What do I find most surprising about too many IT shops in 2024?

What do I find most surprising about too many IT shops in 2024?

It’s the still prevalent attitude of “treat us like a black box” to their business while also entirely out of touch with the end customer.

I get it. Back in the day, which is further back than I am going to disclose, I also believed IT should be a black box. Just give us your requirements, and we’ll make it happen. Over the years, I understood that “we are all the business.” You need to be able to trace how you, the engineer, the architect, or the manager directly impact the customer experience to know if you are building and working on the right things.

My friend Gary Kay introduced me to the Steel Thread concept, which traces the most essential execution paths through a software architecture. But we don’t stop there. Extend it beyond the architecture to where the software creates value for your customer. The customer end of the steel thread gives you the starting place for your KPIs.

If you haven’t heard of the Steel Thread concept, it’s okay. Wikipedia deleted the page in 2013 because it is “a colloquial term and not notable within Software Engineering, the page’s only category.” And this is why you can’t unquestioningly trust Wikipedia. Check out this white paper for those diving deeper into the Steel Thread concept.

So, to those IT shops focused inwardly on your challenges and the list of requirements given to you, it’s time to spend some time with your business partners and go see how your tech is (or isn’t!) used in the real world.