Standards Oversight Board

Most analysts promote the establishment of a technology Standards Oversight Board (SOB) to handle waivers to established standards and drive the evolution of those standards. This is essentially a "dressed up" Purchasing function; if internal client organizations can justify purchases from non-preferred vendors, then they need sign-off from some SOB.... 8-)>

The problem with establishing this as a governance board of internal "thought leaders" is that they will be perceived as performing a low-valued support function...just like Purchasing! Of course, this perception is accurate...that's what they're doing...but it undermines their intellectual capital, which would be better invested in solving larger problems in the IT portfolio.

I served as an SOB for some time and experienced this loss of credibility first-hand. The following is one of my attempts to capture this with a sense of humor (with all flattery intended to Mr. David Letterman):

How many members of the SOB does it take to change a light bulb?

10. All of them. One to hold the light bulb stationary and the rest to rotate the heavens and the earth.
9. The SOB is a black hole from which light cannot escape. After being interrogated for several hours about its preferred behavior (wave vs. particle), light gives up trying to escape.
8. SOBs don't change bulbs. Now if you're looking for someone to blow your fuse box....
7. Vat are your Kwalities of Zervice requirements? If you don't know your Kwalities of Zervice, you might az vell be left in ze dark.
6. Seven. One to request the Design & Engineering teams to write the specifications of the light bulb and socket, one to review and approve the specifications, one to request Operations to actually change the light bulb, one to ask Operations to check if the bulb has been screwed in properly, one to test in production (pre-market) by flipping the switch ON and then OFF (an unfunded project to improve the user experience by adding a dimmer switch has already been branded Light Bulb Pro), one to do an article on the Intranet about this groundbreaking technology AND one more to assert that the bulb will keep glowing when the socket is migrated to Linux.
5. None – when you deploy Acme Brand Light Bulb, your officially Sanctioned source of light….
4. Are you sure you want a buy a light bulb? We have some spare capacity which can generate light and heat when run with sufficient load.
3. None. "Local illumination" is an application model governed by the Applications Solutions Standards board. The SOB only governs the e-utility infrastructure.
2. A corporate officer will need to sponsor your exception request and support from the majority of the SOBs will be necessary to approve it, if you are using a non-sanctioned illumination appliance (aka light bulb).
1. Define "light".