Ricky & Stick - The Biggest System Isn't Always the Right Answer
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Tools, whether fishing rods or software systems, should be appropriate to both their intended use and their intended users. But often, there's a mismatch somewhere along the line. Sometimes, what the users want isn't what they really need. And sometimes, regardless of what they want, what they need is far from what they get.
Ricky's tumble into the drink came from this kind of mismatch. He was dazzled by bigger!, and paid no attention to the fact that the huge rod was far beyond his size and strength. Sometimes, organizations are equally dazzled by other things -- newer! fancier! better! cheaper! faster!" -- all of which are equally seductive and equally dangerous.
No one can doubt the DoD's need for the finest software systems possible, a need that will continue for the foreseeable future. But resources are finite, and they have been squandered too often, usually because realism somehow gets misplaced, just as happened to Ricky. So questions like the following are apt, and should be asked as early as possible: Are these the capabilities that we really need? Or is our true need somewhere else? What precisely will happen if we don't get this new system? If the acquisition is complex, or expensive, or controversial, does the system's potential benefit outweigh the risks should the acquisition fail? Is it imperative to take a large leap forward, or can there be several small steps? And are we trying to use a fishing rod that we have no business using?
When posing these questions, you will run the danger of "acting negative," or "being obstructionist," or "not thinking out of the box,' or some equally vacuous accusation. Keep the faith, friend. In response, you can point to a depressingly large number of failed software programs over the past two decades. Surely, totaling the cost of those wasted programs should be answer enough.
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