November 15, 2007
Dear Everyone:
Last month the Powers That Be (PTB) decided to take a giant step back and look at what was actually happening in the Global Information Link (GIL3) project, particularly as it pertained to Information Management (IM). They didn’t like what they saw.
This week, in a “town hall” meeting, management sort of told us all what that was going to mean. It means they’ve decided not to use GIL3 as an excuse to ram IM down people’s throats. Instead they’ve come up with some “curves” in the approach to IM.
The first “curve” involves educating people and improving the culture around the concept of IM. This includes making people aware of the fact that the documents that they create don’t really belong to them; they belong to the company. For some people, this is going to be difficult to swallow.
But this approach is better than bashing them over the head with technology that will force them to swallow. Educate first; technology later (as in when Microsoft gets around to developing the technology.)
So what does this mean for the File Plan? The File Plan Team is scrambling to try and “complete” the File Plan, as it exists now, before the plug gets pulled. The “Governance Team” (GT) is busily going through each of the Functional Areas to finish it up and tie it up “with a bow”. In the meantime, the rest of the Team has been put to “mining for nuggets”.
This means going through all the documentation for each Design or Review Session (just under 200) looking for any “nuggets” of information that we want to capture in case the File Plan is implemented at some time in the future. (The general consensus is that the File Plan will be “tied up with a bow” and then placed in mothballs until someone decides to use it. Someone important enough, that is.)
I caught the job of “tracking” all of this “mining”. I have it all together in a spreadsheet. As of this afternoon, all but two of the sessions had been “mined” and, hopefully by the end of tomorrow, I’ll have entered the data into the spreadsheet. Then someone gets to go through it and determine if any of the “nuggets” are worth anything.
In the meantime, movies…
American Gangster is a tale of two men. One is Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington. Frank is an astute businessman who figures that he can make a lot of money by delivering a superior product at a lower price than his competition. He’s right. Unfortunately, his product is heroin.
Russell Crowe plays the other man, Ritchie Roberts, a police detective who is so intrinsically honest that he turns in a million dollars in cash, which causes his fellow cops to suspect him of being on the take. Ritchie is oblivious to this because he’s too busy going to school at night to become a lawyer.
The movie switches back and forth between the two characters as they each strive to improve their lot in life. Ultimately, of course, they clash in a crescendo. But that’s not the end of the movie. There’s an epilogue that takes it all in a new direction.
All of this is “based on a true story” which is Hollywood-ese for “very, very loosely based on some real things that happened to some real people a really, really long time ago.” To be taken with a large grain of salt.
Programming Note: I’m on vacation next week (yeah!!!). Thursday and Friday are company-observed holidays so, by taking Monday through Wednesday as vacation days, I get the whole week off. I’m really looking forward to it. So no Letter next week.
Everyone have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.
Love, as always,
Pete
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