Once upon a time in a small village, two farming families, the Patels and the Sharmas, depended on a single mango orchard that bore exactly 100 ripe mangoes every day. These mangoes were their main source of income at the local bazaar.
Every morning, both families rushed to the orchard to pluck the best mangoes. If the Patels managed to gather 70 mangoes, the Sharmas were left with only 30. As the total mangoes available remained fixed – one family’s gain meant the other’s loss.
This was a zero-sum game: the resource (mangoes) was limited, and one family’s success came at the expense of the other.
In the life as a software architect, we all have worked with IT departments having limited budgets, so teams have to argue and counter the proposals based on the business benefits. For example:
- Team A argued: “If we automate customer support with agents (glorified chatbots!), we’ll reduce response times and improve customer satisfaction”
- Team B argued: “If we automate invoice processing, we’ll save thousands of hours and reduce financial errors!”
So the zero-sum game is also applicable because the total budget is typically limited – one project’s success will come at the expense of the other.
Moral of the Story
As an Architect or Software Engineer, mastering the art of explaining business benefits is just as important as designing technical solutions. Instead of simply requesting resources, IT teams must clearly communicate the ROI of their projects, showing how automation can:
- reduce costs
- increase efficiency
- enhance customer experience
By aligning technology with business goals, IT professionals can turn competition into collaboration, ensuring that automation investments benefit the entire organization.
Titto Thommy 
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