5th November, 2001
The business relevance of the IT profession
  
IT as applied to business operation, is a tool to serve the needs of business. Perhaps at the height of the IT boom in the 1990's, we forgot the fundamentals as we searched for the next hot technology to attract investors. However, I believe that in the current economic climate, technology is more important to business than ever. Appropriate application of technology can deliver business advantage. 
  
The value proposition of IT is to achieve process efficiencies that make the business competitive in the marketplace at an implementation and operational cost below that of the expected returns. As a value proposition, the costs and benefits for any IT initiative must be measurable so that management can make informed decisions. No business has infinite resources and pragmatically, the project that delivers the most benefit for the least effort will be chosen when there is competition for limited funding. This is the fundamental law for successful business operation; given a set of possible initiatives, provide funding to initiatives that deliver the best competitive business advantage within the total allocated budget available. Management of a business is about choosing and prioritising. 

As IT professionals working for a business and in a position to influence management decisions, if not make them directly, we have a responsibility to the business. Our loyalty is first to the business and its success. As such, our expertise must be employed to ensure that technology is used to deliver maximum benefit for the least effort necessary to meet the key requirements within the operating lifetime of the business system. This rule is the most important one I have been taught by my many mentors and that I have learnt through the projects I have been involved with. Business managers never judge your project on whether you have an elegant system model, whether you used the latest development techniques, or whether you employed the hottest technologies. Budget, time, solution-fit and maintenance costs are the benchmarks by which your project is judged. These are the tangible business parameters for the delivery of a business system.

There are a few pragmatic observations that stem from this.

We need to take these practical measures in assessing design and development of business systems. For IT consultancy to be considered a serious profession, we must deliver business benefits. We must be able to make technology choices that favour business and we must remain attuned to the needs of business. The IT professional must be able to make practical application of technology. We are practitioners of applied science and we will remain relevant to business as long as we remain aligned to the goals of business.