IT价值

CIO Stories Series: Spam and Rogue  By Pei Youfu, August 23, 2006

Hu starts his everyday work with checking mailboxes, and everyday he's greeted by a dozen or so uninvited spam emails. Some of his colleagues even receive hundreds of them. This is really annoying.

Several years ago, Hu installed an anti-spam system in the company's mail server. But it didn't work well. Regular mail was often blocked while spam kept getting through. In fact, it once got so bad that CFO Cai became enraged when he missed an important email from an investor. By the time the original email was recovered by the network administrator, the investor had already changed his mind and Cai lost a financing opportunity for the company.

The incident made Hu determined to add a professional anti-spam-mail server. He used to be against the idea as he thought it was a waste of money. However, Cai insisted, "It prevents junk mails, saves us valuable time and avoids unexpected losses. I think it's worthwhile." With that, Cai approved the budget on his own initiative.

It turned out to be a right decision. The new server had an instant effect on anti-spam protection. But Hu wasn't that happy. "Billions of Yuan are spent on such anti-spam systems across the country each year, and I've also contributed to that figure now," he sighed dismally. He was well informed that a single server could not solve all the problems. He pressed his workers to keep an eye on the server's filters, but even a slight adjustment by the system administrator would often allow a flood of spam pouring into the system. Gaining any ground on the problem was a constant struggle.

He decided to send all the spam to the trash box of his smart mail software, which automatically memorized such emails, and filtered all of them later on. It served as a last measure of defense. He then wrote a short reminder to the system administrator.

When he logged onto the company's forum, he saw a message from Song, describing his enthusiastic fighting experience with those spam mails. Song was in charge of desktop system support. Hu forced a smile after reading the message. Previously, the desktop support system had mainly involved relatively simple software and hardware maintenance. It should be a tedious job with low technical content. However, since Song's recruitment, it never seemed that easy, fighting spirit also became a must.

As the company's business became closely bound up with the Internet and application information system, employees spent more time working with the Internet. However, the nagging online advertisements tended to distract them from the important information: pop up ads were mysteriously creeping on employees' browsers, tools bars materialized out of nowhere, screens suddenly displayed odd websites, and irrelevant software might sometime be installed without notice. The desperate workers turned to Song for help. He called such software "rogues", who took advantage of the browser's plug-in functions and hidden defects of the operating systems to hijack computers.

Every time he detected new rogue software, Song got excited like a hunter tracking his prey. But the frequency and extent of the "network rogues" was escalating. Song had piled up hundreds of rogues. Now he had been able to figure out how they worked and even devised a special anti-rogue tool. But the more immersed Song became in his task, the more depressed Hu felt. Hu would rather Song be assigned to a position that created real value for the company.

The other day Song reported finding a curious spy plug-in in the computer of a sales worker. It was probably being delivered by the company's rivals to spy on their business secrets. Hu was astonished. The company was always putting information security in the first priority, but somehow the spy ware managed to creep past. How could this happen?

Hu has now deployed a crack team dedicated to eradicating rogue software in the company's information system. Given the current state of the system, it could be a "mission impossible". But it's better than standing around by doing nothing.

原文链接：http://www.cbfeature.com/index.php?categoryid=13&p2_articleid=94（阅读全文须注册）

中文链接：CIO故事之十八：垃圾与流氓

作为一个孤僻的与世无争者，前几波 Blog 游戏都与我无关。这一轮，Tiny 给我强制任务，岂敢不完成捏？

1. 一本你不只读了一次的图书
看过不只一次的书，好像很多吧？阅读次数最多的，可能是初中时候看的《中学生作文选》。那个时候我无书可看，哥哥帮我带回这本作文书，被爱惜书的我看得书角起卷，后来我干脆把书修成了圆角——现在的小孩书很多奇形怪状的，但那个时候，绝对是独立“发明”。

2. 一本你如果身在沙漠时想读的书
《唐诗三百首》。成年之后，读“应该读”的书太多，读“喜欢读”的书太少。既然身在沙漠，还有何念想？不如一边与唐人一起欣赏千古绝句，一边体会生命的缓缓流逝吧。

3. 一本让你发笑的书
通常，我是相信文字的力量，相信文字比图片更有说服力。但是《你今天心情不好吗？》这本画儿书，让我笑着看到图片亦具有文字无法取代的魅力。

4. 一本让你哭的书
泪腺比较发达，让我流泪的书很多。《许三观卖血记》我儿子看了会笑，我笑不出来。《兄弟》让我落泪。第一本让我落泪的印象深刻的书，不知名，是高中时读的，叫做《第二个母亲》。

5. 一本你希望是自己写的书
《红楼梦》。谁能同曹雪芹一样啼血著书？即使能，也没有那样的底蕴。

6. 一本你希望从未写就的书
我是觉得太多了。现在去书店，去一回后悔一回；在网上买书，经常体会名不副实。世上的垃圾书、尤其是中文的垃圾书太多了，比信息爆炸产生的网上垃圾量更多。

7. 一本正在读的书
最近么？最近几乎没有空，只是插空读点跟手头工作有关的。昨天晚上读的，是这本《Enterprise SOA》。先在网上找了英文电子版。像很多翻译书一样，内容很好，翻译很不咋的。

8. 一本读来有意味的书
这个问题我答不出来。什么叫做有意味呢？在我看来，凡读的书都有其意味，否则就不读算了。

9. 一本改变你一生的书
没有什么书有这样的力量。若论曾经影响过我的行动的，一是五十年代出版的书页发黄的俄语课本，虽然俄语最终没有多少实际作用，但确实改变了我人生的轨迹；二是日本人德田虎雄的一本小册子，《产生奇迹的行动哲学》，有段时间我就是像德田那样，一天玩命16小时，追求“快吃快便抖动腿”。

10. 点名
董　璐　这位号称无甚大志向的 MM 记者，平时都读些什么？好奇一下。貌似尚无人捷足先点。
高泽龙　没见过面的网友，希望帮他写写他的发财网，一直心怀愧疚只字未提，说说读书吧。
梁　宁　神人 Sunny，经常“博”出惊世之语，最近读些什么捏？
吴晓波　他的书和文章我很喜欢，他读书很多，只是他会不会接招呢？

CIO Stories Series: Hwatong not so Agile By Pei Youfu, August 10, 2006

Mr. Hu had just returned from an oversea investigation trip. Instead of going back home or to his office, he rushed to Hwatong Co., Limited, a long-term partner, which was developing a corporate resource management system for Hu's company. He thought they must have completed the system while he was away.

As a veteran CIO, Hu has rich experience in projects. Along with Da Yong's assist, he usually doesn't worry a lot about detailed implementation. But this time, it's a little different.

Six months ago, Yu Cong took over as the CEO of Hwatong. He soon initiated a dramatic reorganization and reform in the company. It cost him only a single month to make the transition by integrating all the departments. The company took on a brand new look afterward. He then declared that a software company should represent advanced productivity. So, Hwatong adopted something new called "agile software development methods".

It was at this time that Hu asked Hwatong to develop a resource management system. Yu was eager to try the new "agile software development methods". Since the project wasn't large or critical to Hu's company, Hu just wanted to make sure it was high quality and completed on time. He didn't care how it was done. Of course, Hu gave his full support to his partner. And Hwatong used the opportunity to test the "agile software development methods".

Yu decided to spend RMB800, 000 (US$100,316) to hire an American company to assist with the "agile software development". The cost was actually far beyond Hwatong could earn from the single contract, but Yu considered it a worthwhile, long-term investment.

When Hu arrived at Hwatong, he found that the computer room looked just as it had been before the project was started. And the two American experts were back to the States. He heaved a sigh of relief and gleefully assumed that the project was completed.

However, to Hu's astonishment, it turned out the other way round - the American personnel had left ahead of schedule.

Having realized something emergent had happened, Hu immediately rushed back to his CIO office. "Come here, Da Yong," he yelled at the project manager. Da Yong followed him into the office, without uttering a word. Hu turned pale with anger. "Tell me the problem; I just came back from Hwatong!" he said.

The problem was that Hwatong really had a major stumble. Since the company was not experienced in the "agile software development methods", Hwatong had all the experts employed temporarily. The chemistry was completely not good between them from the very beginning. American experts wanted to arrange tables and chairs in a circle for easier communication, while the Chinese employees just chatted with each other and were distracted from work. Human-focused agile development methods highlighted communication, but the obvious language barrier made that difficult. Consequently, the regular morning summary briefing turned into an oral English classroom. The development group also experienced huge cultural barriers. The Americans wanted everything to be clear and accurate, while Chinese staff felt that wasn't essential.
 
The nudge that triggered the final breakdown was actually tiny. The foreigners insisted that everyone should stand during the daily morning briefing. But one Hwatong staff member resisted and sat on the table, complaining they were too tired from working overtime everyday. This irritated the American partners, who stopped the meeting at once and reported the dissatisfaction to their overseas headquarters. On the other side, Yu was unsatisfied and refused to pay the Americans for failing to fulfill the contract. The Americans responded by immediately pulling out their experts.

"So what about our project now?" asked an anxious Hu.

"We do have something, but it's basically useless," answered Da Yong, as he demonstrated to Hu an IP address in testing environment to show this system. 

Hu quickly tested a few functions, which were far from his expectations. "Ask Yu to come," he yelled impatiently.

Having heard that Hu had visited the development center in Hwatong , Yu hurried to the office, knowing the situation was bad. Hu got increasingly angry as Yu tried to explain the situation. Da Yong had never seen Hu so angry before.
 
After a while, both Hu and Yu calmed down. The unpleasant conversation ended. At last Hu told some staff members at Hwatong to stop their task at hand and join the project at once.

"Let's turn back to the traditional methods. For us, they are more agile." Hu sighed.

原文链接：http://www.cbfeature.com/index.php?categoryid=13&p2_articleid=83（阅读全文须注册）

中文链接：CIO故事之十七：水土不服

基本理顺IT 治理结构之后，老胡的工作重心开始转向公司应用系统的整合。在老胡的多年努力之下，公司的各IT系统都运转良好，而且也并非是“老死不相往来”的信息孤 岛。近几年，由于公司业务的持续变革，特别是通过并购实现规模扩张，公司内部的新信息孤岛不断产生，而原有的信息系统“即使不是信息孤岛，但也算得上信息 ‘半岛’了”，老胡这样自嘲道。于是，他开始着眼系统整合。

在这次CIO办公会上，老胡向他的得力干将们布置了任务：“我们不能继续让信息孤岛不断产生。打造统一的应用系统平台，势在必行！”他指出，如果对各应用 系统进行点到点“捉对”整合，意味着n个系统就需要建立n ×(n-1)个连接，而如果建立一个统一的应用平台，所有系统与平台直接相连，n个系统只需要n个连接，并且将来增添新系统时，只需解决与平台的连接，便 可一次实现与其他系统的互联互通。

系统整合尚在策划之中，各路神通的IT 厂商便闻风而至。在CIO 办公会的第二天早上，四方联公司的吴经理就出现在了老胡的办公室。四方联是一家软件中间件供应商，如今祭起了EAI（企业应用集成）的大旗。

胖胖的吴经理用手掌擦着满脑门的汗，像背书似地对老胡说道：“企业的技术架构取决于整体的业务架构，四方联的EAI解决方案能够站在你们公司的总体战略上 部署技术架构，建立起面向未来的可持续发展的基础架构平台，支持你们业务创新和提高服务质量、管理能力。”

老胡是老江湖了，他不愿意被厂商的理念“忽悠”占据太多时间，于是单刀直入地问道：“直截了当说吧，你们打算如何帮我搭建统一的应用平台？”

吴经理一边掏出厚厚的一本打印资料一边说：“我们的EAI 能够帮助你们公司更多地与客户直接面对面的沟通，实现‘以客户为中心’的业务架构，从技术驱动过渡到业务驱动，最终实现战略驱动。”面对这种不懂技术、只 会大而空地照本宣科的销售人员，老胡的策略是——客气地请他回去，让他换位工程师来。

午饭刚过，老胡办公室的门被一串银铃般的笑声“撞开”。SBI公司的女销售郝思嘉轻盈地坐到老胡对面的转椅上，一声“胡总”叫得老胡后背有些凉意。

郝思嘉看了一眼老胡桌上的四方联公司的EAI 资料，对他说：“胡总，竟然还有人跟您提EAI！那个东西过时了，是‘死神之吻’，我们SBI现在推SOA。您没听过吗？SOA是EAI 的‘拯救天使’！”

老胡有些受不了她的语气。老胡不是不知道，作为国际知名大企业，SBI 力推SOA（面向服务的体系架构）已经多年，据说每年研发经费高达数亿美元。他也知道SOA的理念是先进的，它采用服务的理念把IT资源封装成标准模块， 便于构建和改建业务流程，可以简化EAI的实施、避开EAI 的一些不足。

老胡慢悠悠地问：“这位‘天使’就没有什么缺点吗？”其实他心里有数，SOA的优势在于标准化服务，然而SOA虽已确立一些开放性标准，但在接口规范、安 全性等方面还有一些有待解决的问题，而传统的应用整合，技术相对成熟，效率、可靠性和性价比都比SOA 要高。

见老胡有所质疑，郝思嘉迫不及待地说：“胡总，‘SOA 时代已经来临！’‘SOA 将改变整个IT 产业的格局！’这都是SBI的宣言，您要与时俱进就得尽快转向SOA！”

老胡本来想问问，SBI 推行的SOA实施起来是否昂贵，但这位女sales让他已经张开的嘴巴变成一个呵欠。

老胡心目中的统一应用平台是采用SOA 理念，结合EAI和传统中间件的一些具体技术，进行混合实施，这是他的原则——既要先进，更要实用、可操作，所以他心目中这个项目的IT 供应商既不是四方联，也不是SBI。

送走郝思嘉后，老胡把大勇叫进办公室，和他讨论了自己的大致思路，他说：“统一应用平台应该像硬件的总线结构一样，成为应用和数据的公共通路，让应用和数据各行其道；同时，它还应该是业务流程的转换中心，并能够统一用户管理、整合用户界面。”

老胡要求大勇根据这个思路写一个方案，然后按照方案遴选应用集成供应商。

（BTW，本文的题目原来叫做《死神与天使》，我自觉不错。还有，郝思嘉说话本来比较“时尚地发嗲”。《IT经理世界》似乎倾向于比较中庸。）

CIO Stories Series: Promotion

As he walked out of the CEO's office, Ji Chao felt stifled and oppressed, and couldn't help kicking a nearby chair in frustration.

Ironically, Ji should have been in higher spirits. The CEO had just offered him a promotion. For most people it would have been good news, but Ji was quite reluctant. In fact, this is not the first time. He had a similar experience some years ago, when, not long before he joined this IT company, the boss tried to promote him to department manager. Ji was not at all motivated by the "great expectations", for he had a clear view of himself. He calmly told the boss, "I'm introverted and awkward with communication. Management does not fit me. I have my heart set on technology."

"The company has decided to apply for a government innovation fund. We hope you would be the technical manager of the project under application," explained the boss. As a matter of fact, the boss was well aware of Ji's weakness. This promotion offer was partially due to his superior educational background, along with his patents and dissertations.

"What project shall we apply with?" Ji inquired. The boss told him it would be the "BlueBanner", a product of Linux. Ji retorted with youthful impatience, "Are you sure you want to apply to the innovation fund with that funny stuff? That so-called independent IPR is just simple modifications on an existing version of Linux downloaded from the Internet. It violates GPL (General Public License) in the first place, and it's stealing!"

Ji became agitated, "Why do we have to cheat in the name of innovation? We are only competent enough to act as agents for foreign products. Our business is no more than carrying boxes. You can glorify it as an all-in-one solution or hi-tech achievements, but do you really believe we could get that government innovation fund with it?"

When Ji was about to leave, the boss stopped him and mildly admitted, "We are a newly founded firm, you know. To cultivate excellent talent here like you, we need to find money in any possible way. The free government innovation fund is an important resource." The boss ended by a compromise that if Ji didn't want to be involved in management, he could continue with his beloved technology under a management title.
 
Eventually, the company gained major support from the government; RMB1.5 million (US$190,000) was injected in installments. Ji had remained a nominal "technical manager" till all the money was received. After that, he rejected the promotion flatly and returned to his original position as a technical engineer.

CIO Stories Series: Digital World

Deep into the night, the normally bustling office building was now covered by a sea of darkness. The only beacon of light was from a meeting room on the 13th floor. Chief Information Officer Jiang and his subordinates, Tao and Ping, together with four consultants, Dr. Zhang and the other three surnamed Wang, Li and Zhao, were holding a marathon meeting that was stretching into the early hours of a new day. Everybody was exhausted, except Jiang, who remained high-spirited and lucid throughout the long, tortuous meeting. Now he could see the daylight - the IT project draft he had commissioned was approaching to a successful ending tonight.

The team of contracted consultants had spent two months concentrating on the draft in the lead-up to the big meeting. Headed by Dr. Zhang, they thoroughly studied the present informatization situation of the government administration region that Jiang was in; they also managed to figure out each manager's expectations as well as departmental informatization requirements; with the aid of professional instruments, they estimated the gap between the status quo and their objects to decide on the appropriate means of realizing change. Finally, based on such preparatory work, the consultant team helped Jiang to draft up a five-year IT plan.

To Dr. Zhang's surprise, the initial project draft failed to meet CIO Jiang's expectations, even after being revised 15 times. Zhang had never before found himself in such an awkward situation throughout his consulting career. Every time he discussed a revised project draft with Tao and Ping, they thought it was just perfect. But each of them was rejected bluntly by Jiang and thrown back with negative comments. Dr. Zhang was nearing his wit's end.

Later, with the help of his assistant Wang, Dr. Zhang finally took the pulse of Jiang. He reckoned the pre-plan study as kind of waste. In fact, all that he expected from the consultants were to focus on the five-year development plan, so called "Grand Plan", approved by government officers and keep in line with it. Zhang found it really depressing.

"Believe it or not, if you add 'the Grand Plan' with words like 'digit', 'digitalization' and 'informatization', and phrase your words in a more IT-like fashion, Jiang would happily buy it. For example, if 'the Grand Plan' mentions entertainment, then we should say 'digitalized entertainment'; if 'the Grand Plan' emphasizes community service, then we should suggest 'digitalized community service'; if 'the Grand Plan' requires development of traditional enterprises, then we should strive for the 'digitalized development of traditional enterprises'," advised Wang.

With this "open sesame" in mind, Dr. Zhang reworded the draft accordingly, shelving a range of data, graphs and painstakingly detailed analysis in the process. It turned out that Wang was right-Jiang was rather satisfied with the new revisions. Today, at this summit-style meeting, Jiang was finally sitting together with them to discuss the details of the IT project draft.

So far, the body of the draft had been completed, with only one simple yet complicated task left. That is to find a glamorous title for this strategic five-year informatization plan. Jiang didn't like its present name, thinking it was too plain and not catchy enough.

"How about '4x4 Strategy'? We can summarize the plan into four major tasks, and further divide each task into four sub-parts, creating a matrix," suggested Li.

Jiang dismissed it at once, saying that "Matrix administration is completely out of date. It sounds stupid for us to go back to it again."

"I think maybe '4321 Strategy' is a nice option: 4 tasks, 3 fields, 2 key points and 1 special project," suggested Zhao in a whispery voice. She was always a little bit timid in the face of Jiang's aggressive delivery.

Jiang wasn't happy with it either. "This won't do! '4-3-2-1', the descending order seems to suggest the plan is on the way downhill," he said.

Wang didn't make any concrete proposal, but said, "Let's switch our approach a little and leave those digits alone."

CIO Stories Series: Breaking through the Ceiling

Hu went into a teahouse on the weekend for an appointment with his friend, where he unexpectedly met Chen Li, the CIO of a state-owned enterprise. Chen had always dressed plain and neat. Now, with such fashionable attire, she was hardly recognizable to Hu at first sight.

While Hu's friend was on the way, Chen sat opposite Hu and they started chatting.

At the beginning of her appointment as the CIO, some of her subordinates were quite scornful and regarded her as nothing but a "little woman". Even her boss was not fully confident in her capabilities. With Hu's patient and meticulous instructions, Chen rapidly "incorporated" those troublemakers, consolidated the disunited IT team into a crack unit, and transformed the computer on the boss's desk from a decoration to practical use. Chen won the boss's trust and support in this way, which was of paramount importance in her early period in the saddle. She developed a sincere gratitude towards Hu, and thanked him every time they met.

"That's because of your own capabilities. You are becoming a great CIO," Hu said with a smile. A veteran CIO himself, Hu appreciated the difficulty for IT women at work. Of IT personnel, no more than 20% were women, and a female CIO like Chen was even rarer. But Chen could ride the whirlwind at work and seemed never to believe her sex was an obstacle, and never came across the formidable "invisible ceiling".

Much to Hu's surprise, however, Chen said, "Invisible ceilings are everywhere." The first "ceiling" after her assumption of CIO was the "men's room". At that time she had secured a firm foothold in the enterprise, and proposed an overall re-arrangement of the company's information system. She had obtained verbal support from the boss in advance, and most leaders expressed their agreement at the CEO conference as well. But after a short break, the tables quickly turned and her plan was rejected. She couldn't figure out why, and secretly asked a male manager, who was on good terms with her, what happened. To her surprise, the proposal was voted down in the men's room during the break.

Hu kept nodding his head. He admitted it was absolutely true that quite a few problems were discussed and preliminarily resolved in restrooms. As a matter of fact, "sauna meetings" and "KTV meetings" were also the places where men formulated resolutions of grave importance.