7 deadly sins of tech

7 Deadly Sins of Tech

Rob DykeThe Digital Doc (v2.0)

DigiDoc Conference 10/11/13

Rob Dyke, [email protected]@robdykedotcom @tactix4

Hieronymus Bosch

mailto:[email protected]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

http://j.mp/1bhqteQ



A bit of latin to start the day

● Superbia● Avaritia● Luxuria● Invidia● Gula● Ira● Acedia.






No.1: Pride

Pride manifests as sin when it blinds people into thinking they know everything they need to know – even when they know very little – about a given topic.





No. 2: Greed

Being greedy today will cost you dearly tomorrow.





No. 3: Lust

Instead of carefully architecting your own unique digital plumbing that is the right fit, many try to model themselves after someone else and suffer with ill-fitting technology.





No. 4: Envy

You could say 'Here's what we need to do to fix these problems'....

Or you could say 'We can't fix any problems because the new EPR project has all the budget'





No. 5: Gluttony

One system to rule them all.





No. 6: Wrath

Nothing pisses people off more than being given crap technology – especially when they have better technology elsewhere.





No. 7: Sloth

For the sloth, there is always tomorrow – right up until they lose their job.





Healthcare.gov





Case-study

● Hyper-complexity● Dependency issues● All-new build● Rolling requirements● Anti-testing● Release late, release once● Anti-bugfixing

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-healthcare-gov/





Sources

Many 'IT Project Management for Complete Cretins' & 'Successful CTO' type books

Wikipedia

technologystory.com

infoworld.com

keepthejointrunning.com

arstechnica.com



This presentation was shared on Day 2 of The Digital Doctor Conference 2013.



Hieronymus Bosch

The Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins, in which guilt is relatively minor, and the more severe mortal sins.

Theologically, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person and thus creates the threat of eternal damnation.

According to Catholic moral thought, the seven deadly sins are not discrete from other sins, but are instead the origin ("capital" comes from the Latin caput, head) of the others.

"Deadly sins" can be either venial or mortal, depending on the situation, but "are called 'capital' because they engender other sins, other vices".


Image - The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a painting attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, completed around 1500 or later. http://j.mp/1bhqteQ



A bit of latin to start the day

● Superbia● Avaritia● Luxuria● Invidia● Gula● Ira● Acedia.

In the currently recognized version, the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

Superbia – PrideAvaritia – Greed / avariceLuxuria – LustInvidia – EnvyGula – GluttonyIra – WrathAcedia – Sloth




No.1: Pride

Pride manifests as sin when it blinds people into thinking they know everything they need to know – even when they know very little – about a given topic.

Thinking you have the ultimate technology strategy in place, or that your digital plumbing is perfect, is a dangerous perspective. This kind of viewpoint stops you from being open to learning about the improvements you could be making.

Pride tells people they can run IT projects on instinct.



No. 2: Greed

Being greedy today will cost you dearly tomorrow.

When an IT project fails, more often than not, it is due to a lethal combination of arrogance and greed.

The problem is "the devil's triangle":naive or arrogant customers who craft hopelessly unrealistic RFPs (requests for proposals);system integrators and consultants who promise to deliver what they know is impossible;and technology providers caught in the middle.

Technology is an investment: it is the underlying infrastructure you will build on for the coming decades.

Align incentives for those actors in the triangle over short, medium and long term.



No. 3: Lust

Instead of carefully architecting your own unique digital plumbing that is the right fit, many try to model themselves after someone else and suffer with ill-fitting technology.

There are many options when it comes to software and hardware and some people lust after the expensive options, or the shiny new object on the market. They see this as the magic dust that will make everything in their projects/companies better.

They lust for what the competition has. They want what companies larger than them have. They survey the market and then lust for the tools that others covet.

They lust for the new.

Instead of carefully architecting their own unique digital plumbing that is the right fit, they try to model themselves after someone else and suffer with ill-fitting technology.



No. 4: Envy

You could say 'Here's what we need to do to fix these problems'....

Or you could say 'We can't fix any problems because the new EPR project has all the budget'

Fiefdoms, kingdoms and silos have a tendency to develop over time as a project matures from start-up doctorpreneur to a company.

People stop sharing information and instead spend most of their time protecting their own turf and envying the status or budgets of others.

The result? Duplication, lack of transparency, and culture-destroying politics that can cripple an organization.

Budget envy happens in healthcare too; between departments and between cost centres.



No. 5: Gluttony

One system to rule them all.

On the individual level, the sin of hoarding information, an unwillingness to share one's expertise is mistakenly believed to be the path to job security.

On a information system perspective, Glutony can be understood as hording data, of building silos and not sharing data with anyone.

This is the whole platform play. The mega-EPR implementation which sucks up data, destroying established information systems and can only be administered by a clergy literate in the secret rites.



No. 6: Wrath

Nothing pisses people off more than being given crap technology – especially when they have better technology elsewhere.

The NHS Hackday group is full of posts from people trying to get better technology or services.

oPortfolioNHS email

You should try to be part of the solution – advise on technology choices by joining a tech strategy board or replying to that email survey.

E.g. cellcountr

Or you could be part of the problem. Suffer in silence.



No. 7: Sloth

For the sloth, there is always tomorrow – right up until they lose their job.

Lazy people hate to invest time learning because it is just too darn much work.

Slothful CTO-types probably believe they're not doing anything wrong … yet they lack an understanding of the business at large. They sit in his office naive and happy, executing everything according to specs that have everything to do with technology but little to do with the business.

Perhaps they assume they know enough already and would rather find more fun things to do, or simply do nothing, rather than make the investment in learning about the challenges facing the organisation they work in, or new technologies and methods.



Healthcare.gov



Case-study

● Hyper-complexity● Dependency issues● All-new build● Rolling requirements● Anti-testing● Release late, release once● Anti-bugfixing

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-healthcare-gov/

Government IT is no stranger to albatross ITprojects. The federal government, and the US Chief Information Officer and Office of Management and Budget in particular, have tried to fix the chronic illsof big, bad IT by applying metrics and dashboards and reviews. For a brief moment, the HealthCare dot gov project even showed up on the radar as a risky proposition. But the metrics that put it there were only tangentially related to the actual problems with the project itself. They focused specifically on cost and scheduling, not with the actual functionality of the system. The real problems with HealthCare.gov are related to the "worst practices" that went into the project nearly from the beginning. Each misstep, combined with a generally hostile atmosphere in Washington surrounding the Affordable Care Act, nearly guaranteed HealthCare.gov would be late, broken, or both



Sources

Many 'IT Project Management for Complete Cretins' & 'Successful CTO' type books

Wikipedia

technologystory.com

infoworld.com

keepthejointrunning.com

arstechnica.com