The Unknown Dark Matter
The difference between what the most and least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown. – Albert Einstein
Ask anyone (astrophysicists excluded) what the universe is made of and they will point to the mountains, oceans, plants, buildings, and people around us. They would be correct – to a point. The reality is that these known and tangible items account for four percent (4%) of the universe. Ninety six percent (96%) is unknown – called Dark Matter. What we know is vastly over-shadowed by what we don’t know. Given how much we don’t know, it is quite likely that we will learn that we likely don’t know the 4% that well either.
Ask your business side partners what IT consists of and the answer you will most often hear is their ERP or CRM system. Poke on this a little and you will find that they are really only talking about a small set of functions within these systems that are frequently used. Like the astrophysics example above they are correct – to a point.
The Dark Matter of IT is rarely spoken of, and examples would include:
- End user applications. More often than not, this is Dark Matter for everyone until regulatory compliance presses the point and spreadsheets and Access databases find their way into the world of the known.
- Applications outside of the domain of any individual, and interfaces between the applications. Water cooler conversation will have the effect of extending the knowledge of other systems and applications, but the interfaces between the portfolio of applications will generally always stay Dark Matter.
- Architecture, Middleware, Data Models, and Databases. While the term Oracle will generally be well-recognized, the implementation of a data model in a database, in the context of a system and application architecture will largely stay IT Dark Matter.
- Server Farms, Communications Gear. While people conceptually know their applications live on servers, typically only a small handful of people know the number of servers a typical company maintains. Hint – the number is bigger than you think.
Recognizing that IT Dark Matter exits is the first step in the understanding why there are challenges in communicating between IT and business. The same can be said about many of the disciplines which make up the corporate world. Finance, Marketing, Legal, HR all have their Dark Matter, this isn’t territory exclusive to IT.
All too often when cross functional teams are assembled the Dark Matter is not recognized appropriately with the result of participants taking hits of their favorite headache medicine. Bringing this around full circle, let’s remember that some of the world’s most brilliant minds have concluded that 96% of the universe is unknown. Let’s appreciate those that understand their respective Dark Matter, regardless of the discipline they represent, and work with patience to collectively explore the Dark Matter of each others disciplines.
Until then, I think the corner store has a sale on Extra Strength Tylenol.
Great metaphor, Russ!
Stretching that metaphor (probably way too far!), the advent of Web 2.0 has given non-IT professionals a new source of energy – cold fusion in a glass, if you will. Mere mortals can now create their own “factories” and “businesses” without needing the public utility to provide electricity, or the phone company to provide dial tone.
So, in some respects, a whole new swath of IT Dark Matter has become visible (e.g., the power to get stuff done). And, in other respects, a whole other swath of dark mater (e.g., data centers, software factories) has disappeared behind the cloud! (Pun intended!)
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.