Case Study
And the World Said - Analysis
It could be said its not a great start, feathers have been have been well and truly ruffled.
Viewed through the lens of Enterprise Technical Debt, though, quite a lot has been achieved.
The IT Director, with some help, against a background of complacency, has managed to plant a seed of doubt, and introduce a focus on the transition to future platforms.
She has also potentially made some short term gains, in the review of staff salaries, overtime arrangements (HR got a lot of work out of this discussion) and in effect a green light to look into migration away from the in-house data centre.
At the end of this discussion she has essentially "tested" her colleague's willingness to accept change and has got them to recognise that by keeping things the same they could be falling into the classic Technology Debt trap. Not everyone agrees and of course no fundamental decisions have been made , yet.
There is more work to do at future meetings, but it seems likely that new plans will be laid down in due course.
All in all, it is good morning's work by the IT Director. Unlike normal meetings which focus mostly on money, most of the debate here has been about risks, both from taking action as well from those arising from doing nothing. This is, in a nutshell, is what setting risk appetite should be about and here it has had a thorough outing, key ETD risks have been surfaced to leaders and they have had to make decisions to address them.
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