On Silver Bullets
On a regular basis I see a blog pop up about silver bullets in relation to ict-projects.
The silver bullet takes on the metaphor of the solution for each and every problem. Naturally with in the domain of ict-projects it’s the search of a tool and/or an approach with which a hundred percent success rate is guaranteed.
For me that’s kinda weird, as that sounds as something that’s closer to questing for the holy grail or waiting for the number forty-two to be barfed up by a machine imputed with some divine abilities.
To understand what the intensions behind using silver as a weapon are one must first understand what it’s used against and when it appears. In most tales it’s aimed at a supernatural creature with ill intensions. It will surface at night under the guidance of the moon. Early in the story it becomes clear that residents from within the community don’t seem to be able to handle the situation and at the same time what will happen if they don’t manage to slay the menace. The foe doesn’t have to do that much to gets its hands on them so it can either consume them or turn them into such an ugly beast itself. In both cases they’re no longer considered to be part of the realm of the living. The inhabitants don’t seem to be able to throw anything at the evil outsider to stop it, they’re afraid and do not understand what is going on. If they wish to stop the menace an opposing outsider with the right tools is needed.
If we take a few steps back from the story we can see that the key in these stories is that inhabitants are transformed against their will into something that they do not understand and to stop this they need a specialty that they are unaware of.
Now if we take that and put it in relation to ict-projects, then indeed most of these projects are silver bullets. Probably unknowingly and unwillingly but they manage to stop many a wicked transformation. If I look back at my succesrecord I must be truly evil and there rests me one thing to say.
