The Lie of Technology Agnosticism

I’ve noticed an alarming trend amongst IT consulting companies as of late (although it might have been around for a while it’s new to me). These consulting companies are claiming that they are “technology agnostic” in how they craft solutions. By this they could mean one or both of these things, and I will address why each is not a reason to use that title.

They approach IT solutions without a preference towards one technological solution or another, or become that way when cornered. Often this type of “agnostic solution” references to disciplines such as taxonomy development, governance, etc.

“Agnostic” Technological Solutions

Some companies attempt to say they can do any kind of technological implementation that the client desires. This is a more dangerous than saying they are completely bound by a technological solution (i.e. I can only use technology x). It is very misleading to make a client think that they have a methodology that is supra-technological solution.

While it’s true that enterprise information architecture is a discipline that can be applied to different technologies it does take on a very different form based on the solution the client needs. For a consultant to go in for analysis pushing one technology and when the client desires another it’s irresponsible and misleading to inform them that they can go forward with the implementation. A failed project is only down the road. The paradigms of application with a field such as EIA varies much on the technology. How one does taxonomy design and implementation and SharePoint another product is very different and should not be taken lightly.

While this is a rant of mine it is something I feel a client should be made aware of a consultant that goes down such a dangerous road.