Everything that's wrong

This week I had two conversations with moments I could call revealing, if it weren’t for the fact that they reflect things I have always known, that many of you know, and that we have talked about many times in this space.

The first was with one of our technology vendors. During the conversation he told me: “I’m going to speak in more technical terms because I know you’re comfortable with technology”.

The second was with an academic friend, who told me about the programming courses for executives his university runs. The remarkable part was finding out how these executives are amazed at how hard programming is, and that only then do they understand the estimates their development teams give them, the ones they consider exaggerated.

About the first one I have to say it doesn’t surprise me, but I regret it. It’s a shame that the people in charge of making technology decisions in companies, the ones who buy technology and approve the purchase of this or that software license, know so little about technology. But it happens, and in far too many institutions.

The second is a consequence of the first. It would be interesting to take a census of how many IT departments report to executives trained in business administration, or in other fields, without the slightest background in software development.

That is an important part of everything that’s wrong with the local tech industry. It’s very wrong, and we have to do something about it.