Take Responsibility!

If you are a seasoned (meaning older) IT professional, no matter what you are today, if you have been a developer, programmer, or systems analyst in the “old days”, you bear a special responsibility. You likely did the best you could with the available resources and tools. And a great job many of us did (yes, I was there), as much of that code is still ticking around. You also deserve praise!

But we should have attempted to kept pace with technology a little better; as the AS400, iSeries, System I, etc. (among other systems) have been hard-at-work evolving with the times.

All we needed then—and still need today, is to keep learning and just put some time, just a little, applying what we learned. If we had done that (and continue doing), the Legacy IT would still exist, as technology keeps advancing, but wouldn’t be such a “drag”. the Technology Debt would be kept in check!

We need more leadership, at all levels!

IT Leadership should be exerted upward to the CEO/CFO level, to promote the best solutions and ideas for the business. IT Leadership should be applied laterally, to other Line of Business (LOB) managers and their people.

IT Leadership should be applied downward the IT Organization to guide, grow and develop their IT resources and share company goals, vision, and mission; giving them the best tools and arguments to push solutions up the organization.

Finally, the IT resources(meaning, Analysts, Developers, etc.) bears big responsibility too, because leadership is a quality to have at all levels.

Ideas could come and be encouraged from anywhere in the organization, even from external influences, like Suppliers, Partners, and Customers. All ideas should be considered and discussed.

Leadership is needed to promote personal and professional growth and improve ourselves and apply new technologies, methods, practices, to better the product that is so much relied upon and depended on for better serving the users, and thus the customers.

Take the Challenge, modernize the IT!

We all are responsible for the lame state of “Legacy IT” applications and systems.

IT management is the key though, sure she/he is in a unique position to influence both sides of the equation.  But this can’t wait anymore! My own experience shows that it can be done, little by little,

No more blame and excuses. It's time to really do something about this.       

It can and should be done and I would like to share some ideas in my next post.

We have the wisdom, experience, and knowledge to make it right.

Note: ‘#’ will be replaced with references to other sources.