Using Corporate Memory LO3219

mbayers@mmm.com
Tue, 17 Oct 1995 13:22:28 -0500

Replying to LO3185

I find the idea of explicitly recording the 'corporate memory' a critical
issue in my area -- the construction of information systems. Further,
it's a idea to which we pay virtually no attention. The result is that
our environments get more and more complex, with more and more strange
and unpredictable interactions. And the further result is that no one
really -knows- why the prior generation of systems designers did what
they did. The guesses range from mere mis-guidedness to substance abuse
-- and then the guesses get more sinister or cynical.

I try (with only modest success) to get designers to record (either in a
journal or a database or a 'lab notebook' or someplace) -enough of the
important stuff-. Of course, that begs the questions, What's enough?
What's the important stuff.

I suggest that when trying to look to the future they first look to the
past. When they found themselves puzzled by something in the past, what
did they wish that the prior designer could whisper in their ears to help
them out? Based on that insight, what do they think they need to record
for the -next- generation? I also encourage them to record not just the
objective things (e.g., we chose YadaYada as the database manager because
of it's large user base), but also the subjective stuff (...but I was
uncomfortable about that because it enjoys virtually no support in other
business organizations like ours.)

As long as we have this mindset that does not encourage the sharing of
thinking (and in fact is actually hostile toward it in many cases), I
don't hold lots of hope. But I keep trying. In much of the contemporary
US business world, long-term thinking seems a rare asset indeed.

Michael A
--
Michael Ayers
mbayers@mmm.com        (612) 733-5690      FAX (612) 737-7718
IT Education Svcs/3M Center 224-2NE-02/PO Box 33224/St Paul MN 55133-3224
- Ideas in this note only represent the author's attempt at thinking and
- certainly do not represent the positions of anyone else in the galaxy.