Technology - plan the work, work the plan

This week we've been doing a lot of reading on technology planning - or the lack of it, mostly. The reading that I most enjoyed, if that is the word for it, was called the Chaos Report by the Standish Group, from way back in 1995 (along with the follow up study called "What Went Wrong" by KPMG in Canada. I'm guessing that things have not improved significantly since then, based on my experiences in the technology world thus far. The high rate of failure for software projects across the board is a bit scary, given that our modern world is so dependent on technology to keep us safe and productive. Without question, there is a strong case to be made for improving the way technology is planned and implemented.

This weeks readings also had me thinking about a psychology study I read some years ago that discovered that the people who are least competent think they are way more competent than they are and the more competent people tend to rate themselves as less competent than they really are. Obviously, this is at work in many areas, but when I think about technology and how difficult it is to really know what is going on at a micro and macro level, it seems like this principle may account for a good many of the failures in technology projects.

One guy that seems to know his stuff, Robert E. Dugan wrote a great article on Information Technology Plans in the Journal of Academic Leadership. I appreciated the very practical approach and recommendations he presented. For example, knowing how things work in any organization is important, so he suggests that if the Technology Plan is following in the footsteps of another plan, use the same approach to organizing of the previous plan. If it worked the first time, probably best not to mess around too much and just work with what you already have in place. Dugan also presents a lot of information quickly and concisely and I'm sure to keep his report highlighted for future reference.

I also had the chance to review several state library technology plans this week. Although there is a lot of information presented, it also seems to me that there is a fairly pervasive lack of clarity about how technology can and should be used in state libraries at this point. It's good to know that people are thinking about this important area, but it does seem that we need to work even harder to develop and deploy the most helpful technology so that precious budget dollars aren't squandered for the sake of technolust.