Run IT like a Business; Manage IT like a Portfolio

In the first part of this series “Technology is not a Toy,” we discussed technology alignment to the business and the exposure of the tail wagging the dog syndrome.  The next step is building appropriate levels of accountability and control…and it’s not someone else’s problem.

All too often, we find organizations don’t have a good handle on the technologies their business units are using, let alone a comprehensive picture of the technologies running in their datacenters.  The business unit has an even more fragmented view of the landscape.  It gets worse the faster you experience growth, especially if by acquisition, and the more complex business models become.  Get out of this vicious cycle by these 4 actions: Prescribe, Involve, Track, & Govern.

• Prescribe - Define what types of systems belong to which type of technology ensembles (complex transaction, low-latency, numerical processing, etc.) and operation models (tier 1, DR, cloud) you have deployed in your datacenters.  Use your reference architectures, keep them relevant and publicized – it’s why you created them in the first place and where you should ground (and hopefully end) the “how are we going to stand up this application” discussion.  The temperature of these assessments is directly related to how effectively you update and socialize your capabilities and standards.  Fail to prescribe and Lumbergh is going to have to ask you to come in on Saturday…and Sunday.
• Involve - Get line of business and department leadership involved in the process of defining what you need and what you don’t.  Understand the strategic direction of the enterprise and get involved in steering committees.  Make sure you recognize the people and process impacts of your decisions and align your technical capabilities to match strategy.  Lumbergh wouldn’t require TPS reports without knowing how valuable they are to his and Initech’s collective success.  The more you understand about the business and the more the business understands about you, the better.
• Track - Technical requirements need clear line of sight to business requirements and objectives they support.  There should be an inextricable link between what you have and what you need.  If you don’t have a crystal clear trail of the technologies applied to the particular pain-point, how do you know you actually solved it?  And how do you apply the brilliance of this solution to the next problem?  Without the ability to track the problem and solution, Lumbergh wouldn’t know how to use his TPS reports.
• Govern - Yep, the dirty word – governance…and I said it.  Govern your technology like you control your cash (even the fractions of pennies) and you avoid the pitfalls of redundancy, unapproved/prohibited technologies, and unnecessary risk from entering your datacenters.  Enforce these controls rigorously as if your membership in the salary continuation program depends on it – and maybe it should.

Category: Business Alignment, IT Management