Chris Peters: Microsoft Office Architect, Synchronize and Stabilize!

Vi è da anni nel settore delle metodologie relative allo sviluppo software un gran parlare e discutere su quale sia il processo più efficace o più adatto …
Nell’ambito delle tecnologie web (che sono oramai le tecnologie di punta per tutte le software farm, o quanto meno quelle su cui vi è maggior aspettativa) ormai si è di fatto affermato il concetto di perpetual beta (beta perenne)… il software cioè si evolve così velocemente e così agganciato al business da non consentire di arrivare ad una versione stabile del prodotto. Il paradosso è che la versione Online del software web, pur essendo sempre in versione beta, ha un suo livello di stabilità intrinseca dato anche dalla capacità e dall’abitudine mentale dei developer che lo evolvono e lo mantengono in esercizio di aggiornare progressivamente e fixare i bug e le nuove funzionalità con continuità… Essi sincronizzano e stabilizzano il software praticamente ogni giorno…
In effetti, e pochi lo sottolineano, tale metodologia di prassi oramai nell’ambito web (vedi Google e la sua consolidata filosofia di always in beta version) ha un suo precursore nel lavoro e nella teorizzazione realizzata in Microsoft a partire dalle prime versioni di Windows (anni '80) mediante un processo definito come Synchronize-and-Stabilize.

Synchronize-and-Stabilize è un processo di sviluppo software assai efficace ed orientato principalmente alla realizzazione del prodotto… come dicono gli americani focalizzato fortemente quindi unicamente to ship products.
Ecco di seguito le parole, che descrivono con efficacia tale filosofia di sviluppo software, di Chris Peters, l’Architetto Microsoft che guidò il team che integrò, in modalità Synchronize-and-Stabilize, le prime versioni di Microsoft Office :

“Everybody in a business unit has exactly the same job description and that is to ship products. Your job is not to write code. Your job is not to test. Your job is not to write specs.

Your job is only to ship products....

When you wake up in the morning and you come to work, you say what is the focus? Are we trying to ship? Are we trying to write code? The answer is we are trying to ship.... You're trying not to write code.

If we could make all this money by not writing code, we'd do it.”

Gartner costs cutting: 25 ways to cut IT costs

Gli IT Architect sono figure intermedie che indirizzano le scelte tecniche dei team IT anche e soprattutto in virtù di una loro valenza economica… e quindi devono tener conto dell’economic meltdown in atto ed agire di conseguenza.
E come adesso dicono gli anglosassoni con una battuta… questi son tempi in cui i Chief Financial Officer divengono i veri CIO!!!

Gartner ha di recente emesso una sorta di vademecum operativo (25 suggerimenti) su come operare un efficace controllo dei costi attraverso i quattro versanti trasversali dell’IT:

- IT management
- enterprise software
- enterprise infrastructure and operations (networks and telecom)
- enterprise infrastructure (hardware & IT operations)

Eccoli di seguito:

Cut costs through more effective IT management methods

-Focus initially on cutting "people costs": Freeze headcount, reduce/eliminate special bonuses, reduce regional support.
-Flatten organization structure: Move to collaborative, team-based models.
-Accelerate the progress of centralized and shared services: Leverage enterprise-wide competencies, reduce staff embedded in business units.
-Bring a qualified finance person into your IT leadership team, perhaps on loan or on temporary contract.
-Maintain or strengthen relationship management roles: Business analysts, business process and industry experts, account executives, relationship managers.
-Take control of "unmanaged" costs you can measure and cut easily, such as data center power consumption or printing.

Cut costs in enterprise software (Caution ahead!)

-Use invoice verification.
-Eliminate unused software/modules. Understand who's using what and why. Lots of closet cleaning here.
-Apply more sophisticated negotiations."You can't put someone who bought pencils into a negotiation" with a big software vendor, Gartner's Bill Snyder said. "They'll get eaten alive."
-Use alternative products included in previous deals.
-Introduce competition for existing products. You must foster vendor competition if you hope to lower costs. If you decide to switch, make sure you calculate the cost of taking out the incumbent beforehand.
-Use "best-for-need" rather than "best-of-breed" products. You could be paying as much as a 50% premium for best of breed, Snyder said.

Cut costs in enterprise infrastructure and operations: Networks and telecom

-Use telecom expense management services (save 10% to 35%). Nobody can keep track of this stuff. Hire a professional to source, benchmark, negotiate the contracts, etc., and audit the bills.
-Move to corporate liability for wireless services (save 15% to 30%). Who's responsible for the bills of individuals, what devices they use? The enterprise should take control and set standards, Gartner analyst Phil Redman said.
-Reduce the reliability target for a location by "one 9" (save 30%).
-Collapse rich media conferencing into a premises-based multi-control point unit (save 60%). As hardware costs come down, building your own videoconferencing center can save big money over the long run, assuming you do a lot of it.
-Deploy IP telephony and Voice over Internet Protocol (save 50% to 80% of maintenance).
-Use the Internet as corporate transport (save 10% to 80%).

Cut costs in enterprise infrastructure, hardware and IT operations

-Defer 2008 Windows XP PC replacements to 2009. Three-year-old PCs and 2-year-old laptops might be able to go another year, but you should be mindful of the maintenance costs, Gartner analyst Michael Silver said.
-Exploit commoditization: the best-for-need instead of best-of-breed argument, redux.
-Make better use of existing tools by improving process and policy.
-Defer client architecture pilot/evaluation projects.
-Implement thin provisioning and data de-duplication for storage reduction.
-Consolidate and virtualize servers.

Emerging trends in IT cost pressure
Target two or three areas for "zero-based budgeting" in 2009.
Start the process soon Gartner said: "Current-year cost-saving opportunities will be revealed."