Who’s more likely to see IT as a bottleneck: the IT organization, the IT leader, or someone outside of the IT organization?

Question

Answer

I would argue that those three perspectives would vary wildly from organization to organization. And I use that &#34;wildly&#34; descriptor specifically. I spent a lot of time getting into the psyche of IT and thinking about the anthropology of IT, but also all the different mechanics that go into the human condition as it applies to technology. And one piece we often forget is that, for all of the great things that IT is or isn't, we're still humans. When these comments are made, there's a human component that's often missing from those statements.

Answer

They're always a bottleneck—the engineering team's never big enough. When I think back to some of the projects I've been involved in, info security was perceived as the bottleneck. But they were only perceived as the bottleneck because the business engaged them a week before going live, at the end of a six-month journey. Someone shows up to InfoSec saying, "Can you sign off on this?" And of course, they’re going to say no, because a week's not long enough to do what they need to do. They should have been there right from the start.

If you say to InfoSec, "You're the bottleneck," they'll say, "No, we're not. People just come to us at the wrong point." But if you ask the people who are trying to deliver through them whether InfoSec is a bottleneck, they'll say yes. Those are two very different sides of that one lens—the problems that cause it are similar, but it's not always the same answer.

Answer

Someone outside of the IT organization is more likely to see IT as a bottleneck, or at a minimum, and least suggest such as a possibility.

Who’s more likely to see IT as a bottleneck: the IT organization, the IT leader, or someone outside of the IT organization?

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