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 [...]

Podcast on Business-IT Maturity Model

 
I’m very proud that Tom Parish, host and audio producer for the excellent Enterprise Leadership web site, invited me to deliver a podcast on the Business-IT Maturity model.  Just click on the blue link above my photo, or right-click to download the mp3 file.
It was a great deal of fun to do - Tom asked [...]

The “Secrets” of Consulting: Principles as a Problem Solving Tool

 
I want to continue on this ’secrets of consulting’ thread, and deal with one particular tool - principles.  Over the years, in many different situations, I’ve found this to be a remarkably powerful tool for resolving problems, clarifying positions, and, in many cases, driving significant change in behaviors.
As a tool, Principles are both easy to understand, [...]

Business-IT Maturity - Implications of Discontinuities

Yesterday I suggested a refinement to the single, continuous “S” curve Business-IT Maturity model, to one comprised of a series of “S” curves, with discontinuities between them.  I think the refinement is more than trivial, and certainly not simply cosmetic.  I’ve blogged before on the notion of Level 2 “sticking points.”   These are behaviors and [...]

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 [...]

Improve or Innovate?

My last couple of posts have been on ITIL, where I presented my argument that approaches such as this (and CMMI) are necessary but not sufficient to take Business-IT Maturity to the next level.  They are necessary because they help build a solid foundation for IT operations and services.  They are insufficient because they typically [...]

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 [...]

Business-IT Maturity: Theory Of The Case - Part 1

I’d like to begin examining and making explicit a theory of the case for “Next Generation IT Capability.”  By theory of the caseI mean to identify the major drivers behind increasing business-IT maturity, and lay out some basic principles of business-IT evolution - how today’s IT shops are evolving to capitalize on emerging technologies (e.g., Web [...]

The Evolving IT Service Stack

In the mid-90’s, I had the privilege to work with BP as their IT organization went through a major transformation.  Part of this work included working with  Cranfield University (UK) and Nanyang University (Singapore) on a joint business-IT leadership development program, focused on what today we would call Relationship Management.  One of the frameworks we came [...]