How can you make IT work?
Your Information Technology will not become the business prevention department — if you do this.
I have worked for at least eight US multinationals in Ireland and internationally. When there are problems the Information Technology Department is colloquially known as The Business Prevention Department.
The chart above was developed at the request of my new CEO in a cellular business when he complained that everyone seems to be complaining that the other departments are populated by idiots. IT complained that change requests made by Marketing were stupid, who in turn believed that the IT team should all be put in a sack and drowned as they were useless. Neither were right — the accountabilities for each department had never been clearly communicated so everyone played in the company sandpit, doing things inside their comfort zone.
The purpose of a business is to deliver products and services to customers profitably — which implies alignment and coordination between all functions is essential. Failures can be measured by rework or by NOT doing the right thing right first time. I always use the example of how we were taught about magnetism in school — arrows aligned in the same direction represent magnetic attraction, likewise when every function is aligned with a common objective, and functions know their roles in the customer service process we have business alignment and customers are “attracted” to the business.
When I started work in the 1980s there was no internet and the Information Systems and Technology functions were responsible primarily for infrastructure. We had a separate Engineering function for product development. Change in the Information functions was limited and slow but the product development operations required formal implementation of Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM) processes to handle the rate of change, and to ensure effective support could be provided to customers with older versions of products.
Over time the role of IT changed to include product development, especially in the service businesses like cellular where the importance of coordinating change now applies to systems, processes and products using PLCM processes.
This resulted in business bottlenecks as changes from all functions were funnelled through the product development function, now embedded into the IT team.
The solution was communication and prioritisation of all change requirements and coordination between functions. The process at least doubled product development productivity as the stop / start project activities caused by mid project reprioritisations were eliminated.
I found Sarbanes Oxley (SOX 404) a great benefit here as I was able to apply standardised segregation of duties and processes to support same to all aspects of the 9 cellular IT organisations I was managing at the time. Detailed controls for Development, Security, Operations and Change Management provided direction and control which enabled alignment of the IT and other business functions.
I still use the General Computer Controls toolkit developed for my telecom operations for business due diligence - it provides a clear “AS IS” vs. “TO BE” analysis of any business.
The tool worked equally well when I was developing an ICT country strategy for Moldova and for the ICT requirements for the Jordanian Tourist Board.
I have experienced resistance when I tell teams that “Making IT work is easy” as the comfort zone of many professionals is to use their technical skills as a weapon against other functions who don’t have the same technical competencies. Shared communications is key to overcoming such resistance as recognising achievements to aligning business functions effectively is a powerful motivator.
As a change agent in this role I suggest you can use the line my boss in Dataproducts Corporation gave me in 1980 — “ I get paid more than you to take the blame for your mistakes, so you can get the credit for your achievements”
The benefit of course is you really will make IT work!
