in reply to Re: IT decisions are driven by business needs
in thread IT decisions are driven by business needs

This is going to sound extremely harsh and cold, but those are realities. And, frankly, I'm not sure those realities should change. Liability will always catch up with a company. Yes, some people may be adversely affected. Some of those people may be people I know and love. I will be very furious by that and attempt to address it. That doesn't mean that my philosophical stance is any different.

Before you return back with an idea that you can predict risk, let me put this in front of you - if the current risk-averse culture had been in place a hundred years ago, we would NOT have:

I'm sure I could come up with another 500 items like that. Risk drives innovation. Without high-risk/high-reward, there is no incentive. Think about that before you respond.
My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
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Re^3: IT decisions are driven by business needs
by gloryhack (Deacon) on Apr 15, 2007 at 02:52 UTC
    Remaining on point, the fact is that consultants and contractors are not shielded as are employees and officers. If as a consultant or contractor you create, enable, or perpetuate a hazard the full measure of responsibility for any harm done is upon your back. In some cases, failure to mitigate a hazard is just a minor division below enabling or perpetuating it.

    Maybe your wealthy client can afford to pay out a few million and still show a profit while sleeping soundly at night, but if you cannot then you owe it to yourself to fully mind your own best interests.

    I don't care to give further voice to my opposition to laissez faire capitalism or the folly of a pseudo-religious belief in Smith's invisible hand, so I'll just let that go and spare the monastery the negative vibe.

    Be well.

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Re^3: IT decisions are driven by business needs
by wfsp (Abbot) on Apr 14, 2007 at 14:27 UTC
    I thought about it.

    There is incentive without high risk/high reward.

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      Sure. But, aspirin would never have been allowed past the current FDA, and neither would ibuprofen. The airplane would have been grounded by the current product safety commission, as would the car. Plastics tend to produce so many byproducts that the EPA would have banned all production of it. And electricity? Can you imagine a new coal-fired plant being built other than by overriding the EPA?

      The point is that all of these products were invented between 1850 and 1920. Every one of these products is key to the world as we know it. And, all of them would have been killed in infancy had they been invented today. What does that say about our current culture and its risk/reward analysis?

      My criteria for good software:
      1. Does it work?
      2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
[reply]
        What does that say about our current culture and its risk/reward analysis?

        It says we've learned from our mistakes.

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