"IT Doesn't Matter" certainly isn't the first paper to point out that the IT industry has been maturing. Previous analysts' reports have compared IT to such rustbelt industries as automotive manufacture, power generation and railroads. Carr is the first person, however, to have written a studied, coherent and complete explanation for how this new generation of software needs to be managed from a business person's point of view - and to do so in the prestigious Harvard Business Review, where he is Editor-At-Large.

The responses to this paper have been the predictable cheers from those who detest everything to do with IT, and the furious rebuttals from those who see IT as the primary, or only, hope for a resurgence of our economy. Nicholas Carr's thesis defends neither extreme. His carefully-phrased paper differentiates between strategic and essential, affordable and cheap, innovative and valuable. This enhanced edition of the article that first appeared in the HBR in May 2003 is well worth reading.