Mandating Tools

Dave Snowden:

1. The attempt to introduce conformity seems to play to the desire of senior executives for control, and the near autistic need of IT departments for neatness and order. Imagine what they would say if Government mandated that we only drive one type and colour of car.
2. Mandating a single tool always means a lowest common denominator approach. No one’s needs are fully satisfied, irritations arise, use declines, ad hoc alternatives proliferate.
3. The argument that a single tool is needed to ensure that people can share knowledge across silos is a nonsense. If you make sure that you use a tool whose database can be open to HTML links, or which can publish material then sharing between different systems is easy. OK you should lay some rules down to ensure interoperability but you do not need to mandate one tool. This may have been true ten years ago but no longer.

Saturday, February 10, 2007 | Permalink | 0 Comments