Plans unravelled

10 days ago I wrote a post ‘practical planning’, comparing the process of preparing a horse for competition with the process of planning an I.T. project. The subject of the post was my horse Harry, a home-bred star who, at 10 years old, was entering his prime. Four days ago Harry suddenly became ill and, after 15 hours of trying to save him with my vet doing everything possible, I had to make the horrible decision to have him put down.

Harry was more than just a competition horse, he was my horse of a lifetime. Every day just seeing him looking out over his stable door made me smile (my house is opposite my stables). So many decisions over the past three years have revolved around Harry, not least deciding not to move to Redmond last year. All of a sudden there is a huge gap in my life. He was the most vocal horse on the yard and the place seems so empty and quiet now. So much for making plans…

Can’t promise there won’t still be posts comparing Harry to I.T. projects, 10 years of partnership has provided plenty of examples. But for the moment, I agree with Nick Carr - I.T. really doesn’t matter.