Hans-Erik,
In my experience implementing mission-critical apps over several years, I have yet to run accross a enterprise MIS shop that is not almost exclusively focused on short term needs. Investment in the infrastructure necessary (talent, training, tools, and above all, strong methodologies, standards, management and control structures) are seen as niceties that everyone wants at some point, 'but we have to meet these objectives in x months, and we don't have time or budget to pursue anything else at the moment'.
This is a vicious cycle. Bugs and other immediate needs bring about a sense of urgency that in turn breeds reluctance to invest in initiatives whose benefits are longer term. So IS shops stay with the same flawed processes and methodologies (or lack thereof) which got them in the hole they're in now, the only difference being that now they're writing code faster, with more programmers, under less supervision, generating more bugs, more urgent requests, which they feel compelled to fix ever sooner....
It's mostly attributable to good ol' American short term thinking.
Sorry about the long-winded message. |
