Why do you upgrade your mistakes

In an article in Computer Sweden today, Ivar Jacobson the father of use-case wrote about being smart. In conclusion he wrote that “you don’t have to repeat the mistakes of others”.

I gave it some thought and of course you should try not to repeat the mistakes of others, but inevitably you’ll make some mistakes that others has made before you. The biggest problem in todays IT-driven business isn’t that we occasionally repeat others mistakes, it’s that we continue to upgrade the mistakes we are faced with. Thus creating one of two problems, either a highly complex environment or a monolithic inflexible structure. Worse we could create a highly complex monolithic structure. Remember that the mistakes we are faced with, might be the success of yesterdays heroes (the boss of today). So tread carefully on the marshland of change, but be swift when the sponsor is in and make the move without remorse.

Do you have samples of where the pattern of continuously upgrading mistakes has been at play, then comment this so we can learn.

Myself I’ve seen several such mistakes. One that comes to mind is an organization that installed a portal software as an organizational wide intranet. They where never able to capitalize on the capabilities of the software, mainly because lack of interest from division managers. They have decided to upgrade the software to the next generation, an even more complex product. Of course they will fail once again, since it is the same staff and the same managers, thinking the same thoughts. This is a perfect example of “continuously upgrading mistakes”.

Thank you Ivar for the spark of thought gave me on this Friday morning, now I’ll go and tear down the ceiling in my living room.