Cowpaths
Mike has a good post on cowpaths. He talks about how roads into Dallas/Ft.Worth were created along the lines the cows used to walk a hundred years ago. Therefore the roads are curvy and generally inefficient. Then he relates it very well to IT projects. The message is, on new projects (or any project for that matter), question how and why things are being done. Are they being done solely because that is the way it has always been done or is there a reason? And even if there used to be a good reason for doing something a certain way, is that reason still valid?
To quote Vincenzo Galilei:
It appears to me that they who in proof of any assertion rely simply on the weight of authority, without adducing any argument in support of it, act very absurdly.
Remember, authority isn’t necessarily based in company or social hierachies. History, peer pressure, and ignorance can all be “authorities” on which poor processes are continual employed without anyone stopping to wonder why something is being done.