It Gets the Job Done
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To be clear, there is a big difference between not bothering and just being bad. A wedding planner will often fail to make a wedding be the wedding of someone's dreams - but generally they try. It's easy to fail. Failure doesn't mean they were lazy or sabotaged it or anything - sometimes you just can't make these things work.
Even well meaning and hard working CEOs have businesses go under and fail. Well intentioned, hard working IT people often implement systems that are inefficient, overly expensive or whatever.
But the point here to recognize that the situations are identical. The job of business people and IT people is just like a wedding planner - to make as much profit as possible, not to just "turn the lights on until the company goes under."
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I kind of agree with BRRABill the examples, althought at the most basic level are accurate, don't represent well enough the trouble.
"Good enough" or "It get's the job done" with regards to IT is greatly expressed by a company who purchases a few computers to run their POS system on.
These computers, are running Windows XP, and work, they process transactions as customers purchase items, they print receipts etc.
Where it doesn't work or isn't nearly "good enough' is that the POS system is a P.O.S. If the software works, but hasn't been updated to run on a more secure platform, and for some insane reason can't be virtualized the software is not worth paying for.
IT has the responsibility in this case, to offer a modern POS system that can take advantage of modern technology, for a greatly increased benefits.
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@DustinB3403 said:
"Good enough" or "It get's the job done" with regards to IT is greatly expressed by a company who purchases a few computers to run their POS system on.
And a CEO saying that and losing money when they do it would be no different to their shareholders than a wedding planner is to a bridge when he creates a horrible wedding that she hates.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Where it doesn't work or isn't nearly "good enough' is that the POS system is a P.O.S. If the software works, but hasn't been updated to run on a more secure platform, and for some insane reason can't be virtualized the software is not worth paying for.
How is that different than the wedding? The wedding "got the job done." Just poorly and the people tasked with making it great did not do so. Same with a bad POS system - the people tasked with making a POS system that makes the company money apparently failed to do so. But it is a "functional POS", so it "gets the job done" just like the wedding managed to get people married.
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But a CEO is not an IT Person. He is not the expert. He would hire skilled IT persons (hopefully) to tell him to not do something such as that.
His expertise should be "Knowing how to run a business" or "We need an expert" (per case). His expertise should be how to run a business.
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But something like QB. Granted, there are free options that have equal or better features.
But it's like you hired a DJ for your wedding. He played music and didn't ruin your wedding. Though you later find out there was a cheaper DJ who also gives out party favors.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@DustinB3403 said:
Where it doesn't work or isn't nearly "good enough' is that the POS system is a P.O.S. If the software works, but hasn't been updated to run on a more secure platform, and for some insane reason can't be virtualized the software is not worth paying for.
How is that different than the wedding? The wedding "got the job done." Just poorly and the people tasked with making it great did not do so. Same with a bad POS system - the people tasked with making a POS system that makes the company money apparently failed to do so. But it is a "functional POS", so it "gets the job done" just like the wedding managed to get people married.
If the people don't show up to the correct wedding, the wedding planner clearly didn't do the job at all though. The Wedding planners job is to arrange the wedding.
Not to ensure that the couple get married.
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But for most businesses, QBs job is to print check, sends invoices, and do payroll.
Not to ensure the company is a success.
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Again, I am not defending QBs. I've honestly never really used it. It could be HORRIBLE.
But it's like the argument where OpenOffice is the only option because it is free and has similar features. It doesn't mean MS Office is bad.
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@DustinB3403 said:
But a CEO is not an IT Person. He is not the expert. He would hire skilled IT persons (hopefully) to tell him to not do something such as that.
That's a red herring. The CEO's job is to make the company profitable. Hiring and relying on a mixture of IT advisers, financial advisers and good business decision making is what he is there to do. Whether the CEO is being reckless and making IT decisions that he does not understand, can't be bothered to listen to good advice, won't pay for the needed skills or whatever ultimate is his responsibility. It is assumed that the CEO is not IT. Successful companies do not see that as a problem. There is no need for a CEO to be in IT for a company to have good IT strategies.
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@BRRABill said:
But it's like the argument where OpenOffice is the only option because it is free and has similar features. It doesn't mean MS Office is bad.
True and totally unrelated. That MS Office is a good product has no relevance to the fact that IT and business people not bothering to do their jobs is bad. There is no conceptual relationship here.
This is like saying that putting sugar in your gas tank is bad and responding that just because Ford is great, doesn't make Chevy bad. Sure, but what does the price of gas in Oregon matter to a cupcake baker in Germany?
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@scottalanmiller Well lets step away from the CEO approach. (You have more experience then I here).
Let look at the Wedding Planner.
The Planner's job, is to arrange the wedding, transportation, flowers, music.
The Planner's job does not include that the couple get married.
It can't be, the planner might have done an awful job, for which you're rightfully owed money back.
In the case that the Planner failed at their job (Planning and coordinating the wedding event) is completely detached from the fact they the couple got married.
The two aren't attached. It could have been an Amazing Wedding, and the couple decides to call it off, the planner still gets paid for their services.
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@BRRABill said:
But for most businesses, QBs job is to print check, sends invoices, and do payroll.
Not to ensure the company is a success.
This is exactly what I mean by getting lost in proximate goals and losing sight of the actual goals. EVERYTHING a business does is to ensure company success. Literally everything. If any action is taken for another reason, that means that that action should be stopped. If QB is being implemented against the needs of the business intentionally, that is sabotage and should not happen.
This is the exact concept this thread is about - don't confuse a proximate goal with the ultimate goal. You would not implement QB if you knew if would cause immediate bankruptcy, right? Why would you do it if you only knew it "wasn't in the interest of the business" but wouldn't directly cause total failure? Both cases are the same, one is just more immediate and obvious.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@scottalanmiller Well lets step away from the CEO approach. (You have more experience then I here).
Let look at the Wedding Planner.
The Planner's job, is to arrange the wedding, transportation, flowers, music.
The Planner's job does not include that the couple get married.
It's not the IT or the business' job to print checks, do the taxes or make payroll. That's finance. IT and the business acquire, implement and manage the tools for doing it. So very, very much like the wedding planner.
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The relation is, I feel your argument is like saying
"Why would you ever use MS Office? OpenOffice is basically the same, and most companies using MS Office are just wasting money."
It IS true. But like the other thread stated, it's not like people need to be tar and feathered for it.
Now, there ARE scenarios that you are 100% right. Take the RAID5 for example. Instances where hard data has shown something to cause significant danger or loss. Or say someone wanted to come in and charge $100K to design a custom-made office applcation suite for you.
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@DustinB3403 said:
The two aren't attached. It could have been an Amazing Wedding, and the couple decides to call it off, the planner still gets paid for their services.
Just like IT. Bring in IT consultants, they help you out and you decide to shut down the business because you decide that your business plan was poor. You still pay the IT firm, it's not their fault.
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@BRRABill said:
The relation is, I feel your argument is like saying
"Why would you ever use MS Office? OpenOffice is basically the same, and most companies using MS Office are just wasting money."
No, this is a completely disconnected leap. You've taken a discussion about "clear decision making" and are trying to say "MS Office is bad." I don't agree that it is bad and see zero connection to the discussion. If you want to talk about MS Office being a product so bad that no honest business person would purchase it, that deserve a thread to discuss. But it doesn't relate here.
There is nothing in this conversation that should trigger a thought like this.
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@scottalanmiller said:
You would not implement QB if you knew if would cause immediate bankruptcy, right?
Of course not.
Why would you do it if you only knew it "wasn't in the interest of the business" but wouldn't directly cause total failure? Both cases are the same, one is just more immediate and obvious.
Have we ever officially established QB is so imminently disastrous?
And again, if we were starting out with a fresh company, of course we'd give them a myriad of options. But to try and get an established QB company to move just because ... there are better options which might save them a few bucks? I'm not sure that's a fair argument.
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I completely skipped this entire thread after the examples. The examples are completely not what "It gets the job done" means. Those examples were all 100% deliberately sabotaged jobs.
"It gets the job done" does not mean sabotaging the job. It means that the product does the job it is needed to do. It does certainly leave room for a job to be done better.
@scottalanmiller if you want to start this over and be willing to have an intelligent conversation based on real examples, I will participate.
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@BRRABill said:
It IS true. But like the other thread stated, it's not like people need to be tar and feathered for it.
I don't know many people that would agree that that is true. Not from the business or the IT side. Lots of people will agree that MS Office is not the only solution. I've never talked to any seasoned pro who felt it was universally evil and had no value scenario.
This isn't the place for MS Office bashing, start about thread and we can discuss its merits or lack thereof there.
