Running a house and an IT organisation are surprisingly similar endeavours.

OK, bear with me for a minute as I explain the analogy. IT and houses are miles apart on the face of it, but beneath the surface are many similarities. The reason for writing this, is because over the last few weeks I have spoken to several senior IT leaders that are struggling to convince other business executives to fund investment. Too often, this is principally because the executives just “don’t get it,” which is understandable; IT can after all be a confusing beast. The answer to this problem is to help them “get it” by making it relatable to them. What better way to do this than talk in terms they will undoubtedly get – “think of IT as your house”. I had this idea, and then started to jot down some notes. Here is what I came up with:

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1.???? You wouldn’t not put locks on your house | possibly the easiest one to think of. Everyone has locks on their doors to stop people from breaking in and stealing their possessions. Increasingly, people have security cameras to monitor their property for trespassers with no good intentions. If you don’t lock your house, you have probably invalidated your insurance and will be kicking yourself if and when your house is ransacked. This is no different to cyber security. Why would you not safeguard the data and information that your organisation has. If you don’t, and it gets stolen, there are probably some very awkward questions to answer from regulators and your customers.

2.???? Nobody wants to spend money on their boiler until the heating goes off | it is a classic; you haven’t had a new boiler for 20 years and you know it is on the edge, but you can’t bring yourself to splash the cash on it. Then one-day, you wake up in December and go to get in the shower only to be hit with freezing cold water. Suddenly, you cannot spend the money quickly enough but have to endure two weeks of misery before a plumber can come out. This is true of IT. There are servers that have been there for 10 years. You know you need to upgrade them, but they work and your organisation would rather spend money on new products and services. That is until there is a major outage, the business grounds to a halt, and the truth gets out that they have been on the verge of collapsing for years.

3.???? It’s amazing how much money you can save by getting rid of clutter | how many times do you look around your house and see clutter that you no longer use; or you are scanning through your bank statement and see the standing order for the online newspaper subscription you haven’t used in months. It’s amazing the amount of money you can save by just having a look around and seeing what you could sell, or services you could cancel. Does this remind you of your applications estate? If you ran down your applications register, how many licenses are you still paying for despite the fact nobody has used it for 10 years. Think of the money that can be saved, and cyber vulnerabilities removed.

4.???? Don’t overestimate your DIY credentials | sure you may be able to put up a mirror and do some decorating, but that doesn’t mean you are equipped to build a garage. Firstly, you might make an absolute mess of it, and secondly, you’re probably going to spend a heap of money on tools that you will never use again. Leave it to the professionals that do it day in day out, and focus on what you are good at, enjoying your house. This is true for IT. There are some things that are not part of your core business and others are far better placed to do them for you. Why maintain infrastructure when a cloud provider could do it for you far cheaper? If so, accept that and outsource the work.

5.???? Don’t employ cowboys | everyone has come across that tradesperson that is 50% cheaper than the others. It’s all great until it becomes apparent that they work at a snail’s pace, cut corners, and leave you with a room that doesn’t meet building regulations and is not safe to enter. The same is true for IT. The industry is awash with suppliers that can claim to solve your problems, until they don’t. Too often, the cheaper day rate ends up costing more, as errors require re-work and projects over-run. Thinking about it through the lens of long-term value and not immediate cost is a must.

6.???? Being able to afford to build it is only part of the answer; having the money to maintain it is another | great, you have done the maths and you could afford a new pool or a beautifully landscaped garden. The problem is, you have now built it but can’t afford the gardener every fortnight or pool maintenance every few months. Everyone in the business loves the idea of building new applications and tools, but you have to ask yourself the question, can we afford to run it once it is in service?

7.???? Architect with the future in mind | we all enter different stages of life, from people starting families to people becoming less mobile. Thinking ahead and asking if this is going to meet your needs over the near to mid-term is key when choosing or building a house. IT is no different. If you don’t architect for the future, by adopting modular architectures, and open standards, then you are going to be locked in and not be able to adapt to your changing business needs. Or you can, but at significant cost that could have been avoided by making the right architectural decisions upfront.

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I’m sure this analogy could be taken way further, so please feel free to add further ideas. It is interesting though how many parallels can be drawn from the two, and how making it relatable in terms of language helps others understand the case for change.

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