“Who’s on First?” – Notes from Abbott & Costello on Communication in the Age of Digital and TBM

One of the funniest bits of baseball humor ever recorded goes back to a classic bit done by the legendary comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, entitled, “Who’s on First?”?The premise of the sketch is that Costello is talking to Abbott (who is playing the general manager of the mythical St. Louis Wolves) about the team. However, before Costello can get behind the plate, Abbott wants to make sure he knows everyone's name on the team... and hilarity ensues. Below is just a short video excerpt from the exchange (you can stop watching after 2 ? minutes):

[“Who’s on First?”]

https://youtu.be/sYOUFGfK4bU?si=tTONCFfYGkl_hSIW

When watching this video, I can’t help but see the similarities to the old way of communication between IT and the business. Let’s review the conversation below… and let's see if it seems at all familiar:

[“Who Runs IT?”]

Business: Our strategy calls for a 10% revenue increase by the end of Q4 – that means we have to enroll 1500 new subscribers by the end of October! IT: How much storage will you need? Business: I don’t know! I need to know our systems can handle that activity. Can it? IT: We were planning on applying a security patch on the Enterprise Enrollment system in Q3, I don’t know if we want more subscribers on the system until we apply the patch. Business: The Marketing campaign has already launched in 4 target states, and our sales guys know they have to hit these numbers or else… we can’t have the system go down! IT: Let’s see… increased subscribers, security patch acceleration, additional storage capacity, additional support – this request is going to cost you a total of $450,000 over the existing budget. Business: Why is IT so slow, and so expensive? I talked to a vendor yesterday who said this could be done in 45 days for less than a 3rd of what you just proposed!!! I’m going to take this to the CEO, something has got to give! IT: Everyone in the business thinks they can run IT these days… well - good luck with that!

So what’s going on here? I suggest there are two key elements shared between Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First” sketch and my “Who Runs IT” sketch… a) Intent, and b) Context.

First, let’s examine intent – both Abbott and Costello share a genuine intent in "Who's on First": Costello wants to know the names of the ballplayers on the team, and Abbott wants to tell him! Similarly, in "Who Runs IT", the Business has outcomes they must realize, and IT wants to help the Business realize these outcomes. Although all parties have good intentions, these conversations still lead to confusion, misunderstanding, mistrust. Fact: Genuine intent is not enough to ensure understanding between IT and the Business.

Despite their best intentions, these high-stakes conversations are often derailed without the proper context. Costello missed the context that baseball players tend to have funny names, and Abbott’s team would be no different. The Business lacks the context to properly understand that its consumption of IT services is directly correlated to the cost of IT services; IT lacks the context to understand what the Business values or explain how business consumption drives IT spend... that is… until now. Now we have a framework that correlates Business consumption to IT costs… and that framework is called Technology Business Management (a.k.a., TBM).

So… what is TBM? How does it help bridge the chasm between the Business and IT?

Todd Tucker, in his book, Technology Business Management, defines it this way:

Technology Business Management: A practical, applied set of disciplines and value conversations for improving the business outcomes enabled by the technology portfolio. Enables technology leaders and their business partners to collaborate on business-aligned decisions. Relies on transparency to provide a foundation for managing the supply of and demand for technology services and projects. Supports financial and performance trade-offs for optimizing run-the-business spending and improving change-the-business investments.

At the heart of the TBM framework are four types of “value conversations” that set the context that was sorely missing in the “Who Runs IT” story above: a) Cost for Performance, b) Business-aligned Portfolio, c) Investment in Innovation, and d) Enterprise Agility. While not the only component of the TBM framework, these four value conversations set the necessary context for effective communication between IT and the Business, and is a must have in this age of #DigitalTransformation.

The TBM Framework

Can you think of any conversations within IT, with IT and external service providers, or between IT and the Business, that don’t fall into one of these four categories? If so, I’d love to hear it! Please note it in the comments below.

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Are you new to TBM and want to learn more? Get the book here. You can also join the TBM Council today and receive a complimentary PDF copy.

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