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Book Review

Revolutionizing IT

The Art of Using Information Technology Effectively

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.—2002 (237 pages in hardback)

Authors–David H. Andrews and Kenneth R. Johnson

ISBN 0-471-25041-4

Don’t let the title of this book fool you. Even if you are not an Information Technology professional, this book might be for you. The authors state that the primary audience for the book is managers and knowledge workers within organizations that depend heavily on Information Technology (IT). That covers almost all managers and knowledge workers today! If you manage any complex task, are involved in improving how information is used within your organization, or are involved in any form of project management, this book is a worthy read.

The book is intentionally written in a nontechnical style for managers as well as IT professionals—from programmers to Chief Information Officers (CIOs). The authors present numerous profound principles that can be applied to project management in general, as well as the management of IT projects in particular.

The fundamental concept behind the book is that “managers do not have to become experts in technology to make effective use of it.” However, managers do need a new way of thinking about projects and need to learn new patterns of behavior. Half or more of IT projects fail due to what the authors call “IT project disease.” Symptoms of this “disease” include project abandonment, missed schedules, cost overruns, and delivery of less than what was expected. The authors offer a new view of this organizational affliction and present a philosophy and approach to cure it.

This new approach to IT project management is called the RITE approach. RITE stands for Revolutionizing IT Effectively. This approach is an integrated collection of observations and principles which provide guidelines to those making decisions regarding IT projects. Some of the fundamental issues addressed by the RITE approach include:

• How organizations should think about, organize, and carry out projects.
• Who should be accountable for the success of a project?
• What is reasonable to expect from a project.
• How project success should be defined.
• Why limits need to be set on the scope of the project.

You will notice that none of these issues relate solely to IT projects. That is the beauty of this book. Although the authors bring many decades of IT experience to the table, they have distilled principles that apply to any complex task or project.

It should be pointed out that the RITE approach is not a new methodology. It is not sufficient by itself to manage an IT project. As the authors state, “management principles do not take the place of good development practices.” In fact, the RITE approach advocates adherence to a strong, disciplined methodology. The book even briefly reviews the latest thinking in methodologies, including the “Agile” methodologies and Extreme Programming (XP). However, the primary focus of the book is on a higher level of thinking which addresses attitudes, assumptions, approaches, and the organizational culture that creates the environment in which projects are managed. “The culture of each organization includes its way of approaching problems and opportunities for improvement. Too often that approach sets up projects for failure.”

This book provides a realistic approach for dealing with highly complex and unstructured projects by addressing issues such as scope control, accountability, the reuse of proven ideas, and the need for balance. It also addresses the political realities of implementing the RITE approach. The book discusses how some will want to maintain the status quo, seeing that a change in philosophy and culture might threaten their power and prestige.

IT professionals are in the business of managing complex tasks and projects. Considerable learning has taken place since the publication of the excellent book, The Mythical Man-Month, over 20 years ago. David Andrews and Kenneth Johnson are true IT veterans, and distill their wealth of experience in this easily read book. Although the title of the book might lead you to think it is a technical book written only for IT professionals, I suggest that the principles presented are universal and, if applied, can have a powerful impact on any organization.

Review by Dr. J. Howard Baker

weLEAD rating - highly recommended

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