Enterprise IT projects—both custom and packaged “one size fits most” systems—continue to be a major headache for business leaders. The fundamental problem with these systems is that for the most part, they’re constructed using what programmer and open source champion Eric Raymond dubbed a cathedral approach. Like the great edifices that Europeans erected in the Middle Ages, enterprise IT projects are costly, take a great deal of time, and deliver value only when the project is completed. In the end, they yield systems that are inflexible and cement companies into functioning the way their businesses worked several years ago, when the project started. Despite recent improvements in the flexibility of packaged software, companies often find it exorbitantly expensive and difficult to modify their enterprise systems in order to exploit new business opportunities.
Radically Simple IT
Reprint: R0803J
Many managers think that developing and rolling out a major IT system is like putting up a warehouse: You build it and you’re done. But that does not work for IT
anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are turned on. What’s needed for today’s businesses is IT that serves not
only as a platform for existing operations but also as a launchpad for new functions and businesses.
In this article, the authors present a
path-based
approach that addresses the primary challenges of IT: the difficulty and expense of mapping out all requirements before a project starts because people often cannot specify
everything that they need beforehand; the other unanticipated needs that almost always arise once a system is in operation; and the tricky task of persuading people to use
and “own” it.
Japan’s Shinsei Bank emerged during the authors’ research as a standout among the companies applying the path-based method. The firm designed, built, and rolled
out its system by forging together, not just aligning, business and IT strategies; employing the simplest possible technology; making the system truly modular; letting it
sell itself to users; and ensuring that users influence future improvements. Some of the principles are variations on old themes, while others turn the conventional wisdom
on its head.
HBR Learning