I'm very pleased to be able to participate in these discussions on
learning organizations. Now that I've lurked for a few months and piped
up on occasions, it seems appropriate to introduce myself.
I am an industrial engineer by training and a systems engineer by
practice. My experience has been primarily in the space industry
designing satellite ground systems, but recently have made the transition
to telecommunications. Currently, I work for U S WEST, which is a Baby
Bell operating in the mid-west and Rocky Mountain regions of the United
States. The organization that I presently work in (you know big
bureacracies...if you don't like where you work, wait 15 minutes) is
responsible for defining the information technology Enteprise Architecture
for the company's business systems. My role, somewhat self-defined, is
that of Architecture Assurance. That is, I'm trying to educate engineers
and programmers on the principles of good IT architecture and then help
them check their work through reviews of their design.
In addition to working, marriage, parenting, housecleaning, gardening, etc
(isn't modern life fulfilling?), I'm working towards a Masters in
Engineering Management at the University of Colorado. I've caught a bit
of grief from my fellow technologists for not pursuing a more technical
degree. My response is that understanding technology is not the problem
with our enterprises: how we manage technology and work with it to
satisfy our needs is the real challenge. My introduction to learning
organizations came through class work. LO appeals to that part of me that
hates to reinvent the wheel and repeat mistakes. My personal research is
focused on how learning organization techniques, methods, infrastructure
could be applied to system development/software engineering. I've had the
opportunity to correspond with a couple of you with the same interest and
look forward to more discussion.
Regards,
-- Beth Clark U S WEST Boulder, CO eclark@advtech.uswest.com