Like many holidays, the meaning of Independence Day is often overshadowed by its commercially derived incarnation: Cookouts, unsubtle retail sales and widespread detonation of pyrotechnics seem to obscure the original purpose of the celebration.
So, as we approach this fourth day of the seventh month, I return to the founding document itself for a semi-occasional read. As a citizen, I can see the power, purpose and poetry (TJ was nothing if not deft with the pen). As a writer, I can see—perhaps shamelessly—an angle for my ongoing ruminations on IT.
Which brings me, with tongue firmly pressed in cheek, to the following declarations:
Be it known that:
IT is beset by hardships, three in number:
I. Abundant and virulent growth in the number of systems that must be tended.
II. The unending cycle of changes, both great and small, caused by enhancements to and repair of defects in software systems.
III. A drought of IT resources, the volume of which number far fewer than harvests past.
Acknowledging thus, be it said that:
We, who carry out the duties of IT and depend upon such duties to carry out those of our own, are bound by certain truths that we hold to be pretty darn evident.
Certain among them:
I. The truth that development and operations groups are created equal, endowed of different but no less important capability and purpose, which together should create a greater and more powerful one, rather than a divided and conflicted two.
II. The truth that the pursuit of speed and agility as the principal and guiding aims for development shall not conflict with the pursuit of control and predictability as the aims for operations. Whereas these pursuits were once held in mutual opposition, they can be so held in agreement and to the comfort and security of both parties.
III. The truth that IT operations must make all reasonable efforts to excise unnecessary cost and complexity through conscientious reinvention and liberal use of machines to carry out certain lower-order duties once performed by the hand of man.
IV. The truth that, in the pursuit of such automated ends, IT shall not sacrifice the duties and talents of such workers, instead allowing these able men and women to dispatch functions of higher utility and station to the highest welfare of the business.
V. The truth that, in the further effort to excise cost, IT shall entrust applications and certain other technical assets to the hands of service providers where the benefits of such trust outweigh the taxes levied thereby.
VI. The truth that IT is no longer ancillary to the business, but in even the most rank and ordinary of circumstances, often the very heart of the business itself.
These truths bind us in the common view and conviction that IT must discard ways and manners of our history, however commodious and familiar they may be. They must replace such familiar ways with new ways, better in swiftness and economy.
It is upon these declarations that we set forth to a new day for IT.
