IT futures

I had one big set piece presentation today on complexity and the role of IT and started off with a list of major changes I see coming over the next few years.  Always a hostage to fortune but at least it gets people thinking.  The podcast (not sure of the quality) and slides are both available.  

I punched a lot of material into 45 minutes but enjoyed it and got some very interesting questions at the end.  That was a bit if a surprise, but a welcome one.   The large number of CIOs seeking to find purpose and a strategic role was probably one reason for this.   

The five I pulled out were:

• Applications will become emergent properties of user interaction with apps within object orientated architecture, ERP systems creating a new legacy issue
• Client environment will be the employees choice, IT constraints will fall back to architecture, infrastructure and data; integration of business & IT
• User requirements capture will no longer be linked to specific applications, but will be continuous real time scanning using human sensor networks
• Criticality of human metadata – dangers of technofetishm & reduction in intelligence in the Big Data fad.  People driven not data driven (twitter)
• Early stage development shifts to multiple, parallel & frequently contradictory safe-to-fail  experimental developments using self-selecting mixed teams

Nothing new there for frequent followers, but some different emphasis and argument.  From there I moved on to why software should be considered as a service not a product, how to do use requirements capture and how not to measure.

At the drinks session afterwards there were a lot of interesting discussions and in response to one I dug out this article from the New Statesman on the absence of women in IT and the link of said absence to the association of gaming with IT education.   I must admit I think it puts off a lot of men too.  

As ever the real issue is to focus on technology as a tool, not a fetish.  I remember I got into computing because it made it easier to do things in business, not for its own sake.  A little more of that, a little less nerd would help!