Information Silos Are Bad For Business
Whatever your thoughts on using Agile, it does promote better communication. Collaboration is a central tenet for Agile, and communication is required for proper collaboration. Sadly, many organizations form information silos around their divisions and teams. This happens for many reasons, but it is a significant issue that should be addressed for any business that wants to stop wasteful development practices.
First, what is an information silo? Information silos is a term used when an insular management system is used. It disturbs the act of transparency between divisions or teams and often leads to confusion and inefficiencies.
A good (if somewhat simplified) example was when the original Affordable Care Act website was rolled out. Due to the site’s critical deadline, multiple contractors were brought in. Each had their own idea on the needed technologies, including frontend, backend, and database. To protect what they were working on, these contractors kept many of the specifications they were working on “in-house.” When it came time to plug all of the features into a consolidated web application, though, the site failed miserably. The features could not communicate with each other, and often had differing database configurations, meaning the data being transferred was not easily readable between technologies. It required months of work and escalating costs to fix the problems that were introduced, all due to a lack of coordination and transparency.
Many of us in the tech industry have witnessed these behaviors, but why do they happen? There are many reasons information silos form in an organization, though, and I have sadly witnessed these in my professional career.
I have seen two people in power at the executive level who disagreed on how something should be done. In an effort to have “their way,” both individuals formed coalitions to push their agendas and cut off communication with the other. Internal politics is often a driver for the formation of information silos and is easily one of the hardest for to combat at an individual contribution level.
Another reason is a lack of management guidance. Management was unwilling or unable to direct their personnel on what was needed. The employees under these managers, lacking the proper guidance and experience a manager could provide, made do with what they had. They provided what was asked of them, but without that management buy-in, they could not produce the desired features. This proved to be a double-edged sword in that the executive leadership was unaware of the problem because management didn’t communicate what was being done until it was too late.
Finally, and easily one of the scariest in my opinion, is when information silos are formed to hide incompetence. Someone who doesn’t have the experience or skills required to do the job. They hide what they are doing, refuse collaboration, and avoid accountability. This can be at any level of an organization, whether it is at the executive, management, or individual contributor level.
Information silos require extra work to “rediscover” information when needed. They can form innocently enough at first, lacking proper documentation, locking information to only specific individuals, or wanting to wait until a product is finished. There are certainly instances where these things are helpful. For example, a business wouldn’t want to show unfinished products to the world. Your organization might be dealing with sensitive data that you want to keep locked down internally.
Information silos have their place for security purposes, but otherwise should not be the norm at your organization. Collaboration and transparency are imperative when developing products. This goes both ways, up and down the chain of command. Executives should be communicating directives and decisions about the company and its programs. Individual contributors should be open about what they are working on and any issues they face, and offer their opinions and solutions to those issues. Managers should communicate between their teams and the executives, offering direction and guidance while promoting wins, losses, and program statistics. Finally, everyone should be able to hold each other accountable.
To combat information silos, look at how your organization works across the divisions and teams. The most significant changes should come at the executive level of any organization. Executives must eliminate a competitive culture between their divisions. Promote that you are all working towards common goals and that each division participates in the organization’s success. Work with the managers and individual contributors to set communication, collaboration, and documentation standards. Build a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) chart, assign the roles to each task performed throughout your organization, and ensure everyone is adhering to it.
Communication is the key to any Agile organization. Please use it.