Fortunately significant progress has been made over the last fifty years, and there are known resources the systems innovator can draw on.
The whole process of innovation has been studied extensively (see, for example, Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, and Seeing What's Next; or Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, and Dealing with Darwin.) New product development and project management, two specific pieces of the innovation process, have also been widely studied and documented. The Project Management Institute has certification levels, training materials to help achieve these certifications, and periodic meetings of local chapters to hone and maintain skill sets. Similarly the Product Management and Development Association is a loose federation of professionals involved in the new product development and delivery process who share experiences and insights. Both organizations have extensive libraries which capture many of the successes and failures of the past, so that we can learn from others' mistakes rather than repeat them all ourselves.
Scenario planning is another indispensable tool for the systems innovator. Originally pioneered by Royal Dutch Shell before the energy crisis of the early 1970s, this technique is used by businesses today to plan their strategies. Since the most important technology related events in business are often disruptive events, linear projections of past performance are of little value in "seeing the future". With scenario planning, one envisions several futures-a desirable one, a troubled one and one somewhere in between. Assumptions leading to each of these possible futures are then captured and tracked, along with contingency plans related to each assumption. This puts the company in a position to quickly take advantage of opportunities and sidestep pitfalls. Since complex IT systems often require long lead times, combining scenario planning with modular, agile development techniques helps systems innovators be more responsive to business needs.
An increased emphasis on innovation in business has led to greater focus on design. Software developers have been doing design, either explicitly implicitly or explicitly, for over fifty years. What's new is the recognition, not only on the part of IT personnel, but managers in general that design does not apply uniquely to software, but to the whole business process in general. Rather than design software to meet current needs, companies on the leading edge are redesigning processes to take advantage of the opportunities software systems provide. And this design is a joint activity of both business and technical managers, a process of give and take of equals with a common purpose-to create a more customer responsive business. Lego provides a recent example. When Lego sold its first robot kit, someone reverse engineered and published on the web the software which drove the microprocessor brain of the robot. The company's initial reaction was to sue for patent infringement. They then reconsidered the free publicity they got from this individual's efforts, and invited more customers to participate in the design of a new kit, the Santa Fe diesel engine. Two hundred volunteers contributed freely of their time, talent, and ideas. Lego planned a production run of 10,000 kits, and had all of them sold via word of mouth advertising of the two hundred participants before they even finished the production run. This kind of design cooperation in the "interaction space" provided by web technologies contributes immeasurable business value to the company and product satisfaction to the consumer.
And last but not least, professional organizations provide support for systems innovators. The Association for Computing Machinery, which is actually an association of professionals, not of machines, provides resources that advance computing as a science and profession. The Association for Information Systems "is a professional organization whose purpose is to serve as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems." It does this through Special Interest Groups (SIGs), conferences and publications. The IEEE Computer Society's "vision is to be the leading provider of technical information, community services, and personalized services to the world's computing professionals." Participation in these professional societies can provide the system innovator a network of like-minded individuals to help him or her learn, grow, and succeed.
- 1319 reads
