David McCoy

In my opening post, I listed the three reasons behind my desire to blog.  They are rather grandiose – and long-winded – but they are what they are.  Now, let me explain what I want to accomplish, share the main topics I will favor (initially), and offer a good, old-fashioned disclaimer.

Blog Goals:

1. Social - Have fun, meet new people, and share and learn new ideas.  I want your readership and your comments. I want to learn from you.  Feel free to share your thoughts, support me, contradict me, disagree with me, etc.  If your comments are intellectually stimulating and articulate, all the better.  There is a rumor floating around that analyst blogs scare people away from commenting.  Well, dismiss that thought right now.  Comments are encouraged.
2. Educational - Advance the understanding of important topics and concepts though the use of simplifying constructs (metaphor, analogy, story, etc).  Ever since the 6th grade (Emily Bernstein – are you still teaching?), I have had this burning desire – and perhaps, ability – to take a complex topic and strip it down to bare metal and rebuild it on (and with) my terms.  I want to transform the complex into the understandable.  I will need your help on that (see Goal 1).
3. Philosophical – Examine the “flesh-and-blood” standing behind many of our technological activities.  We are still the masters to our machines, but sometimes it does not feel that way. I want to remind us of who is in charge; to put technology in the proper light as a servant and not as the primary reason for living.  This kind of perspective-making has tinged my Gartner research for years.  I plan to bring it here too.

My Preferred Topics:

1. Business Process Management (BPM) - Long ago, I started Gartner’s BPM research tradition, building on our great history in the workflow market.  Now, BPM has become a vast topic with a strong Gartner analyst base.  I will blog about various aspects of BPM such as process methods and standards, business rule management and of course, agility.  I want to pay special attention to the reality of doing BPM in a world where many feel threatened by an automated overlord still dripping wet with blood from the savage days of BPR.  My returned-to-the-Gartner-fold, buddy, Jim Sinur, who is also part of this new blogging network, will be another source for BPM postings. Between the two of us, we should keep you entertained and informed.  We expect you to do the same for us.
2. Academic Goings-On - You will find that I am a perpetual academic. I serve on the Georgia Tech College of Computing Advisory Board and the San Jose State Computer Engineering Department Advisory Board.  Guest lecturing is one of my favorite hobbies (Wow, are undergrads different today than when I taught in the late ’80s).  I even ran Gartner’s Academic Roundtable a few years ago: a skunk works effort to blend Gartner research and academic research into something beautiful.  Let’s see what we can do here along the same line.
3. Ephemera – I love this catch-all term and it will describe some of the more eclectic blogging that I plan to do.  Music, guitars, tube amplifiers, theology, short stories, poetry, etc.  This category is 100% open and free-form. I might even post a picture of a cat now and then (if I can find someone who has a cat…).

Disclaimer:

While I am hosted on a gartner.com site (thanks Gene Hall!), this is a personal blog.  Andrew Spender, our PR guru, has just given an excellent interview that answers many of the questions about how we will operate.  I don’t plan to contradict Gartner research – heck, I probably signed-off on most of the BPM research you are reading today – but I do have a range of motion here that is refreshing.  So, to be very clear, the opinions expressed in this blog, whether on BPM or guitar tubes, on rule engines or theology, are mine, all mine.  And to add that last little bit of clarity to another rumor afloat… We are blogging because we love/want/need to, not because of a job description.