Bridge That Gap

I’ve long been fascinated by the idea that we need ‘bridges’: people who can translate between two domains with different mindsets.

One key gap to bridge is between science and management, as Penny describes https://talkinginfrastructure.com/2022/07/20/science-and-asset-management/ . There are other gaps that affect us in asset decision-making.

In the late 1990s two of us, now very senior IT director Christine Ashton and me, put forward the need for such active translation between IT and business users. IT has always struggled to understand what’s really needed by users, as the users themselves are poor at describing their information and information processing requirements.

Christine and I set up a special interest group in the British Computer Society – an organisation which could do with some translation in the first place – for people who work between IT and business.  We had a great time discovering some very good people, who, I am happy to say, generally earned pretty good remuneration for their ability to understand what the users need and turn it into something IT techies could understand (and use). It’s still a rare and precious ability.

And it’s surely still as big a challenge as ever.

Add to that how to bridge between an engineering mindset and business. I train engineers who still radiate – why do I care what the objectives of the organisation are? My job is to do the right thing by the asset, regardless of management.

It’s fascinating in all three cases, because scientists, just like engineers and IT in their different ways, are kinda proud of their ability not to compromise with business and organisational realities.

In particular, the issue of ’embracing’ uncertainty is just so relevant to Asset Management.  But we educate scientists, engineers and IT to hanker after 10 decimal places of clarity.

And, I fear, not to ask ‘so what? – or, what happens next?’ as often as they should.