with overruns and high fiving until the Mongols just went around the wall.

Let’s think about it in the reverse: what are ways that IT and communications tools salvaged a project that was in danger of capsizing?

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