Friday, May 22, 2009
The tea in IT

IT in Maldives has a lot in common with its politics. Namely, the proponents are quick to shoot down the forerunners and they have a niggling need for frequent teas (aka coffees - go figure).

The people have been made to believe that everything works at their pace. There is no respect for planned milestones and the potential domino effects of failing the time frames. Anyone who raises the alarm on noticing wayward project trajectories are considered traitors. Anyone who refuses to go down with the ship is considered a coward (especially since everyone else is looking forward to a ritual sacrifice).

There are reasons for this. One of these is the unwillingness to accept inherent flaws. The key to adjusting a person's attitude is identifying its existence. This is the principle of unfreezing, as suggested by Kurt Lewin.

The other reason for the continued depravity of Maldivian IT is the general precociousness. It is always good to be proud of one's own achievements. However, this pride should never go to one's head. The only way to remain objective throughout one's growth is to respect the advice offered by forerunners. Always remember to learn before teaching.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My god, you know so much. I had to google Kurt Lewin to find out who he is, and you know what he talks about!! you are so lucky to be blessed with such intelligence. Your mother must be proud.

Ahmed

Anonymous said...

Forerunners? You mean like Gayoom?

velentino rossi said...

hello Ahmed ,

You Should be proud of ADAM , because of him you posted a comment , because of him you use the internet ...because of him you are doing everything..

Anonymous said...

Which Adam? The author's brother's former boss?

Anonymous said...

Which Adam? Our common biblical ancestor?

V for Vandetta said...

The deficit does not lie in the IT professionals alone. In Maldives, the project is molded and dictated by the terms of the client mostly (or alone) in majority of the cases. Most of the Clients would demand, an extremely functional and high-end product, at rock-bottom prices, in an unachievable deadline. It is the forerunners in who are willing to accept the project at clients term, whilst not adhering to any kind of terms laid. Mostly the projects are delayed enormously. This is not only the case. Most IT pros, do take up an unmanageable quantity of projects, and sometimes couple with projects of significant magnitude. It is adherence to the client's terms alone, which is leading to a non-functional industry. If you had had a chance to view a standard work agreement, given by any government authority, you'd notice that, the whole agreement would be biased to the clients terms, and protection, while none is mentioned for the professional.

It's also true, that there are an enormous quantity of wannabe IT pros, who are delivering a sub-standard product or mostly cheating their clients. There are many IT pros , namely web developers, who are re-selling shared hosting, to their clients at a very high price compared to the price they have purchased them. Shared hosting, as cheap as $100/an is sold to about 20 customers (who would not bother to question anything as long as their website is up), at about $100/mo/customer in some cases.

The immaturity of the IT sector is such that, if there is a good or knowledgeable pro, he would be working freelance.