Habit 1: Treat some IT as a commodity

Whilst all decisions need care, some need more care than others. Spending a few hundred pounds on a printer does not warrant the same time as re-networking the office.

Not all IT decisions or implementations require projects or cost/benefit analyses. Part of the skill of getting the most from IT is deciding which activities need management attention, and which do not.
Some businesses use ?IT principles?. These are ground-rules, which are not up for discussion. For example, a business might decide to standardise on Microsoft Office as an IT principle. This removes one or more variables from the process, simplifying the decision. As with all principles they are subject to periodic review.
Businesses assess potential costs and risks to decide how much a project should be structured and formalised. For example, adding a new report to a system is normally low cost and low risk. Replacing a business system would be high cost and risk.
Businesses purchasing commodities seek long term value from their supplier and, when the specification is standard and known, they use price and quality as the selection criteria.

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