Archive for category IT Management

Here’s a frank and informative article in the latest CIO magazine about the differences between high-performing IT organizations and the rest: the bottom line is better controls, and real consequences for unauthorized changes within a project.

The article is here: http://www.cio.com/archive/111506/col_sch.html
CIO Magazine, "Are You In Control? Innovation demands discipline as much as it requires freedom." by Michael Schrage. November 15, 2006.

The article takes some very nice stats from a report by the IT Process Institute (buy the full report here). They amount to resounding support for the workflow-driven approach:

The findings quantified distinctions between IT shops that live for the average and the few that take process leadership seriously. Elite IT performers weren’t just two or three times better than median performers—they were seven or eight times better. High performers—roughly 13 percent of the 98 sampled—contributed on average eight times more projects, four and a half times more applications and software, four and a half times more IT services, and seven times more business IT changes. They implemented 14 more changes with half the failure rate.

And what separates these elite performers from the rest? Schrage explains in no uncertain terms:

Two controls towered over all others in impact and importance: Do you monitor systems for unauthorized changes? And are there defined consequences for intentional unauthorized changes? No ambiguity or nuance here. The key discriminator between the best and the rest was that elite performers rigorously monitored and punished unauthorized changes. They had situational awareness of change.

Schrage goes on to make some excellent comments about the value of control over change:

It’s not the work we’re supposed to do that undermines our productivity; it’s our black market economies of unauthorized changes—no matter how well intentioned or essential. We misunderstand the true enterprise costs of change.

As a firm believer in the value of process controls and well-managed workflows, I’m glad to see this validation come from the ITPI and CIO magazine.