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How Much Should Technology Cost?
or "A Special Message to Business People Everywhere..."
As a Software Engineer, I'm always challenged by business and the business community, especially when it comes to how business in the United States approaches technology and those employed in technology positions. For the most part, we are a happy group and have a love and passion for what we do as well as for what we share between us. You might say we depend on each other, and have a symbiotic relationship of sorts. But there are times when the two dont mix.
I especially like reading the constant list of articles that talk about the need to build a "hybrid" type of technologist....someone who is great at both the business side of the equation, yet is a master at programming or software or networking. I think this is a big mistake and will be proven over and over in the years to come. The fact is, technology is growing deeper and wider and the knowledge base needed to manage and troubleshoot the huge array of systems and software is beyond reason right now! To think someone can do anything in this field part-time and master it, is incredibly naive. If anything, we need the OPPOSITE! We need more technology specialists...more trained support personnel, more specialists in vendor-based products (and nothing else), more troubleshooters, more architects, and more left-brainers who can write pure code and logic and only focus on perfecting that. Most people in technology wear WAY TOO MANY HATS, and because our field is so saturated with so many problems and distractions and issues, its getting hard to focus on one discipline enough to master even that! When you dont do anything well and are given the free time to perfect anything in technology you make mistakes. Sometimes all it takes is one bad line of code, one bad network setting or one angry customer and the house of cards comes tumbling down!
We also need young minds and brains. The few times we have them, we try so hard to mentor them....but because we dont have the time, we lose their minds and their hearts! When we do have them in our grasp, we don't or can't slow down enough because of the load, enough to let the young minds absorb vital information about one important skill, enough to both master that skill yet also perfect it. Sometimes we overwork them, like Ive seen and they run to other professions, burnt out and sorely disappointed. Thats business's fault! And the few that remain sink down to mediocrity and are happy with it and it becomes a "job"....not a passion! That lack of passion over years means mistakes will be made and hard lessons learned for business. In business that translates to the fact that something won't work right and that means an angry customer and that translates to loss of income from that customer! Think about it!
So, I say, either stick to your business profession and master that "art", or come to the dark side and be a master at technology. There ain't no middle ground folks! That's a pipe dream dreamt by the business community to try and sell cost savings booklets at the conventions or market another ebook or podcast to some poor soul (or CEO). All that [they] see or seem is but a dream within a dream (Edgar Allen Poe)...
And that argument again is why I mention many times why technologists in the United States are by far the most innovative and talented group of people in the world, yet least respected and least understood. Too bad, I say, as they deserve the biggest salaries, greatest respect, and most rewards for the great works they are accomplishing, despite the Herculean obstacles they face every single day working for the 'man'! Business in America just doesnt get it...but the tide is slowly turning this year for us (2007). Already, despite the thousands of jobs shipped overseas, salaries are up for technology jobs. And so, the lesson is finally being learned through the good old-fashioned "bottom-line" (i.e. money). Thats the best lesson a business person can learn!
Please value you technology experts over any other group....and especially over your business people. The brains and talent lie in the smart people that keep the train moving forward. Anyone can get an MBA and anyone can play golf and make deals on the golf course and in the swanky board rooms....the deals that continue to carve this country up a little finer than it is. But talented technologists that fix millions of problem every single day are the future of this great innovative country we call the good 'ol USA. Enough said...
And for all you business people out there that keep tossing business requirements over walls to developers to figure out, complaining about dealing with geeks, your love of offshoring, and wanting programs to write themselves, I have a saying we use down here in Texas that applies to every single one of you:
You can have it good, fast, or cheap.....
pick two.
-Mitchell Stokely, USA
