Yesterday I suggested a refinement to the single, continuous “S” curve Business-IT Maturity model, to one comprised of a series of “S” curves, with discontinuities between them. I think the refinement is more than trivial, and certainly not simply cosmetic. I’ve blogged before on the notion of Level 2 “sticking points.” These are behaviors and characteristics I’ve noticed in my research and consulting work where things done in order to raise business-IT maturity from one level eventually become inhibitors or limiters to reaching the next level. The fact that the shifts in maturity level are in reality shifts from one computing paradigm to another, and are therefore discontinuities, helps explain why practices and behaviors that might be necessary to climb through one level of maturity might not be appropriate to climbing through the next.

I wrote yesterday about the old mainframe computing paradigm of the 1950’s through the 1980’s was largely associated with custom applications programming. Yes, there were application packages, but they were not widely used (certainly, not the ‘norm’ and were typically so heavily customized as to behave more like custom programs than like vendor packages.) From the early 80’s through today, mainframe computing gave way to the client-server paradigm, and while custom application development is still commonplace, the majority of companies today use vendor application packages for many of their core business processes. Early in this paradigm shift, IT shops struggled. The methods they had evolved over years of trial and error no longer worked. Think of requirements gathering and waterfall development methods. Applied to implementation of the major ERP packages such as SAP and Oracle, these methods just did not work - often leading to heavy package modifications and customizations, with their resulting software maintenance challenges. Also, companies who modified packages to fit their processes failed to take advantage of ‘leading business practices’ - they got the software implemented, but did not get the benefits of efficient, effective business processes.

Today, companies are starting to move from the client-server paradigm, where vendor application packages are commonplace, into an Internet-based ‘cloud computing’ with On Demand computing, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SaaS), Open Sourceand the rise of Web 2.0. My bet is that these companiesare going to experience similar types of discontinuity as they figure out what from the old paradigm (client-server, vendor application packages) is transferable to the new (cloud computing, SaaS), and what new practices are needed for the new paradigm. Recognizing that we are entering a paradigm shift, and figuring out all that that entails is going to be a critical aspect of ‘crossing the chasm’ from Level 2 to Level 3 business-IT maturity.

In later posts, I will explore some of the characteristics of the client-server to cloud computing discontinuity.

[Note on the graphic - I was looking for an interesting image for this post, and came across the prism graphic above, thanks to Google Images and a search for ‘discontinuities’.Given my penchant for rock ‘n’ roll, and love of Pink Floyd, I could not resist the resemblance to the “Dark Side ofthe Moon” album cover. If we’re all too busy to stop and listen to the music, at least we can reminisce onone of the more iconic pieces of cover art!]