Changing the Direction of Government IT

I love that the UK government review of IT outsourcing deals has been nicknamed the “Ocean Liner report”, in reference to the amount of time it takes to change the direction of a large vessel.

The UK is hardly alone in having dug a deep hole of contractual obligation and learned helplessness, but they were among the first to publicly acknowledge their problem and start work on fixing it. So the rest of us watch with great interest, and try to formulate our own plans.

This afternoon I was invited to talk about technology directions to an audience of technical architects in the BC government. It was a great group, and they seemed raring to go, by and large.

Changing the Direction of Government IT

I titled my talk “Let’s Get Small” in homage to my favourite comedian, Steve Martin.

Our collective IT ocean liners will be slow to change course, but step one is turning the wheel.