Fighting IT failure with ethnographic research [podcast] | IT Pr. Many IT failures are ultimately rooted in negative organizational culture and related political dynamics. For example, failures can arise when critical information is not shared across internal corporate boundaries (or even among members of a single team). Solving these problems can be difficult because cultural issues are hard to measure and transform. Ethnographic research methods offer a way to gain deeper insight into organizational dynamics that contribute to failed IT projects. To learn about ethnographic research and its ability to help explain why IT projects fail, I spoke with Dr. Natalie Hanson, a corporate anthropologist and ethnographer employed by SAP. Natalie manages a team of 30 people in the company's global Business Operations group.
Here are some interesting points from the interview: On ethnographic methods: On the relationship with quantitative research: On IT failures from an ethnographic perspective: To me, it's actually much more than just the system side. Music lessons. Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart) The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0: 0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be.
But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. 1. The music business had a spectacular run alongside the baby boomers. As a result, the music business built huge systems. It didn’t. 2. There’s a paradox in the music business that is mirrored in many industries: you want ubiquity, not obscurity, yet digital distribution devalues your core product. Remember, the music business is the one that got in trouble for bribing disk jockeys to play their music on the radio.
Most items of value derive that value from scarcity. The solution isn’t to somehow try to become obscure, to get your song off the (digital) radio. You used to sell plastic and vinyl. 3. Music is social. 4. Today, of course, permission is an asset to be earned. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. The way we are « AccMan.