While that vast majority of information technology strategy for internal back office capability’s enablement is taken from a Rolling Stones Song lyric “ you can’t get what you want you get what you need “ (paraphrased for effect) the reality is for technology and business teams alike the real question great architects should always ask is what happens when “you” get what you want or need then what? The reality is technology efforts (and almost all efforts to add capabilities to ecosystems) are hedonic in nature. “things will be better when this is delivered” or “after this thing will be easier” the reality is there are no plateaus there are only climbs. Technology and business practitioners need to stop the hedonic cult worship and prompt the eternal game mentality to efforts where “After we get to x then we advance on y and after we get y we advance on z and after we get z we advance to AA….”
If you don’t know what Y, Z, and AA are your thinking to shallow, if you know every detail of what makes up AA, AB, and AC the you have missed key unknowns in X, Y, and Z. The Goldilocks zone is to know three things:
- Know that something is coming after your next major milestone.
- Have an opinion ( right or wrong) on that “after” and the “after after”.
- Reaffirm the mantra daily “ there is no end but next, and I need an option beyond Next”.
Now your playing the game not loosing the cycle.