Deep and Broad

Focus

One of my teachers said once that after a point we have to decide about knowing increasingly more of increasingly less or knowing increasingly less of increasingly more. This dilemma was bugging me quite a while, than I had the privilege to talk with karate master who told me that the real big masters of this art use only a couple of movement, but that they do perfectly. Knowing more about less to achieve more isn't it? 

No it seems that all the world is spinning around this wisdom; the 80/20 rule or the Theory of Constraints all suggest to limit the things we concentrate on, and in fact successful people and companies seem to focus only on a couple of important things.  Every business has to excel in something to be successful and that needs focus. The time of polihistors has gone, teams and cooperation is better. (Or so it seems.)

And what about IT?

An IT department doesn't seem to fit in this picture. IT people has to know something about everything; from databases to routers, from Internet to printers and from VPN to Excell macros they must be informed and up do date. In fact I very seldom hear that an IT department is successful, at the best it meets it targets (which is basically the same but the word success isn't used very often). The only exception is when IT steps out the role it's forced into and creates something new. But it's not common.

So has IT a chance to be focused and successful? Probably not. The only thing which is realistic to separate operations and control it like a super effective six sigma process, and meanwhile focus on a very limited portfolio of innovative projects. For both you must understand the business you are supporting. With other words yours must be the best IT shop in supporting the business of your company.