This probably was cross-posted to both comp.lang.cobol and bit.listserv.ibm-main. Pete Dashwood is a long time consultant who has CICS and COBOL experience. I don't necessarily agree with him but he does have many good insights.
Clark Morris On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:54:55 +1300, in bit.listserv.ibm-main "Pete Dashwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=666 >> >> (Not from where I'm standing - but I might not be standing the right >> place) > >I have been saying similar things for some time. > >The arrogance of IT alienated it from the rest of the organization... > >(I believe this was a major factor in the demise of COBOL; users just got >pissed of with being treated like crap and grabbed any alternate solutions >(packages, outsourcing, SaaS) as soon as they became available. Added to >this, you have a rising generation who are much more computer literate than >their parents were and are quite cappable of devising their own (albeit, >"imperfect and disintegrated" from an IT perspective) solutions with >spreadsheets and databases. The resulting chaos is what we're seeing today. >Getting a hold on this and integrating disparate IT operations throughout >the company so that a coherent picture can be derived is a large part of >what some IT departments are doing. This represents a shift in IT away from >technical service and into management of information. the role of the >Technocrats is being ever diminished.) > >The split between the Business and IT has always been a contrived one. Agile >methodologies recognise this and are successfully (re-)combining the two. > >Is IT becoming extinct? Depends what you mean by "IT"... > >I don't think IT is becoming extinct (yet...) but the need for businesses to >develop in-house IT applications is definitely under threat. There are many >alternatives and some companies are getting really good value from dropping >their IT departments. It is MUCH cheaper to simply buy the service than to >do it yourself. > >In-house IT development is expensive (prohibitively so if you insist on >using procedural languages like COBOL with line-by-line hand carved >solutions...embedding your business into millions of lines of archaic >geek-code), and nobody likes the IT department anyway... they consistently >treat people who are not technical with condescension and arrogance and are >not exactly warm and friendly when you need an IT service. Their track >record is abysmal, and most of the organisation would be very glad to see >the back of them. Why would you go to IT. cap in hand, when the new students >in your department can knock you up a desktop solution in a day or so that >is exactly what you need? > >The role of the in-house IT department to develop and provide services will >definitely be taken out of the corporate environment and relegated to a >handful of software companies. > >Long term, the Nirvana is for people to interact with, and utilise the power >of, computers, without requiring specialist knowledge or interfaces or >go-betweens (like the Priests of COBOL). When this is attained (and it is >still a fair way off, although steps are made towards it every year...) THEN >you could say IT was extinct. > >Meantime, there are ASPECTS of IT which certainly are becoming, or even have >become extinct. > >Have you heard anyone discussing "EDP" recently? > >Pete. >-- >"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything." > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
