Reader Feedback on Gartner CIO Survey

Published: March 13, 2007

Last week, when I wrote Gartner CIO Survey Shows Different Priorities for Business and IT in 2007, I was coming back from winter break with my family after driving and flying through the same winter storm three times as I moved eastward from New Mexico to New York. I was tired and a bit grumpy, and when I sat down to write on Sunday, I was not in much of a mood for nonsense. This is often the best time to write, I have learned over the years. Grumpiness brings a kind of mental clarity.

One reader of the story seemed to agree with my assessment of the differences between the priorities of business managers surveyed by Gartner recently and their chief information officers. And, you can tell this reader is from Europe pretty easily, too.

Hi Tim:

Just a note to say that I loved your article about Gartner's pronouncements on business and IT. While one ought to have the strength of one's convictions no matter who disagrees, it is reassuring to see a respected colleague voicing thoughts so similar to my own.

I'm inclined to believe that the idealized business and IT communities (inasmuch as they exist) have a relationship similar to that of George W. Bush's White House with people like the CIA and climate change scientists. That is, the pettyfogging fact-pickers stuck at the "reality" level are annoying to the grandiose conceptual visionaries. But when the inevitable collision with reality leaves everyone nursing bloody noses, it is usually the pond life at the coal face (!) who get the blame.

There is a lot of truth in Scott Adams' depiction of the engineers vs. the PHB (unsurprisingly, as he now draws heavily on true stories for his material).

Cheers,

--Tom

Editor's note: PHB is short for "pointy haired boss"--something I will never be accused of being, since I have no hair on the top of my head--and it is slang in the popular and wickedly funny Dilbert cartoon for an incompetent manager. I suppose I could be a CDBWCG--chrome dome boss with commie goatee. ;-{P>

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