7 Deadly Sins of Tech

Rob Dyke
The Digital Doc (v2.0)

7 Deadly Sins of Tech

Hieronymus Bosch

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13

Rob Dyke, rob@tactix4.com
@robdykedotcom @tactix4

A bit of latin to start the day
●

Superbia

●

Avaritia

●

Luxuria

●

Invidia

●

Gula

●

Ira

●

Acedia.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No.1: Pride

Pride manifests as sin when it blinds people into
thinking they know everything they need to know
– even when they know very little – about a given
topic.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 2: Greed

Being greedy today will cost you dearly tomorrow.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 3: Lust

Instead of carefully architecting your own unique
digital plumbing that is the right fit, many try to
model themselves after someone else and suffer
with ill-fitting technology.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 4: Envy

You could say 'Here's what we need to do to fix
these problems'....
Or you could say 'We can't fix any problems
because the new EPR project has all the budget'

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 5: Gluttony

One system to rule them all.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 6: Wrath

Nothing pisses people off more than being given
crap technology – especially when they have better
technology elsewhere.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


No. 7: Sloth

For the sloth, there is always tomorrow – right up
until they lose their job.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Healthcare.gov

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Case-study
●

Hyper-complexity

●

Dependency issues

●

All-new build

●

Rolling requirements

●

Anti-testing

●

Release late, release once

●

Anti-bugfixing
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-healthcare-gov/

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Sources

Many 'IT Project Management for Complete
Cretins' & 'Successful CTO' type books
Wikipedia
technologystory.com
infoworld.com
keepthejointrunning.com
arstechnica.com

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


This presentation was shared on Day 2 of The
Digital Doctor Conference 2013.

Hieronymus Bosch

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


The Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins,
in which guilt is relatively minor, and the more severe mortal
sins.
Theologically, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the
life of grace and charity within a person and thus creates the
threat of eternal damnation.
According to Catholic moral thought, the seven deadly sins are
not discrete from other sins, but are instead the origin ("capital"
comes from the Latin caput, head) of the others.
"Deadly sins" can be either venial or mortal, depending on the
situation, but "are called 'capital' because they engender other
sins, other vices".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
Image - The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a
painting attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, completed around
1500 or later. http://j.mp/1bhqteQ

A bit of latin to start the day
●

Superbia

●

Avaritia

●

Luxuria

●

Invidia

●

Gula

●

Ira

●

Acedia.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


In the currently recognized version, the sins are usually given as
wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
Superbia – Pride
Avaritia – Greed / avarice
Luxuria – Lust
Invidia – Envy
Gula – Gluttony
Ira – Wrath
Acedia – Sloth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

No.1: Pride

Pride manifests as sin when it blinds people into
thinking they know everything they need to know
– even when they know very little – about a given
topic.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Thinking you have the ultimate technology strategy
in place, or that your digital plumbing is perfect, is a
dangerous perspective. This kind of viewpoint stops
you from being open to learning about the
improvements you could be making.
Pride tells people they can run IT projects on
instinct.

No. 2: Greed

Being greedy today will cost you dearly tomorrow.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


When an IT project fails, more often than not, it is
due to a lethal combination of arrogance and greed.
The problem is "the devil's triangle":
naive or arrogant customers who craft hopelessly
unrealistic RFPs (requests for proposals);
system integrators and consultants who promise to
deliver what they know is impossible;
and technology providers caught in the middle.
Technology is an investment: it is the underlying
infrastructure you will build on for the coming
decades.
Align incentives for those actors in the triangle over
short, medium and long term.

No. 3: Lust

Instead of carefully architecting your own unique
digital plumbing that is the right fit, many try to
model themselves after someone else and suffer
with ill-fitting technology.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


There are many options when it comes to software
and hardware and some people lust after the
expensive options, or the shiny new object on the
market. They see this as the magic dust that will
make everything in their projects/companies better.
They lust for what the competition has. They want
what companies larger than them have. They
survey the market and then lust for the tools that
others covet.
They lust for the new.
Instead of carefully architecting their own unique
digital plumbing that is the right fit, they try to model
themselves after someone else and suffer with
ill-fitting technology.

No. 4: Envy

You could say 'Here's what we need to do to fix
these problems'....
Or you could say 'We can't fix any problems
because the new EPR project has all the budget'

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Fiefdoms, kingdoms and silos have a tendency to
develop over time as a project matures from
start-up doctorpreneur to a company.
People stop sharing information and instead spend
most of their time protecting their own turf and
envying the status or budgets of others.
The result? Duplication, lack of transparency, and
culture-destroying politics that can cripple an
organization.
Budget envy happens in healthcare too; between
departments and between cost centres.

No. 5: Gluttony

One system to rule them all.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


On the individual level, the sin of hoarding
information, an unwillingness to share one's
expertise is mistakenly believed to be the path to
job security.
On a information system perspective, Glutony can
be understood as hording data, of building silos and
not sharing data with anyone.
This is the whole platform play. The mega-EPR
implementation which sucks up data, destroying
established information systems and can only be
administered by a clergy literate in the secret rites.

No. 6: Wrath

Nothing pisses people off more than being given
crap technology – especially when they have better
technology elsewhere.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


The NHS Hackday group is full of posts from
people trying to get better technology or services.
oPortfolio
NHS email
You should try to be part of the solution – advise on
technology choices by joining a tech strategy board
or replying to that email survey.
E.g. cellcountr
Or you could be part of the problem. Suffer in
silence.

No. 7: Sloth

For the sloth, there is always tomorrow – right up
until they lose their job.

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Lazy people hate to invest time learning because it
is just too darn much work.
Slothful CTO-types probably believe they're not
doing anything wrong … yet they lack an
understanding of the business at large. They sit in
his office naive and happy, executing everything
according to specs that have everything to do with
technology but little to do with the business.
Perhaps they assume they know enough already
and would rather find more fun things to do, or
simply do nothing, rather than make the investment
in learning about the challenges facing the
organisation they work in, or new technologies and
methods.

Case-study
●

Hyper-complexity

●

Dependency issues

●

All-new build

●

Rolling requirements

●

Anti-testing

●

Release late, release once

●

Anti-bugfixing
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-healthcare-gov/

DigiDoc Conference
10/11/13


Government IT is no stranger to albatross IT
projects. The federal government, and the US Chief
Information Officer and Office of Management and
Budget in particular, have tried to fix the chronic ills
of big, bad IT by applying metrics and dashboards
and reviews. For a brief moment, the HealthCare
dot gov project even showed up on the radar as a
risky proposition. But the metrics that put it there
were only tangentially related to the actual
problems with the project itself. They focused
specifically on cost and scheduling, not with the
actual functionality of the system. The real
problems with HealthCare.gov are related to the
"worst practices" that went into the project nearly
from the beginning. Each misstep, combined with a
generally hostile atmosphere in Washington
surrounding the Affordable Care Act, nearly
guaranteed HealthCare.gov would be late, broken,
or both

7 Deadly Sins of Tech

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