If we build them big, they'll either be late or wrong. And for really big systems, they're guaranteed to be late and wrong. No matter how much information matters to business, it's still not what most businesses produce. Like the TV ad says, IT doesn't make the airplanes and toys and food and cars and dishwashers - it just makes them better. Work expands to fill the bandwidth provided - and the storage provided, and the processor cycles provided.
Prediction is futile - and unavoidably necessary.
We have to plan, but we'll always get it wrong. Users save us from our most catastrophic stupidities. They always have, despite bugs, delays and bad ideas. After 50 years, they're still the only ones who can. Hayes, Computerworld's senior news columnist, has covered IT for more than 20 years.