Failure Is Not My Fault

Last updated: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:53:00 GMT

There are powerful forces at work. More powerful, even, than the almighty dollar.

Some very clever people have remarked before that nothing rules the world like economics. Money makes the world go round and all that. One of my university lecturers tried to point this out to us, apparently, that we young 'uns didn't understand that it was all very well having these great ideas, but economics drive success, more than any other merit. I say "apparently" because I don't recall this part of the lecture at all. Still, it seems that he was right.

There is another powerful force at work, and it may be even more powerful than economics. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to call it "blame mitigation". Hell, that might even be the right term.

I mentioned some time ago that measurement is bad, and suggested that people sometimes use measurements inappropriately: in place of applying their own good, sound judgement. Of course, their judgement may be flawed, and that's the point.

This fishbone of an idea has been stuck in the back of my mind for some time now, and it's only just now that I'm irritated enough to cough it up.

"No-one ever got fired for buying Microsoft" the saying goes. But, why? I'm not going to get all religious about it, but there are times where one solution is clearly not the best choice: not the best value, not the best performance, not the best functionality. Just not the right tool for the job. So, why do people choose one demonstrably poorer tool over another, often to their cost?

Why does the recruiter turn down a perfect candidate on the basis of a poor psychometric test result? Why does the project turn away from internally-developed solutions and buy off the shelf? Why does the organisation continue to buy disappointing products from the leading vendor? Why does the enterprise avoid using proven free and open tools and choose to pay for inferior closed tools?

Blame mitigation.

The reason your boss doesn't want you to develop your own solution to this particular problem is not because only you will be able to maintain it. If you're any good, and if he's any good, you can both make sure that it's easily maintained, and well documented.

The reason he doesn't want you to develop your own solution is not because he's afraid you'll leave. To be frank, tying your hands and making you dance to someone else's tune is more likely to encourage you to leave than letting you do the work you enjoy.

The reason he doesn't want you to adopt that free solution is not because he's worried that there's no support for it. If it's better than the closed alternative, it needs less support anyway, and no-one should be asking him to go Free on anything other than a level playing field. No documentation? No current development? No support community? FAIL!

The reason he buys off the shelf, or he goes to that big vendor, or he pays for poorer proprietary software is that, if it all turns to rat shit, then he can go to his boss and say "Hey, boss, we did every thing right; we ran all the numbers and we gave everything a fair go and we went for the same solution that the market went for and, you know, it just didn't work out. Sorry, but it's not our fault."

If, on the other hand, he lets you off the leash and something, anything, the smallest thing, doesn't go right, then he has to go his boss and say "Uh, you know, that guy that I hired, well I let him do this, uh, yes it was my decision and, uh, it's my fault."

Now, you may know that the probabilty of vendor-supplied solution X failing to deliver is high. You may know that you can achieve the results you need to achieve at half the cost, maybe even do better for free. And he may know that you're as good as your word. But there's always that chance that you're wrong. And, even though you may think that chance is small, what he thinks is "There's a chance my neck could be on the block."

It's the reason why the people with their hands on the purse strings collude with big business to keep business big. It's why people are averse to calling foul on contractual obligations. It's why we maintain "good faith".

It's why we pay for products and support that never do what they say on the tin, rather than supporting our own free and open tools as part of the community.

It's why the recruiter ignores the applicant in front of him in favour of the psychometric test. It's why the policeman charges you with speeding instead of dangerous driving.

It's why we pay for things even when we know they won't work.

It's why we expect technology to fail.

It's everywhere.

Failure is not my fault.