- I renovated my house a few years back.
When the rooms were finished
I happily got out a paint tray and roller
and went to work painting the walls.
While not a painter by trade,
it was a task I was pretty sure
I couldn't screw up too badly.
But before we got to the painting,
we needed to run electrical wires
and I wasn't about to touch that.
I don't have the training, the tools, or the experience
and I got the wiring wrong
I would've burned down the house.
I don't tell you this story to impress upon you
how dangerous I am as an electrician,
I do tell you this story to suggest
that certain skills are best sourced from professionals.
At least at first.
Right now we're seeing an unprecedented movement
towards self launched centers of excellence
and wide spread skill development
thanks to free online academies.
While this opinion may not be popular,
I don't think this is a great idea
and I fear this could be setting
some organizations up for future pain.
As an executive,
be aware of the fact that many software firms
are pitching the easy and DIY narrative.
I get why they're doing it,
but be cautious of the results.
I also often advise enterprises to be true
to their own DNA.
If they've not traditionally been a DIY shop
or they haven't had much success setting up
centers of excellence before,
get help from the right partner.
Remember, I hired an electrician for a reason.
If you're serious about your digital operations program
get serious specialists.
The foundations you lay now in the form of
governance, documentation, project vetting,
benchmarking, code design, and data warehouse structures
will serve you very well in the future.
And if you do want your teams to be able
to do this work in the future,
get someone to teach them how to fish,
but for the first few projects
have your team fish along side them
until they're capable of fishing alone.