Todd Biske: Outside the Box

Presenter: Matt Hotle

“Governance is the key to predictable results” is the title of his first slide. At first glance, I disagreed with this statement, but as he explained it, he emphasized the use of policies and how they guide decision making. That I agree with. I don’t know if I’m comfortable going so far as to saying it’s the key to predictable results. I think it’s the term “predictable” that’s causing my discomfort. As I’ve said before, governance is about achieving a desired behavior, which is a slightly different view than predictable results. When I hear “desired behavior,” I don’t think of standard processes, when I hear “predictable results,” I do. Perhaps I’m nitpicking since I’m somewhat passionate about this space.

BTW, 92 minutes into the Steve Jobs’ keynote, iPhone 3G has just been announced. Are they selling them anywhere in the Orlando World Center Marriott? No? Rats. Now back to governance.

The slide he’s showing now has one very good nugget. He states, “SOA Governance needs… a funding model to maintain services as assets (service portfolio management/chargeback).” I’ve always felt that if an organization wants to do services the right way (see Service Lifecycle Management), it would inevitably wind up challenging the typical project-based funding model in most IT shops. Matt is now talking about the term “application” and while he didn’t go as far as I have in the past (see The End of the Application), he did make it clear that the notion of “application” needs to change. He just hit another key point with me! He said that what he’s outlining is “product management” and most IT shops don’t have a clue how to do product management. Boy does that sound very familiar (see this, this, this, this, and listen to this).