Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Following are the typical justifications used to support outsourcing. Some have been well-covered in the media, while others are less public and more controversial. In next week's Alignment E-Mail Advisor, we'll look at the case AGAINST outsourcing.

A respected colleague who specializes in CASE tools and object- oriented methodologies wrote to me a few days ago, suggesting that a comparison between large Y2000 projects and large "normal" projects was like comparing apples and oranges. "All in all," he suggested, "Y2000 projects lack many of the complexity drivers which condemn a large percentage of new developments to failure. This should mean that they are generally much more likely to be completed in time."

A Canadian radio talk-show host called me a few days ago, asking if I would participate in a "live" debate about the Y2000 problem. She had found a programmer who was willing to argue that Y2000 would be "no big deal," and she was hoping that I would articulate the gloom-and-doom, "end of the world" position. I decided not to participate, largely because of the confusion I thought it would create in the minds of the audience.

A Canadian radio talk-show host called me a few days ago, asking if I would participate in a "live" debate about the Y2000 problem.

Years ago, one of my children misbehaved at the dinner table in a rather obnoxious way. As punishment, I told him he would have no dessert and that he would be confined to his bedroom for the rest of the evening.

Crestfallen, my son got down from the table -- and then stopped to ask if it would be acceptable to spend the rest of the evening in my bedroom, rather than his. Taken by surprise, I asked for an explanation.