Comment: MBAs have no business in IT

Apparently, the number of failed and ill-defined IT projects is growing, and it doesn't really surprise me when you think about the pressures on IT departments.

Because company directors don't understand the complexities of the sorts of technologies we write about in IT Week, their demands can sometimes be too exacting. "I want email, database and Web access on the road, in the loo, in a bunker underground and on the beach on the Cote D'Azur. I want to know everything about my customers so they can't escape without giving me their money. I need to know who they are, where they live, what their nicknames are, what colour their underwear is, and whether they are shopping with the enemy.

"I want my sales team to be able to eavesdrop on the customer's private conversations wherever they are, and I want a closed feedback loop with the R&D department so they can act every time the customer expresses an opinion. I want every employee bugged, tracked and monitored for loyalty or fecklessness. I want a robot dog that can tap-dance and mix the perfect Bloody Mary. And I want your projected budgets for all of these on my desk by the end the month."

Analyst firm Gartner says IT departments need to shift their focus away from technology metrics to measure their progress, and towards business metrics such as return on investment (ROI), total cost of ownership (TCO), and improving service-level agreements (SLAs) and business services (BS).

My contention is that you should forget the BS acronyms. The IT industry has sufficient acronyms without having to co-opt dozens more that only confuse. For IT managers to become businessmen is not the best solution. It would be more helpful if chief executives became more fluent in technology, so they wouldn't demand, for example, that the corporate home page has a high resolution image of themselves, with the site streaming Greensleeves in the background and 50 animated GIFs on each page.

The criticism has been that too many IT courses leave IT professionals unable to operate in the real world, because they concentrate too much on technology and not on the business. But the ideals of integrating all the essential supply-chain systems - and developing close customer relationships and faster and more efficient interaction with business partners - aren't exactly rocket science. So do you need an MBA to do your job better? I'm going out on a limb to argue - no you don't.

We saw it happening in the health service, as doctors were expected to become businessmen and women, and surgeries became independent businesses. Doctors were given performance targets and more budgetary restraints and customer charters, when they should have been freed to carry out their profession. IT managers monitor the health of the business's IT system, and help it grow and function more efficiently. Though sticking to budgets is important, understanding technology and the technical implications of implementing one system over another is vital.

Next time you get a duff request for an IT project from a business manager, smile politely and give them a copy of IT Week to read.

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