Slow IT is not only about a renewed, careful approach to creating technology solutions. It is also about our own, personal challenges in using technology, in dealing with the distractions and temptations of ubiquitous information. Thanks to the Internet, Blackberries and Smart Phones, we are always online, always in touch with the high pulse of the connected world.

And it is addictive too. If you happen to have teenagers in the house, you know what it means to be discomgoogolated. If I would ask my 18 year old daughter to choose between MSN and oxygen, no doubt she would go for MSN. Just to be one the safe side, after all, breathing in and breathing out is more like a theoretical concept, isn’t it?

When practicing ZEN meditation, many people find it very difficult to spend an hour thinking about nothing. But practice – sooner or later – pays off and an empty, slowed-down mind is a prerequisite to become enlightened.  In the same way, we will need a lot of tough training exercise before we can disconnect ourselves from the madness on the web, anytime, anywhere we want it. But there is no alternative, except when we think that being permanently discomgoogolated is something that cannot be avoided. A bit like breathing in and breathing out (although my daughter would diagree).

“… Hi, this is John’s voicemail. I am currently unavailable. You see, we have our annual strategy session with all of the IT management and the leaders of the business units. And it seemed perfect timing to make a change this year. Think about it: IT strategy is more crucial than ever. The wolves are howling in the deserted, grey streets of the economy and we are in desperate need of creative ideas. And not only about how to save money on the IT department. We are also looking for fresh, new ways to use technology to tackle the downturn and find a path forward.

Oh, by the way, this year we are not in that luxurious neo renaissance chateau. Instead we are in this nice little motel. Very convenient, just near the motorway and all.

Anyway, IT strategy. If it is so crucial to the success of our company,  why are we so careless about it? Last year, it was difficult enough to get all of the major stakeholders together for one lousy day at the chateau.  Well, nearly all of them, that is. Even when I was on my way, I received a hurried cancellation. Something about an emergency client tender, although I have never heard anything about that one ever since.  The rest of the attendees sort of trickled into the room during the course of the morning and actually it was already 11 AM when we were really up to speed. Just before lunch, actually (they served an excellent Californian Chardonnay, come to think of it).

So, only a few days before I had realised that some preparation might have been nice. And to admit it frankly, the supporting documentation was just hastily thrown together. Rubbish, really.

Not that it mattered. Not a single soul had gone through it. So we ended up explaining and discussing the basic arguments at least three times again. And when we finally had our session, nobody seemed to be connected. Some of the attendees where shamelessly checking email on their laptops. Others choose to use the Blackberry, hidden under the table. When one of my colleges ran out of the room for the fourth time in a row, nervously answering an incoming phone call, something just broke me.

That’s why we are doing our IT strategy planning a bit different this year. We are incommunicado for a full three days and we all left our phones at home. Also, we won’t be using a laptop to make minutes. Just to make sure.

By all means , leave a message after the beep. I may call you back. In a week or two…”.

I received an excellent link from Jon Mulholland, pointing to Getting Real, a book published by Chicago-based web development company 37signals. Interesting company this is (thank God they did not call themselves 42signals, think we all got that message by now). They strive to create ‘the best web-based software products possible with the least number of features necessary’ and also they are proud to announce that their products ‘do less than the competition ‘.

Quite a big thing, simplification.

And no doubt one of the most difficult qualities to create. Especially in Information Technology, where we are easily overwhelmed by all the features, triggers, widgets, gadgets and information flows that we potentially could include in our solutions. And they are tempting too, all these bells and whistles, especially if we did not really take the time to contemplate what the solution really needs. So we turn to eye candy to satisfy our short-term reflexes and soon we find ourselves absorbed in nitty gritty details and challenges that just don’t make any difference.

These guys from 37signals, they certainly drink their own champagne.  Browse around a bit at their website and you start to get the picture of what they mean with simple. And furthermore, read the book. If you want it, you can get it delivered as a good old-fashioned paperback and go through it start to finish. And I although I know you don’t mind spending quality time at all, some of you may be happy to hear that the book consists of small chapters. Indeed a great airplane book (their words, not mine…).

Alternatively, you can read the book online for free. This gives me the opportunity to be back on some crucial subjects in the forthcoming weeks. Build less. Ignore Details Early On. Race to Running Software. Rinse and Repeat:  just a few examples of the principles in Getting Real that are interesting in the context of Slow IT. If only because many of them seem to contradict with the slow approach.

This will be a crucial question that I will try to address together with you in future blog-items: in the era of Web 2.0 we are seeing more and more software that is available at a very early stage of development, never seems to be finished, and always continues to evolve. There is some overrated heroism in the idea of the perpetual beta.  But is it really a sign of rushed sloppiness, the inability to commit to agreed results and an alibi for not thinking before you start? Or is it the only way to really understand the requirements of the business and produce systems that are more robust and better tested? Or could both be true?

Let’s try to find out. Follow this blog.

In the meantime, I would like to point you to one specific chapter in the book that contains an important slow message. In ‘Alone Time’ the authors argue that interrupts are the natural enemy of effective work. It resonates with my own, earlier experiences as a software engineer: I could produce huge piles of quality code, as long as I could work uninterrupted for a longer period of time. As soon as I was sitting at the office and people would walk in and out, asking questions, starting discussions, even bringing coffee, my productivity went down the drain. Eventually I preferred to work early in the morning or – much better for me – late in the evening.

Interesting enough, this is probably why open source software is often produced so effectively : typically the team consists of members that don’t share the same location or time zone. The team may be distributed across the world and only use the Internet to communicate and synchronise results.  There is an unexpected advantage to that: the team members will have a lot of alone time, much more than they would have when working at the same offices.

And in many cases indeed, some decent alone time is all you need to create real progress.

Of course, if you are at the same offices, you can still agree to be complete incommunicado – for example between 10 AM and 2 PM. No coffee rounds, no meetings, no phone calls, no emails, no mobile phones.

Because somewhere, sometime, somebody needs to do the work.

Probably like many of you, I was touched when I first learned of Carl’s now famous example of speed-parenting. A few years ago, he was so obsessed with speed and efficiency that he initially liked the idea of One-Minute bedtime stories. Carl read about it in a newspaper, impatiently standing in line at an airport gate. While figuring out how to get the complete series as fast as possible through Amazon, he suddenly realised that things had gone way too far. Being a father of a two-year-old son, he already found himself involved in nightly confrontations, his son fancying long, carefully told stories and Carl trying to find the shortest stories and the most efficient way to tell them (you know, why not have Snow White and the 3 Dwarfs…?). All because emails were waiting, calls had to be made, decisions had to be taken and every minute seemed to count.

The experience changed his life and since then, Carl has been one of the proponents of the Slow Movement: people that believe that the important things in life need to be done at the right pace, with careful dedication and a genuine love for foundation and quality. Where this is already having a profound influence on cooking and dining (Slow Food actually started the whole movement), industrial design, travel and parenting, I believe that the world of Information Technology (IT) is now very, very ready for a proper dose of slow. I am convinced that 2009 will be the year of Slow IT.

Here’s why.

Businesses depend on technology. Actually, nowadays no business transformations exist without the crucial, enabling role of information technology. But to many people, technology is difficult to understand and evolving at an intimidating speed. No industry has produced so many buzzwords and nowhere else, trends come and go so easily. Nevertheless, you don’t need to be a professional to see the potential of technology: especially now, solutions are readily available through the Internet and in our private lives – buying things, communicating with others, being at leisure – we know all too well what technology can do for us.

It makes us even more impatient in applying information technology to address our business challenges. On the other hand, we don’t have the time. Many IT departments are kicked around by the circumstances: fighting fires wherever they appear, dealing with botched-up, antiquated systems, heterogeneous infrastructures, incompatible interfaces, undocumented specifications and shattered, often overlapping applications. Between two breaths, business and IT people may find a few moments to discuss requirements, ideas, plans (speed-dating, really). Then it is back to the usual.

Some may turn to workarounds to deal with the situation. The business side may create its own, isolated solutions. And they are likely to add to the un-integrated mess that needs to be dealt with tomorrow.

For all the wrong reasons, organisations may start to practice agile development. Not because they want a better understanding of the real business needs and a more intimate alignment between business and IT, but because they think the approach delivers fast results without the need to carefully understand, plan and design. Put it in a time-box and all your worries will be over.

It is just a matter of time before we will have the One-Minute IT-strategy.

Especially in 2009, where on one hand the budget for IT is under pressure and on the other hand technology provides the tools to address the downturn, the need is greater than ever to slow down. Not in terms of doing everything at a snail’s pace (thank you, SlowPlanet home page). Much more in terms of striking the right balance between a well-architected, carefully crafted technology platform and ad-hoc, opportunistic solutions that solve the business issues of today.

Among many other things, first of all it is about really sitting together to discuss the IT strategy of the organisation. Not in a rushed workshop of just a few hours in which half of the participants does not show up – there is always an emergency somewhere – and the other half is checking Blackberries or running in and out to answer phone calls (the latter being one of the most saddening examples of the way we let ourselves being ruled by technology). Strategy is crucial to the future of the company. It deserves the proper amount of dedication, also in the preparation and the finishing process.

This is the world of Slow IT, the art of careful technology. And as 2009 is bound to be a transformational year anyway, I am convinced that a renewed respect for properly timed and crafted technology solutions will be the unmistakable trend.

There is much more to tell about Slow IT. So much more that I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about it. And although I cannot already tell when the book will be finished (it’s ready when it’s ready, remember), I will be most happy to share some developing insights with you through this blog.

And thank you for reading this item, even if you got it through your Blackberry on a late Saturday evening.