IT stands for Information Technology. At one time, the abbreviation “ICT” still contained the “C”, or communication. However, since it was related only to the telecommunication sector and IT took over, we are now left with a two-letter acronym. Almost prophetically, we now see the process of IT lacking in communication.
In the ever-more complicated technology sector, we are grasping for Information, but we are lacking in Communication. We occasionally struggle with this, and seem to have forgotten that IT is all about Communication in the first place.
People perform work, and in order to work as a team, they have to communicate. Before the era of computers, we used verbal and written communication. Computers automated a portion of that labor-intensive writing process, as well as calculations. The important part in this process is the need for awareness that IT really, in essence, supports communication itself.
The never-ending story about communication is illustrated below:
- People communicate in their own language.
- Once we formalize our language in a set of fact statements..
- ..they can than be modeled as an information model.
- Logical models and other artifacts can than be generated.
- As soon as systems are produced with these communication based artifacts, the systems support our own communication.
- That's where the cycle simply repeats itself, as there is no end to the ever-changing cycle of people, the need for automation, and the desire for new technology.
The architectural stack can be separated into four categories: Informal, Formal, Facts, and Logical (including implementation code). The important message is that without communication, there is not any alignment, improper requirement analysis, inaccurate implementation, and poor testing and validation. This creates a technical debt, and the next cycle of IT production will very likely be poorly designed in a similar manner.
Keeping the communication within the I and T is crucial. In order for this to succeed, we must return to ICT where the new connotation now stands for “human” communication. Perhaps even the "hybrid" version of communication encompassing both humans and systems.
