Brunel University's Business Class: Listen and get IT right

It is all too easy to dive in to IT projects, thinking they are a solution in themselves. In the second in their series of columns for silicon.com, Brunel University's Professor Robert Macredie and Dr Mark Lycett advocate beginning with one of the first skills we ever learn - listening.

A recent report by CIO Insight in the US highlighted that, of over 400 CIOs questioned, 75 per cent see their primary role as aligning IT with business. This figure marks real progress from a decade ago. The desire to match business and IT may be rather too commonly quoted but clichés can have an annoying habit of being true.

Bridging the IT/business divide is what we all strive to achieve, yet few companies actually realise this dream. Part of the reason for failure boils down to perception and communication: our communication in understanding a business problem and our perception of how IT can solve it. It’s these two things that need to be addressed before we chase the dream. Otherwise, we simply end up chasing our tails.

Solving problems

The basic premise of our education is to develop the ability to think our way around a problem, as opposed to learning by rote. In a business world, this translates into our development as ‘problem solvers’. We are accustomed to looking for solutions to problems and it follows naturally that, as IT practitioners, we view IT as a solution – and express it as such to others.

We are all familiar with the trend of an emerging technology – it’s hailed and sold as the solution to all our problems. All of us - vendors, users, the media - get excited as we consider the possibilities of the new technology. It might help businesses cut costs, automate menial tasks, improve communication and enhance productivity. Yet as the hype passes, the reality can often disappoint - and that's how technologies can become discredited. Note the recent CRM backlash. However, perhaps it’s this solution-oriented view that’s at the root of the problem.

The answer is the question

IT should not be seen in terms of solution. Rather we should view technology as a tool. It’s only part of the journey towards finding a solution – a journey that involves people and processes too, depending on the scope of system.

Viewing IT as a solution often gives users no degrees of freedom. It tends to ‘drive the context’, namely it forces people to work in a specific way, according to specific rules of logic that may not necessarily map to the human condition.

This is when problems such as lack of user adoption arise. The best-known example of this is the London Ambulance computer-aided dispatch system’s famous collapse of 1992. Prior to the collapse of the system, it was common knowledge the modernisation programme was not having the desired results. This was not helped by a history of poor industrial relations. Ambulance service staff simply did not buy in to the new system, so it was no surprise when it became apparent it was not up to the job. The system eventually collapsed, with ambulance staff returning to the traditional way of logging calls – pen and paper.

The story of the London Ambulance Service is a worse case scenario but it does strike a few chords. It’s a prime example of imposing a solution without first investigating the problems. In the wider IT evolution, we’ve been through phases where IT has been used to automate, inform and transform the business. Now we need a phase where it liberates the business. We need to change our perception of IT so it is a tool that provides us, as problem solvers, with the degrees of freedom we need to deal with organisational challenges.

Slaves to the solution?

Being solution-providing slaves is why we often end up with IT systems that don’t actually do what we want them to do. It’s a classic outcome of the IT/business divide and, more often than not, it comes down to communication – and understanding.

Conceptualising and communicating what we do is very tough, yet it’s a vital task that must be completed before we are able to build a system that can help us. This initial business ‘understanding’ is the most important stage but if it does happen, then it is often cursory.

Quite simply, it’s easier to think in terms of solutions. How often does a CEO at a golf course explain his IT department has spent the last two months understanding how the business works? It’s far more likely he’ll discuss the new customer-facing strategy and the CRM system that will be put into place to enable it.

Innovators are beginning to investigate different ways of approaching IT project development in line with this thinking. One leading IT services provider in the UK recently told us: “As an organisation, we aim to listen to problems, rather than sell solutions - it’s a new way of working. This step is key – like redecorating a room, the willingness to put in an extra level of preparation can generate a huge pay-off in terms of project success.”

It’s the age-old art of listening that will help us improve the way IT works. IT is not in itself a solution – and if it’s explained to others as such, then that will compound failure. The answer is to try to understand what it is we do and how IT can help. It’s simple to write but harder to carry out in practice.

Next time you’re looking to develop a new IT system, make sure you’re sitting comfortably, then listen.

Professor Robert Macredie and Dr Mark Lycett are leaders of ‘Fluid Business’, a groundbreaking research project within the Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel University. They will be writing for silicon.com on issues of technology and business over the coming months and can be contacted by emailing FluidBusinessTeam@fusepr.com. Or email us with your opinions at editorial@silicon.com.