IT Demystified – The book
The IT handbook for business professionals
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Overview
Delivers the
information business professionals need to understand and influence IT related
matters in a plain English and entertaining style. Most importantly it reflects
the realities of the IT Sector today. Based on the very successful Auridian
seminar of the same name, it is essential reading for those that work
within IT-services or within end-user organisations that recognise the value of
IT.
The following section
is an extract from the book’s introductory chapter. If you would like to read
chapter one, click here.
Click here to buy the book.
IT departments, and to
a large extent the IT Sector in general, have done very little to make IT
understandable to the user community.
They have inadvertently or otherwise created their own exclusive
language, which serves to ensure that non-IT people know their place in the
grand technology pecking order.
In fairness the user
experience has
improved measurably over the last few decades, for example, the more intuitive
graphical user interfaces of modern PCs along with the standardisation of the
‘look and feel’ of desktop applications. However the same cannot be said in
terms of the opaque language that has evolved from the marketing departments of
technology companies.
There are a great many
people who are more than just users. Their role, whilst business focused, has a
significant IT element. Such people are what I call IT influencers.
This book is aimed at
IT influencers. Such people typically need to:
- Use IT to create or improve (read today as
‘drive cost out of’) one or more business processes. Ie automate.
- Use IT to gain competitive advantage through leveraging what the organisation knows about itself
and its markets. Ie. informate.
- Sell IT related services to end user
organisations, eg. recruitment consultants, software solution providers,
outsourcers
- Provide a credible support function to the
IT department, eg. the HR department.
To be an influencer
you need to have credibility. To be credible in the IT arena you need to ‘speak
the language’, understand the trends and be conscious of the associated issues
and opportunities.
This book will do all
of this for you. It differs from other attempts at this subject matter in a
number of very important ways:
- It is very commercially focused. This is
not a university text book, unless your university is interested in
grooming its IT and business undergraduates for the real world
- It avoids technical detail unless such
detail will enhance your credibility significantly in respect of
influencing IT matters
- It will give you the big picture. You will
have a strong sense of how the main pieces of the IT jigsaw fit together
- It is tried and tested. This book is based
on Auridian Consulting’s IT Demystified seminar, which since 1996 has been delivered to many
thousands of business influencers.
My experience in
dealing with this subject enables me to understand the emotions you may well be
feeling at this moment. Let me guess, does one of the following apply to you?
- “IT is what IT people do. I don’t really
want to know. I’ve got this far in life by wearing my ‘technophobe
colours’ with pride”
- “The very word IT conjures up childhood
trauma. IT sits along with maths, physics and chemistry in terms of its
ability to make me squirm”
- “I am smart enough to recognise that IT is
the new 21st century competency. If I don’t embrace it, I’ll be replaced
by someone that does.”
Type ‘a’s are unlikely
to buy this book of their own accord. So if you are a type ‘a’ you are either
in the midst of an organisational culture change, and reading this book has
been deemed in your best interest by someone else, or you have simply picked up
the wrong book.
Type ‘b’s fret not.
This book is called IT Demystified because that is what it will do. I have
worked with people whose experience of being an IT influencer can only sound
impressive when expressed in minutes! I am pleased to say such people have gone
on to be very effective IT influencers.
Type ‘c’s, you are
ahead of the curve. You have recognised that the IT/e-business steamroller is
picking up speed and you have decided to drive it rather than become ‘e-road
kill’.
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I graduated from
Leicester University with an honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics, and
with my childhood love of Astronomy completely shredded. No fault of the
University, I just thought we would learn the names of all the planets and
watch the occasional meteor shower. Course work that included cosmology,
statistical thermodynamics and quantum physics gave me a yearning for a simpler
world.
My final year project
(thesis to the easily impressed) to search for black holes by trawling digital
observational data captured across two separate wavelengths had a very high
computing component. The simplicity of ‘ones and zeros’ proved irresistible to
me. From that point on I knew that my space aspirations were grounded.
Thus I applied to a
number of computer firms. Not knowing whether my computing experience had value
in the commercial world I pursued any line of opportunity that would get me in.
In my quest I got a response back from a company called Ferranti Computer
Systems informing me that I would be unsuitable for the post of technical
author, but would I like to come along and be interviewed for the role of
programmer. So for the next three years I designed and developed real-time naval
command and control software systems.
I then spent 7 years
at Logica (now LogicaCMG) working in a variety of technical and
technical management roles. I had the opportunity to work with Credit Suisse
First Boston, Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment, Royal Navy, Marconi, The European Space Agency (my degree did have
some use) and the Coastguard Agency.
My experiences working
at the sharp end of IT highlighted the void that existed between IT people and
non-IT people. I thus set about bridging this gap by forming Auridian
Consulting. Since January 1996, Auridian has worked with hundreds of end-user
and technology companies. This has given me the opportunity to work with a
variety of organisations, big and small across the world. My activities include
training, coaching, public speaking, consulting and content provision.
I pay very close
attention to the Technology Sector. My views are sought by both blue chip organisations and the media.
Please note that my
attempts at humour/satire throughout the book are in fact:
- Grounded in market realities
- Designed to lighten what for some might be
a dry subject.
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‘Knowledge is power’
is a recurrent theme in respect of the IT arena. There are a lot of
knowledgeable people around who don’t seem to be getting anywhere in life. I
think the winning philosophy is ‘Applied knowledge is power’. Weaving
information into conversations and written communications is key to being an IT
influencer. Thus it is not enough to read this book and understand it. You will
start to make an impact when you demonstrate your understanding to those you
need to influence.
Many would-be IT
influencers do not have the confidence to engage in technology related
conversations. This sends out ‘I’m a fraud’/’I don’t deserve to be here’ type
signals when the subject of IT crops up. Those ‘more in the know’ can smell
this in much the same way as sharks can smell blood and dogs can smell fear.
Thus the key skill is taking such people ‘off the scent’ by throwing in a few
sage comments at key stages of the conversation (Think primacy and recency
effects, which refer to the importance of making a positive impression on
initial and final contact with someone).
So impressive IT
influencers not only understand IT, albeit an inch deep but a mile wide, but
they know how to let others know they know. This book is designed to help you
make a positive impression. The terms are explained in sound bites so that you
can easily weave them into your conversation. You hear the word Java, you interject “Why is having a bandwidth
friendly platform independent object oriented programming language important to
you?” This may be over the top, but it will make people thread more
respectfully when they talk to you about IT.
Think of this book as
your survival kit in the IT jungle. It
is divided into sections as follows:
|
Section
|
In essence
|
|
1
|
The key elements of
IT
|
|
2
|
Programming
languages and databases
|
|
3
|
IT system blueprints
|
|
4
|
The IT Department
|
|
5
|
New technologies
|
The building blocks of IT
This covers the IT
basics. Hardware, software and data are explained, as are more advanced
concepts such as operating systems and applications, including enterprise
applications.
- Chapter 1 – IT Basics
- Chapter 2 – Hardware
- Chapter 3 – Operating Systems
- Chapter 4 – Application Software
The importance of programming languages and databases
Why applications are
so important to business and how they are built.
- Chapter 5 – Application Development
How IT systems hang together
Here we see how
technology has evolved from the original mainframes and dumb terminals right
through to what we have today and beyond. In effect we are covering IT
architectures.
- Chapter 6 –Carbon dating the IT investment
- Chapter 7 – 21st Century Systems
What do these IT people do?
This section examines
the structure of an IT department, along with how systems are built.
- Chapter 8 – The IT Department
- Chapter 9 – How IT Systems are Built
What’s hot today and what will be hot tomorrow
The Internet, World
Wide Wait (sorry Web) and e-business are covered here, along with what to
expect in the foreseeable.
- Chapter 10 –What’s hot today
- Chapter 11 –What’s hot tomorrow
The book is riddled
with what might look like asides, or irrelevant information. Whilst delivered
in a light perhaps even frivolous tone, these are essentially insights into the
friction that exists between the IT and business communities. The more
experienced you are as an IT influencer the more you will appreciate these
asides.
The book also
concentrates on IT from an organisational perspective rather than a home user
perspective. Many people happily use their computing systems (ie their PC) to
idly surf the web or play computer games. These are equally valid uses of IT,
though the IT department are very likely to take a different view if these
activities are carried out using company resources.
I discovered the hard way that IT is a lot
easier than astrophysics. After reading this book you will find that IT is not
the migraine-inducing subject that it appears to be. Who knows, you may even
feel the urge to rush out and buy an anorak! - Ade McCormack
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