IT Operating Model

A Systems Thinking approach allows you to tackle complex problems more effectively. Systems thinking is based on the premise that everything in is interconnected and interdependent. In contrast to analysis, which seeks to break down complexity into isolated components, synthesis allows you to see the whole and the parts at the same time.   The individual parts of an interconnected system stand in a cause-and-effect relationship with one another, forming dynamic feedback loops.   Creating a visual representation that highlights how the system’s individual parts interact with one another allows you to understand how an intervention will change the system.    A Systems Thinking approach allows you to tackle ITOM review or design more effectively and create better and more meaningful insights.    These six core Systems Thinking concepts should be considered when diagnosing an operational or organisational problem in an existing ITOM or when developing a new or ...

When I talk to clients about what they do in terms of digital transformation, I get answers like, "We are going paperless, or we want to improve efficiency." Quite often what I don’t hear is a clear articulation of why? Digital transformation needs to fulfill a business objective or purpose and not just be undertaken because it is fashionable.  The business objective should be both efficiency as well as improving customer satisfaction and creating new business models. In the current economic environment, the board quite rightly puts more and more pressures on the CIO to find ways for the organisation to become more efficient which is where digitization can help.  However this desire to drive operational efficiency must compliment initiatives that enhance the customer experience.  A  study from the MIT Sloan School of Management found that companies that increase both digital operational excellence and customer experience outperformed industry average net margin ...

The term ‘digital’ is often used by technology professionals to express concepts relating ‘IT enablement’, but beyond this, there is no common or generally agreed definition. A definition for digital that I often use is :  Exploiting  technology  to create  user-centric experiences  and  data driven decisions , leading to more  new or improved business models    "technology"  – which are typified by Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and  IoT as well as emerging  technology such a Blockchain    "user-centric experiences"  – business services work how the user wants them to, not the  organisation    "data-driven decisions"  – using systems to provide real-time  performance information to inform decisions    "new  or improved business models’  – quite simply, this is all about enabling a business to do new things in new ways or existing things in better ways in order ...

The product mindset is not just about whether you ship commercial software products like Microsoft and Google, it is about treating the results of what you do as a consumer grade product!  This is just as relevant to Enterprise IT delivering change to the business as it is to Microsoft delivering commercial product to its fee paying customers.   Achieving a product mindset in typical Enterprise IT organisations often requires a fundamental change in culture and attitudes that needs to start at the top.  Enterprise IT needs to start somewhere, so a good first step to achieving this is to  consider the use of temporary project specific identities so that team members see themselves more as being part of a product team that has a common purpose and distinct identity and less as individuals working to their own agenda, goals and timeline.   Using interesting code names (not just acronyms for what the project is doing or delivering) helps to establish an identify for...