Business Implications of SOA

It’s time (perhaps even long overdue!) to tackle the thorny topic of Service Oriented Architecture.  I’ve been preparing an executive presentation on this subject, drawing on one of our multi-company research projects, so it’s fresh in my mind.
The research was focused on business implications of SOA, as this was a perspective and context that the [...]

Managing IT Infrastructure vs. Platforms

I was in an interesting discussion with one of my consulting clients recently.  I was with a group of IT managers responsible for their firm’s shared IT assets.  This is a large, global enterprise that has been on an aggressive journey over the last 5 years to transform business-IT maturity.  By any measure, they have been [...]

Goodby, Shadow IT - Hello, Shadow IT

In our multi-company research WebEx call earlier this week a participant reflected on the changing attitudes to “Shadow IT” - that term IT professionals give to non-IT professionals when they ’step into their IT professional turf’ and do stuff that should have been ‘better left to the professionals.’
The Shadow IT phenomenon is a great example [...]

Nicholas Carr on IT in 2018

 
Nicholas Carr tends to be nothing if not controversial!  In reality, his controversy often comes from his choice of headlines, rather than the arguments he makes underneath them (e.g., the infamous “IT Doesn’t Matter” piece).
His latest post is Alan Turing, cloud computing and IT’s future, and in the post you will find a link to [...]

Re-thinking Business-IT Maturity

It’s time to update our venerable Business-IT Maturity curve - this is a BIG DEAL!  (Well, at least it is to some of us!)
For the last 10 years or so I have been drawing a simplified version of the Business-IT Maturity curve as a single ‘S’ curve, or learning curve.  I typically talk about three [...]

Why ITIL is “Necessary but not sufficient”

My post yesterday claimed that ITIL is necessary, but not sufficient for reaching Level 3 Business-IT Maturity.  As anticipated, this has led to a fair amount of traffic, some showing up as commentary on the blog, others showing up as email messages from various vendors of Service Management and ITIL support services.  I therefore want [...]

ITIL: Necessary, but not sufficient!

 
I posted yesterday on the distinctions between IT Product Management and IT Service Management.  Rich Lemieux commented and pointed us to his helpful and informative DITY Newsletter and to his article on the 5 domains of ITIL V3 suggesting that IT organizations organize themselves around these domains as the “five new silos of IT.”
A couple of [...]

How Sustainable is Your IT Portfolio?

 
My post Project vs. Program vs. Portfolio back on October 15, 2007, continues to be the most popular post on my blog, day after day.  Given that, I feel compelled to drill down further into this topic.  Today, I will address IT Portfolio Management, which is at the heart and soulof leveraging IT for business [...]

Business-IT Maturity and the Trap of “Walled-off Resources”

I was consulting for a client recently, and they used the term “walled-off” resources to describe IT professionals who were dedicated to specific business units.  (As an aside, when I first heard them using this term, I thought they were saying “Waldorf resources” and could not imagine what this meant!)  Anyway, I think the principle [...]

Wecome Back, Information Center - All Is Forgiven!

 
Earlier in my consulting and research career, especially in the early-1980’s to mid-1990’s, an IT organizational construct typically called “The Information Center” became popular in medium to large enterprises.  The philosophy behind the Information Center (IC) could be captured in a single phrase, “teach them to fish so they’ll feed themselves for a lifetime.”
IC’s comprised [...]