Let's dance. (on trends in systems development)

The more I learn, the dumber I become. Let me see if I can "drill down" to the heart of the matter here. Many of the industry publications are beginning to talk about "Enterprise Wide Computing." Many articles are beginning to mention that Systems People should become more business oriented. (Imitation, or downright larceny in some of these cases, being flattery; I'm flattered.)

Experts are making very good cases for shifting the emphasis from "How" things are done (the toys) to "What" is being done (running the business). You'd think I would be feeling kind of smug. Well, I ain't.

Has "Advanced Bamboozling" become a common part of the average university curriculum? Is it being taught as a mandatory part of in-house training? Much of what is now being written sounds as if these "new" concepts have just been invented. We're going to have "New Wave" managers who may actually need to understand the Accounting package that their folks are trying to build.

One of the fastest selling pieces of software in the world is heralded as thinking from the next century because it is based on the entry of data once and as close as possible to its source. PUHUHUHHLEEZ!!!

Hector was a gleam in his daddy's eye when these ideas were invented. Do you suppose that double entry Accounting will be the next fad? Even these insipid articles, though, don't frost me as much as what stands behind them. This is simply a new management trend. Having something I believe in become hip or trendy doesn't make me all that happy. Because it will simply be hip and trendy. It will have a short life. Read the Want Ads and see if they are still "hardware & software I have known." (They are.) Why are we still building basic applications?