October 31, 2001, 11:32 AM — When we first started evangelizing the how-to's
of rightsizing, downsizing, and capsizing back in 1993, we spoke about
our #1 priority, a client/server production acceptance process.
It was, and still is the most critical process, the key link in
implementing the proper infrastructure to support today's enterprise.
We'll update you on the latest revisions to this process in future
columns.
After visiting with thousands of companies around the world, we've
found the biggest problem large firms face when moving from host-based
to network-based computing is not technology, it's
people!
In previous columns we outlined how to retrain mainframe and
Unix people, but education is only a small piece of the puzzle. The
biggest piece is dealing with the diverse cultures within the
organization. You must break down the walls not only between PC, Unix,
and mainframe people, but between these groups and (horrors!)
users.
It's the big guy's fault
To a) get this out of our systems, and b) place the blame elsewhere,
let's point the finger at who's responsible for underestimating the
difficulty in adopting network-based computing. It's the CIO's fault.
(If you are a CIO, feel free to change the "I" in "CIO" to an "E.")
You know the scene: Well-dressed, lightly perfumed executives
shmoozing in ivory-tower boardrooms about mergers and acquisitions,
company politics, and reorganizations, punctuated by occasional pointed
questions why computers cost so darn much, and when the board will
start to see the ROI on all of the client/server spending. (Life as a
CIO can't be all fun.) Executives aren't stupid. Some just
don't have a clue what it takes to implement this crazy new enterprise,
or don't care to listen to a savvy CIO's warnings and explanations.
Lead by the CIO, the IT team must refresh the corporate memory
in regards to how
difficult it was in years past to exchange one mainframe operating system
for another. It took months of planning and testing to move the
organization from, essentially, one tractor-trailer rig to
another. How quickly people forget the three decades it took to
establish the procedures that established the foundation for
a secure and reliable central data center.
Executives and users are demanding and impatient. Spurred by competition
and oftentimes glowing accounts in trade magazines of client/server
bliss, executives and users fail to recognize that not only is a safe
change tough under ideal circumstances, it's very difficult when the
organization is adopting a computing system with double or perhaps
triple the number of variables. If moving from one mainframe OS to
another is like changing truck brands, then switching from centralized,
mainframe-style computing to a network-based system is like trading
trucks for airplanes.
Both executives and users need to understand that today's networked
computing paradigm implies wide-ranging organizational changes far
beyond Microsoft's plan for selling Windows95 to the hoi polli and
Windows NT to the more demanding user. By change, we mean establishing
a new, fast-moving, flexible organization where information is
available in a timely manner to those who need to make decisions
rapidly.
Isolate, right? Wrong!
In our experience, the first reaction IT departments have when
contemplating a network-based installation is to isolate the
legacy stuff in a cocoon. To salvage morale, they will bring over some of
the legacy gang to work on the new fun stuff. A nice gesture, appease
the troops right? Oh, what a mistake that is!
You need to mesh your entire organization. Never, ever separate legacy
(usually mainframe) and client/server. Don't even refer to part of your
organization as the mainframe group and the other as the client/server
group. That's when this barrier, thicker than the Great Wall of China,
comes up. We see it in just about every company around the world. Yet
the CIO usually has no idea it's there and that it's a virus slowing
client/server implementation. No one will talk about it, because
they're afraid it will jeopardize their careers. But how can you
successfully implement such a huge undertaking without everyone moving
in the same direction, working as a single unit?
Tear down the walls
An opportunity has arisen as IT organizations move forward with
client/server computing: an opportunity to make a change in
the way IT provides services to its users.
