Ensight – Jeremy Wright

I’m happy to announce that my idea for the More Space project is on the table.

My “essay” will be a narrative (first person story). Here is the proposal:

Title: IT is for Idiots – A Narrative on Common IT Mistakes

My intent for the More Space Project is to write about what the majority of my life has been about: IT. Until recently, my passion, career and life revolved around the business of IT and making IT organizations more efficient. However, I didn’t think there was a fair way of talking about that without boring every reader in the world.

That is, until a friend reminded me of how much I enjoyed “Narrative” style essays and books: pieces which make a point while telling a story.

The Wealthy Barber, and 7 Habits jump to mind as classic examples of this.

My story is told by James Murphy. James is a middle manager at Microserf Solutions, a well respected software services company located in California. James is a firm believer in the traditional aspects of business: lots of meetings, few decisions and only changing things when customers directly ask for them.

At Microserf, James is in charge of the IT team. One of his employees, Davis Smith (referred to simply as “Davis” for most of the essay) is a young, passionate “ideas mean”, with all of the rewards and risks that go along with it.

Most of the essay (or story, if you will) follows the journey as James and Davis clash over a variety of issues, including such mundane things as server consolidation, meeting client expectations and delivering quality software on time..

The intention is to highlight some of the “wrong” things almost all IT organizations do, as well as ways that companies can improve their teamwork, processes and the expectations placed on IT throughout the organization.

I’m actually quite excited about this, so hopefully it fits in with the rest of the book, in spite of not being an “essay”. I’m open for criticism on this, but I thought that something dry might not make the point as something where everyone can relate to at least one of the characters in the story.