If you work for a large company then you are used to re-orgs. I think it is healthy for a company to re-organize. To me it shows that the company is attempting to make things better by aligning to ever shifting priorities and market conditions.
Recently, Jeff Atwood blogged about “White Elephant” gift exchange parties. It sounds fun but what I thought was most interesting was the term “white elephant” and its origins.
You can review Jeff’s blog but I’ll quote his definition of “White Elephant” here:
white elephant
1. A costly possession requiring so much upkeep that it becomes a burden.
2. Something no longer wanted by its owner.
In [Thailand], the rare albino elephant was sacred, and each new one born belonged to the king. Moreover, it was forbidden to kill such an elephant or to use it for work. Therefore, the story goes, whenever the king wished to punish an obnoxious courtier, he'd make him a present of one of these pale pachyderms. It was a gift to be dreaded, however. Recipients could neither use the elephant nor get rid of it -- and inevitably went broke trying to keep it fed. Nowadays, the expression white elephant is used to apply more generally to any burdensome possession.
Ok, back to re-orgs. Typically, after a re-org your new/existing group will acquire an application to support. Usually this application is a legacy application that is costly to maintain. It is not that the application is no longer wanted or needed. It is just that your group is now responsible for supporting and maintaining a “White Elephant” application.