Inhibitors to agility
The following factors related to technology are key barriers for enterprises seeking to enhance and sustain agility.
Treating the technology department as a cost center
Enterprises that are yet to realize the importance of technology in their businesses continue to treat the technology department as a cost center, which is associated with technology being a support function. A cost center's primary goal is to optimize on costs, as the function is viewed as a "necessary evil." The cost-center approach severely limits the capability of the technology function in the following ways:
It creates barriers to investing in new technologies. The budget constraints force the function to maintain status quo in times when technology is changing at an exponential rate.
It discourages experimentation, as the risk of failure is inherent to experimentation and innovation. A cost center cannot afford to lose money on failures, as the cost incurred on experimentation cannot be justified...
