Managing Technology and People

The thing about management is that it works great for money, time or countable things, but management of complex, uncountable things is at best a dream. You say "people are countable" and I'll agree, but only to the extent that the management is about bodies (head count).

Technology and its applications are so complex as to be unmanageable. Edsger Dijkstra spent much of his career trying to get that message across to the business world and the budding computer industry. Today, he is remembered more for optimized search algorithms. If that isn't the industry in a nutshell...

Many years ago I tried to tell people that technology must be controlled, not managed. My slogan was "control technology or it will control you." We are so in love with the notion of management and have so much antipathy for control, that this message, like Dijkstra's, falls on deaf ears. I am not, in any way, comparing myself to Dijkstra. I am comparing his "audience" to mine. Today, the tag line on my web site (www.m2dxtx.com) is "Leadership for change, Management for effectiveness, Governance for stability." The three are not mutually exclusive but the probability of finding all three in one person is quite small.

Control is not a bad thing--it is an essential thing. Automobile travel without control would involve so much risk that no reasonable person would attempt it. The control starts with the design and production of the machinery itself. An automobile is designed to be controlled. It is also designed to function within a larger system of controls. Awareness of this allows the designers to prioritize their efforts and focus on differentiators suggested by the system rather than on mere "performance" factors. For example, it would be a waste of time designing a vehicle for mass production that could negotiate a 90-degree turn at 80 mph. The system of controls insures that this level of performance is unnecessary.

Use of technology without controls is also fraught with risk. We require control over the design and production of technology to insure that the product is useful and usable within the larger control framework that is our business context. Control over the use of technology is needed to insure reliability and safety for all just as our traffic laws and their enforcement produce a sense of safety and predictability for those of us on public roads.

Because no one likes the idea of control, we are calling this "governance" but make no mistake, governance must be about controls or any effort is wasted. People want and need consistency. Consistency produces contentment and the role of government, according to SunTzu (The Art of War) is a contented populace.

So, if by management, you mean counting (or accounting), you won't have success applying it to personalities or to technology. If, by management, you mean coercion, you can, for a brief time, deliver the appearance of consistency and contentment with personalities or technology, but you will only be masking a growing problem. If, by management, you mean a system of controls (governance) that produces consistency, predictability and reduced risk, only then will you be able to say that your technology (and your people) are being managed.

Fortunately, the controls necessary for effective implementation and application of technology are well understood (if largely ignored). The Software Engineering Institute's CMMI and ITIL are but two specifications for a system of controls. These are thorough and consistent and understanding them will enable you to create a system tailored to your organizational needs.
The future starts when "control" is accepted and welcomed.