You are writing a book entitled ‘Slow IT’; what do you mean with slow IT?

A similar thing is happening in conferences, in the way delegates all pull their laptops out during the keynotes.

It is not really my habit to link to videos on YouTube. But this tirade of stand-up comedian Louis C.K. at Conan o’Briens tonight show neatly touches on an important aspect of the case for Slow Technology and Slow IT. It may not be in ZEN style, but Louis clearly encourages us to practice more mindfulness in the face of advanced technology.

We are so spoiled by the speed and availability of technology that we genuinely feel depressed or even mistreated if we temporarily have to do without. And also, we don’t even realise anymore how advanced technology actually is and what miracles are done with it.

It takes your mobile, ultra light-weight phone more than 3 seconds to connect? Well, its reaching out to the other side of the planet. Wirelessly.

Will your plane arrive 20 minutes late? For heaven’s sake: you’re sitting in a chair. In the sky!

No point in adding yet another platitude to the ocean of comments on Google’s announcement of Chrome OS. Guess we saw it coming. And it was hardly rocket science, I might add.

It is however worrying that Google envisions an operating system that will fire up a laptop in just a few seconds. I mean, after all these years of getting used to operating systems that take more and more time to start up, I sort of got fond of the idea of being delayed. Admitted, it’s the IT version of the Stockholm Syndrome, but I actually cherished these precious moments of being forced to do nothing. Whether Windows, OS X, or Ubuntu: while loading their endless series of kernel software modules and drivers, they all brought me valuable opportunities to meditate or to contemplate the day to come. I would watch that hourglass for many minutes and time after time it would remind me of the relativity of technology and the craziness of rush and speed. Or I would just thoroughly enjoy a strong espresso. Or I would do nothing. All justified by our commonly shared acceptance of operating systems that are so complex that they take forever to come to live.

Now Google breaks this equilibrium with Crome OS, with the promise that booting it will be a matter of seconds. It will set a trend and we should hate them for it. Or at least, we should think twice before clicking on one of these placed ads. That will teach them.

Goodbye Quality Time. I will miss you dearly.

14-7-2009 update: more discussion on ZDnet

Metaphors are dangerous. A talented thinker once even stated that “using a metaphor is like carrying water in a bucket with a hole in it; there is a limit to where it will take you”. But anyway, the link between my earlier pleas for a more careful approach to technology (‘Slow IT’) and Slow Food is stronger than just a metaphor.

After all, the Slow Food movement started in Italy as a reaction to a quickly degrading food culture in which more and more of the taste and experience was sacrificed on the holy altar of Agitated Speed. When a McDonalds restaurant was even opened at the Piazza Di Spagna in Rome, it was the last drop that made the cup run over (good metaphor, yes). Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement and even made it to one of the Time Magazine 2004 heroes, just because he promotes the love for original food that is prepared and tasted with the time and attention it deserves.

Seems that the current approach to IT is ready for some tender loving care as well. Especially in this period of downturn, the anxiety for short-term patches may drive us in the arms of hasty solutions that only partially satisfy. Then they will leave the organisation hungrier and unhealthier than it ever was. Proper timing and focus can help us to rediscover what value we actually want to deliver through technology and what foundation we need to achieve that.

David Sprott, the well-respected founder of CBDI forum (“a think tank specializing in practices for SOA and architecture led software delivery and management”), recognises this too. He makes a good analysis of why doing things right – in Slow IT style – is necessary in an industry in which offshoring, agile development and Web 2.0 are promising, but all too often hysterically abused tools. He doubts however that organisations will be ready for Slow IT, as he sees many of them already ‘slowing down’ in terms of cutting budgets, reducing headcount and – in general – doing more with less. The emphasis is now on quick, effective results and advocating more ‘slow,’ he says, nowadays seems a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas.

Not sure I agree there, as David seems to make the common mistake after all of associating ‘slow’ with doing things at a snail’s pace, doing less or doing nothing at all. Remember: it is all about proper timing and focus. Eating Slow Food does not mean waiting for hours until the waiter arrives or the first course is served. Chef Ferran Adrià of Spanish El Bulli – the best and most innovative restaurant in the world – may use nitrogen to shock-freeze some of his dishes in a second and then have them served instantaneously, but some of the ingredients may have been cooking for hours or even days. And Adriá will spend several months every year in his Barcelona laboratory to carefully design and try new dishes. When he opens his restaurant again in spring, the waiting lists have piled up like nothing else in the world.

David suggests that the current IT climate will benefit much more from ‘repeatable, reusable and rapid’ solutions. This sounds a bit like Wok cooking indeed, but if you take a good look at CBDI’s background – which is in systematic, architectural component thinking – you realise that David actually makes a plea for carefully crafting a foundation for continuous change.

To me, that is Slow IT. You deliver the fancy shock-freeze experience but have your pots and pans simmering on the fire for hours as well. Even turkeys would probably vote for that (metaphorically speaking).

There is something symbolic about it: organising an IT conference in the Central Hall in London. Right next to the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, The Open Group’s Architecture Practitioners Conference takes place in one of the landmark buildings of the protestant Methodist church. Established in the 18th century by John Wesley, the Methodist movement consists of people that aim to live a devout, serious life. Not some noncommittal philosophising about the heavenly glory and all that, but practicing faith every dag again, through dedicated, hard work. It’s only when you share your meal in the soup kitchen with the underprivileged of this world, that you start to experience the real essence of faith, so the Methodists believe.

Interesting thinking and at the very least, it gives an extra dimension to the panel discussion on the podium. The topic today is that eternal tension that we know all too well in the world of information technology: the tension between the long term and the short term. In the panel team we find IT architects, strategists and a market analyst (no, not exactly the underprivileged). The hypothesis discussed is that the shallowness and ad-hoc focus of today’s economic climate asks for a more sensible and architected approach. That way, the requirements of the business can be better understood and more successfully aligned with technology solutions. Also, it will be easier to achieve – and demonstrate – the value of technology. It’s all matter of reserving the right time to create a ‘platform for change’.

A politically correct argument that nobody can really oppose to. And at first sight, a clear plea indeed for a more careful approach to information technology, or Slow IT.

But one of the panel members, the CIO of Transport for London, is in no mood to be politically correct. “Yes, architecture and strategy” he pronounces these words with just the subtlest hint of disdain “all of that is absolutely crucial, but if the buses don’t run tomorrow because of a computer error nothing else matters much anymore; let’s make sure we master the basics first”. Being a battle-hardened manager of quite some IT departments, he is proud to tell the audience that he brought back the size of his architects team to just one fifth. “Anybody who doesn’t truly understand what happens in the everyday operations or fails to bring direct value to it, is of no use to me”.

Now that warms up the audience. John Wesley would be proud of it: how spiritual and high our ambitions may be, we can only truly live up to them through the sobering experience of daily practice. Dreaming about Business/IT fusion, perpetual innovation and Web 2.0? Fine. Just make sure my workstation functions every morning first.

And the one does not exclude the other. Having an extraordinary good grip on infrastructure and the basic applications motivates: it generates exactly the positive energy that is needed to explore new ways over and over again. The foundation of change therefore is in repetition, routine and control. Actually, I consider that a typical slow thing and I am sure that many seasoned ’slow cooks’ would agree.

Wax On, Wax Off, as another spiritual leader would say. Change yourself, but always with both feet firmly on the ground. For that, you don’t need to be a Methodist to say hallelujah.

Twitter, a now quickly expanding number of people consider it a gift from heaven. Face it: sooner or later you are fed up with blogging. Having to read and write 10 sentences over and over again, it just starts to get at you doesn’t it? If you are gifted with the attention span of a Flibbertigibbet, having to concentrate that much is a physical hurt. Twitter then, is the solution. For those few, other-worldly hermits that still are not initiated: we are dealing with a massively popular system on the Internet in which you use a maximum of 140 characters to tell something to the outside world. You can also use SMS or your smartphone. Others can subscribe – as followers - to these ‘tweets’ and vice versa.

At its best , Twitter is a magnificent tool for the corporate, collaborative worker of today to effectively stay in touch with a true ecosystem of people, knowledge, insights and events. While tweeting (possibly through a company-restricted variant like Yammer) you find just as easy lightning-fast answers to focused questions as links to new, interesting sources of information. And by carefully calibrating the list of people that you follow, the social network around you becomes more and more valuable.

At its worst however, Twitter happily deteriorates into a universe of randomly chattering, megalomaniac ADHD professionals. Shallowness, straight from the goblet of Total Nothing. Purely for professional reasons, I decided to indulge myself for a few days without any restrictions and filtering in this world of virtual chit-chat. Eventually, I ended up staring agitatedly at the screen, my hollow eyes waiting for the next tweet to arrive. And it never was further away than a few seconds. Another 140 characters to read, another discussion to follow, another subject to have an opinion about, another link to click on. Sometimes, an interesting topic would rush by. More often, it would be of a lamenting irrelevance. Somebody opens up a can of beer. Another tells me every three minutes what song he is playing. A third apparently throws every new thought on Twitter, probably to secure it for eternity. A fourth feels no shame at all in sharing private conversations, lunch dates and the most intimate coaching sessions.

At last, I was able to liberate myself from this maelstrom of tweets. After having some supplementary feeding and a long night of sleep, I could carefully try to read the complete front page of a paper without interruption. Outside, the sun finally announced spring. Then I heard a blackbird sing.

It was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Bombarded by a decade of self-proclaimed guru’s, evangelists and other romantic revolutionaries (including myself, just to set things straight) I think we got the message by now: agile systems development is in, waterfall development is out. At the risk of having some more experienced readers drop out of this blog-item– and I would not blame them – let’s summarise some of the original ideas. The understanding of the objectives, possibilities and risks around a solution grows during the lifetime of a project. This is why it is better to develop a system through small pieces, going through the entire lifecycle of specification, design, build and test. Combine this with small, multi-disciplinary teams and a frequent recalibration of priorities and direction, and you get better results with more commitment in the client organisation.

When well applied, it brings you right into the heart of both the organization and the problem space. Just like with a stew, quietly simmering on the gas. Frequently, you lift the lid to stir it all a bit and have a taste. Let’s see how the flavour evolves, if the herb mix needs to be adjusted. Maybe it is even time for a new ingredient. The resulting dish is exactly what you want and it radiates the love and carefulness that have gone into it.

What a surprise. Almost sounds like Slow Food, doesn’t it. Not the very first association that many people nowadays would have with agile development. And indeed, practice often turns out very differently. The agile principles then seem to become an ordinary alibi for wheezy ADHD behaviour, not having to think and misplaced pragmatism. Just Do It: everybody is working hard, but the foundation is missing and the project persists in following a jittery, unpredictable path from iteration to iteration.

This situation is best illustrated by the Daily Scrum, a concept which is particularly popular with agile fans. Just like in an intense rugby scrum, the team members gather together every morning in a short, high-impact session. They all answer just three basic questions: what did you do yesterday, what will you do today and are there any impediments in your way? In such a burly, but friendly brawl, the team spirit becomes strong and tight. But before you know it, the main emphasis is on optimising micro results and it gets very far from direction, coherence, business context and architecture.

If you are all pushing each other in that small, heated circle of a scrimmage, obviously looking inward, you tend to forget about the trainer, the opponents, the field and the audience. And certainly also about the world outside.

We are a close-knit team and we build results, never mind what or why: I don’t believe this is the reason why agile development became hip in the first place. And yes, I know that if the Scrum approach is applied in the right way, there is a Product Backlog, a ScrumMaster and a Product Owner. But means and end are too often confused and people get blinded by the trendy externals and mechanisms. And no, I don’t believe one single bit of the claim that Waterfall development is back because it is more effective. But we are in need of a better balance between thinking and doing, or – as my colleague Erik Proper puts it – a better balance between ‘Think Unless’ and ‘Act Unless’.

(*) And thanks to my colleague Lee Provoost for rightfully pointing out that the word ‘hip’ is only used by elderly people. Of course, ‘cool’ is much hipper. I rest my case.

Today I had a short, but interesting discussion with my colleague and ‘architecture professor’ at Nijmegen University: Erik Proper. More or less as a result, he published this excellent blog item about finding the right mix between ‘thinking’  and ‘acting’. Acting too early - out of misplaced pragmatism or just being impatient - is bad and it happens all too much in the IT projects of today. So indeed we need to dedicate the right amount of time to Thinking. On the other hand- and clearly a pitfall for bringing in the Slow Attitude - we have the risk of becoming a victim of Analysis Paralysis.  Important stuff for any project manager involved in IT or business change projects, and I am most happy to point you to it.

Once upon a time I used to write complete books. Quite a lot of work, I can assure you. I remember writing a book about iterative development which took me an entire, very hot summer in the attic of my house. It seemed to last forever and even now, when I occasionally thumb through the book, I get visions of sticky, sun-drenched days that I witnessed passing by while writing, thinking, writing, thinking and writing.

Later, I started to fancy creating articles. Yes, the content was a bit more shallow. But it took me less work, typically a day or so, and it allowed me to cover more subjects in a shorter period of time. Then, several technology magazines asked me to become a columnist. I taught myself to deliver crisp messages every month in nothing more than 600 words. You end up writing very short sentences, getting rid of all details and focusing on just one key insight per column. Yet again a bit later, a business magazine invited me to write a weekly column for managers, and I constrained myself further to 400 words, apparently being the maximum amount of content a typical business executive can absorb in one read. I essentially produced sound bites with some stage-setting around it.

Then came the period of blogging. We all learned that a good blogger writes very, very short items and does not really care about style or aesthetics. A blogger does not explain or describe anything. You just link to other sites (thank God for Wikipedia, the source of all truth). And now, we have Twitter. I find myself thrown into a universe in which 140 characters – roughly 30 words – have to tell it all. Even hyperlinks are abbreviated in order to save space. On Twitter I don’t write anymore, I stick to the management summary of the introduction of a first, draft idea.

So I thought this is the right time to introduce some counter activities. If only to remind myself, I have introduced the concept of Slow Blogging. A Slow Blogger takes all the time that is needed to write an item. And the blog readers get to follow it step by step. To illustrate the principle, I have introduced three new blogs. On ‘One Blog Item A Year’ I will produce exactly one item every year. Every week, I will add one sentence to the item, resulting in an item of 52 sentences at the end of every year. Too dynamic? I also have started ‘One Blog Item A Decade’, which build up with one sentence every month, resulting in a final piece of 120 sentences every 10 years. And yes, finally I have also created ‘One Blog Item A Life’ and I will add a sentence to the one and only item on that blog every year.

Not sure how many sentences that final piece will contain, but I am not aiming for just a synopsis, rest assured.

I have been arguing already a few times before why I think now is exactly the right time for a more careful, considerate approach to information technology. There are many arguments, many pros and cons, lots of items to write on this blog. But every now and then, you bump into a devastating demonstration that renders all discussion obsolete. Fed up with e-mail overflow? Blaming e-mail for managing a 1000 issues in that same, shallow way? Using a tone in your e-mails that you would never use when talking person-to-person? Responding a bit too quickly to e-mails without taking the right time to formulate your answers?

Your worries are over.

Now there is Real Snail Mail, the worlds first webmail service using live snails. The good people at boredomresearch, Bournemouth University, take care of a well-trained staff of 8 snails that each carry a 20mm RFID tag on their shell. Incoming messages are collected at the dispatch centre at one end of their closure. Once a message is loaded on the chip, it will be carried around by the assigned snail until it happens to reach the drop off point. Here the message is collected and forwarded to its final destination. The fastest average delivery time is currently achieved by Francis, a gorgeous brunette snail that only needs 2.22 days to bring the message across. This is in sharp contrast to the pathetic 10.43 days of her macho colleague Sean (codename ‘Agent 007’, guess his glory days are a bit over indeed).

As I said, further discussion is useless. Just think about Real Snail Mail the next time you start up your e-mail program, and it may already help you to approach things just a little bit differently. Then again, you could consider to actually use this brilliant, very contemporary service (after all, it’s RFID, it’s cloud and it’s definitely green) in real life. Send yourself and your team members the project plan, IT strategy outline, specifications document or design through Real Snail Mail and take the time in between to contemplate your results. The results can only improve, because you have injected the right dose of ‘slow’ to take some distance and look into the matter from different perspectives.

I sure hope that the success won’t put too much pressure on those poor snails. Already, their bosses are thinking about scaling up. This will no doubt introduce the concept of industralised snail farms and before we know it management consultants will be applying Lean Six Sigma to eliminate even the last minute of waste in the tank. For now, champion snails like Agatha (agent 006) and Reginald (agent 012) couldn’t care less. One of them may be carrying my e-mail right now, but that freshly placed marigold looks so much more tasteful. Could be another hour of just bites, rather than bytes.