Research and develop, play and learn
We play to learn; this never more so than when dealing with a fast changing and fast growing set of opportunities to play (learn) such as information technology. Without play IT systems only progress at great expense, if at all. If we can immediately and clearly see a particular or specific use for a product or customisation, that's great, but often it's just a product that may or may not have any use, but until we play with it and see what we can make it do, we just can't be sure.
Going open source greatly facilitates play and makes a final solution considerably more sustainable and scaleable than going proprietary, hence my general interest in solutions from the open source arena. I'm certain that proprietary solutions with any degree of flexibility are at least as complex to customise to a given need, even if "out of the box" they are occasionally easier to get going.
Play is at its most productive slightly undirected, so the criteria for evaluating new technologies is simple. For any prospective new technology, ask this: do you think we might find a use for it? If yes, then play away, collaborating when necessary, with people in or out of the organisation. If no, stop! There's always something else to play with.
This is generally true with IT play. When you conclude a particular solution is worthless, abandon it and move on; when you find something that's cool, spread it around, and in either case talk to people about it (especially me!), as communication is another key learning method. On occasion I like to throw something at somebody; but whoever it is should feel free to throw it right back if they already have plenty to do. When someone has nothing to play with, they can ask me for suggestions, there's plenty out there. Or ask others if there's anything you can help "play" with; collaboration and participation are other excellent ways to learn. On really rare occasions I might just tell someone to put a particular toy down; on the other hand I am more likely to provide reinforcements so they can focus full-time on something particularly exciting.
If support is needed when working on something, people should speak up (communicate!). If it's a problem related to server side technologies, office productivity tools or just plain weird, you never know, I might be of actual use 
, or know someone who can help. This side of IT work is ongoing and in my experience (eventually...) highly productive. Think of playing and learning as just enough way to describe R&D, where the final output is about giving OA a competitive edge, whether by reducing our costs, improving the effectiveness of data collection or making us appear better and shinier than the competition.
Research and develop, play and learn, that's what IT has to be about...
Posted at 02:00PM Jul 12, 2007 by Chris Puttick in Management |