in reply to Re^8: IT decisions are driven by business needs
in thread IT decisions are driven by business needs

I would argue that NASA is an excellent example of the type of organization that fits my OP assertions. It has a set of customers that provide it with funding. As such, all projects, especially IT ones, need to be aligned to meet the needs of those customers.

I think most people have been looking at the NASA example the wrong way. It's not about how you would evaluate the value of NASA's products/services. It's about how the NASA management perceives how the US government values NASA's products/services. It is only then that business alignment can take place.

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?
  • Comment on Re^9: IT decisions are driven by business needs

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Re^10: IT decisions are driven by business needs
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Apr 15, 2007 at 03:36 UTC

    I think NASA is a brilliant organisation. That I might have had a chance to work there, is one of very few reasons I might have wished to have grown up in the US rather than the UK.

    However, if you see it's relationship with the "US government" as being in anyway analogous to the relationship between a 'normal' business and either it's customers or shareholders, then I think you are politically very naive.

    For reference: An article from 2005 by David Black, the current chair of the American Astronomical Society. An Impending Crisis for NASA Science

    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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