Igniting the Phoenix: A New Vision for IT

About the Book

The journey to write this book began after spending the last thirty years developing information systems for organizations large and small. Thirty years, and if we are honest about it, the approach we have used to build systems over this time period really hasn’t changed all that much. Sure, there are differences, like new programming languages (although even COBOL is still around), but the process of building systems has remained substantially the same - frustrating, tedious, repetitious and time consuming for everyone concerned. All the attempts we have made over the years to make a quantum leap in system building productivity have been countered by the increasing complexity we have needed to deal with (GUI, the Web, application integration, etc.). In addition, in our attempts to make things “better”, we have simply added more pieces to the process – technical architects, database administrators, user interface experts, graphic designers, etc. So attempts to, for example, improve the productivity of the programmer, even if we could do something significant, would have a limited impact on the overall time it took to “complete” a project. (Of course, projects are never complete; they just live on in “maintenance” mode.)

It became apparent, therefore, that if we were to substantially improve the responsiveness and overall effectiveness of information technology in an organization, we needed to look far beyond the confines of the development process. To be really effective, the technology needed to be placed within the overall context of the organization and, indeed, the society in which we live. To be successful, we needed to step outside our world to get a broader (and different) perspective.

This book is the result of a new way of looking at the world of information technology, and provides a vision for what things might look like if we make a fresh start.

About the Author

Jonathan Sapir has almost 30 years experience building business systems for a wide range of companies across a diverse range of industries. After spending many years with IBM South Africa, he started his own global software development and consulting company, InfoPower Systems, Inc., in 1993. Jonathan is highly focused on moving business software development out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st century. His work in this area led to this book as well as a new product aimed at both software developers and business professionals called SnapXT.