"Shaped like a Blogg! or a Garden hose!"

image by Tom Woodward

I only recently realised that it’s been over a year since I posted anything here.

Sad I know.

The last 18 months have been a little hectic with moving from one company to another, and refocusing on being a husband and a father rather than on a career and living out of a suitcase.

That said there are some exciting things in the works, one of which is a book. Whilst there isn’t a lot to say about it yet, it will be based on a couple of things, Wardley Mapping and Outsourcing. I’ll also add that my co-writers and I will bring rather unique “insiders” perspective to the process; we might even start to release some drafts here.

Warning, today is a bit of a rant. I had an email and chat exchange with a friend that wasn’t treated well recently and felt compelled to ramble.

Ethics is extremely important in business as it is the foundation of relationships. Ethics in the IT business is especially important as members of the Technology team(s) are responsible for representing IT to the wider business. Through the relationships IT builds with the business it is able to better understand the needs of the business itself and can develop real value through the strategic use of IT, using the collective smarts (IP) of the team. The Technology teams inside an organisation supports the business’ strategy, balances the wider strategic needs of the organisation and business units with the explicit needs of IT and IT strategies. Unethical behaviour can destroy this.

Let me be clear, when I say unethical I mean behaviour that isn’t:

• Honest;
• Courteous;
• Done with Integrity;
• Performed Efficiently; and
• Respectful of Property

Our individual actions ultimately reflect our ethical beliefs.When we are in a position of authority these also shape the way those around us operate.

The consequences of unethical behaviour in our IT teams is that it breaks the relationships, both internal to the team and the external ones to the organisation. This can cause team-members to become disconnected and jaded, holding back the IP that could make a difference between completing that aggressive project on time, creating that innovative new product or demoralise the wider team around them. The greater flow on affect is that IT will become disconnected from the business (again) and relegating it to that group that just cost a lot of money and doesn’t deliver anything.

It is easy to be dismissive in the heat of corporate action, but let’s face it, for the most part corporate IT is not life and death. Take the extra minute to think about the repercussions of the decisions you make and the actions you take, it may mean the ultimate success or failure for the perception of IT in the business.

/rant.

OK I think I’m prepared for that Ethics section in today’s exam!

Yesterday I decided that I’d no longer be an armchair commentator on the state of IT services and the direction it, as an understanding as a discipline, is going. So to that end I ponied up my own own money and bought myself a membership to the itSMF (IT Service Management Forum) and robbed myself in to participate in the next Special Interest Group meeting at the end of the month.

The itSMF isn’t as sexy as the technology groups and bodies that I’ve been a part of before, but  I think that it is a lot more real and accessible to the non-technical in the industry (yes, there are a lot of non-technical people in IT) and a way of bridging the gap between IT and “the business”.

I hope to gain some insight into the wider Australian market’s changes and perceptions as well as supply my 1st hand experience and understanding when it comes to solutioning, negotiating and delivering Technology and IT Services in the APJ market.

photo credit: Chimpr via photopin cc

Things have been very quiet here for a few months. Having some downtime from work and studies I’ve looked to spend time with family and make up for lost time with friends, rather than blog. But with the new year a new set of studies and an interesting workload I will be looking to pour my thoughts here a lot more.

The one thing that constantly puzzles me is the amount of people who say “wow, you travel a lot for work!” and then follow up with “how exciting it must be” or “how important you are to travel a lot”. My response is always, try it for 2 months and you will never want to travel again. I’m always reminded of a conversation I had with a colleague and friend about this very subject; whilst we were both separately on the road and on the phone together lamenting travel. He punctuated this by describing his dinner on said trip home being a sandwich purchased at a road stop. Glamorous indeed.