These two homilies illustrate the difference between goal-oriented and purpose-oriented thinking.
Conceptually, IT tradition almost willfully excludes strategic thinking, both by training and in practice. This distorts and severely constrains useful consideration of wants and needs, creating a self-fulfilling problem. Achieving the goal (winning the battle) but failing the purpose (losing the war) is the IT standard. Yet the IT industry seems not to even recognize the problem, let alone address it. Satisfying every last goal prescribed in a system requirements definition does not mean we have accomplished the overall purpose: providing effective information management. Limiting the expectations for a system to a relative handful of specific goals pretty much guarantees we will fail the overall purpose. |