Your Challenge
Organizations have to adapt to a growing number of trends, putting increased pressure on IT to move at the same speed as the business.
The business, seeing that IT is slower to react, looks to external solutions to address its challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
IT and business leaders don’t have a clear and unified understanding or definition of an operating model.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The IT operating model is not a static entity and should evolve according to changing business needs.
However, business needs are diverse, and the IT organization must recognize that the business includes groups that consume technology in different patterns. The IT operating model needs to support and enable multiple groups, while continuously adapting to changing business conditions.
Impact and Result
Determine how each technology consumer group interacts with IT. Use consumer experience maps to determine what kind of services consumer groups use and if there are opportunities to improve the delivery of those services.
Identify how changing business conditions will affect the consumption of technology services. Classify your consumers based on business uncertainty and reliance on IT to plan for the future delivery of services.
Optimize the IT operating model. Create a target IT operating model based on the gathered information about technology service consumers. Select different implementations of common operating model elements: governance, sourcing, process, and structure.
ValueFlowIT: A new IT Operating Model EmergesDavid Favelle
ValueFlow IT has synthesised the old and the new of IT management frameworks into a multi-speed operating model. This accommodates the different pace layers (thanks Gartner) of the portfolio and tunes the IT organisational structures processes and tools.
Review of Information Technology Function Critical Capability ModelsAlan McSweeney
IT Function critical capabilities are key areas where the IT function needs to maintain significant levels of competence, skill and experience and practise in order to operate and deliver a service. There are several different IT capability frameworks. The objective of these notes is to assess the suitability and applicability of these frameworks. These models can be used to identify what is important for your IT function based on your current and desired/necessary activity profile.
Capabilities vary across organisation – not all capabilities have the same importance for all organisations. These frameworks do not readily accommodate variability in the relative importance of capabilities.
The assessment approach taken is to identify a generalised set of capabilities needed across the span of IT function operations, from strategy to operations and delivery. This generic model is then be used to assess individual frameworks to determine their scope and coverage and to identify gaps.
The generic IT function capability model proposed here consists of five groups or domains of major capabilities that can be organised across the span of the IT function:
1. Information Technology Strategy, Management and Governance
2. Technology and Platforms Standards Development and Management
3. Technology and Solution Consulting and Delivery
4. Operational Run The Business/Business as Usual/Service Provision
5. Change The Business/Development and Introduction of New Services
In the context of trends and initiatives such as outsourcing, transition to cloud services and greater platform-based offerings, should the IT function develop and enhance its meta-capabilities – the management of the delivery of capabilities? Is capability identification and delivery management the most important capability? Outsourced service delivery in all its forms is not a fire-and-forget activity. You can outsource the provision of any service except the management of the supply of that service.
The following IT capability models have been evaluated:
• IT4IT Reference Architecture https://www.opengroup.org/it4it contains 32 functional components
• European e-Competence Framework (ECF) http://www.ecompetences.eu/ contains 40 competencies
• ITIL V4 https://www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/itil has 34 management practices
• COBIT 2019 https://www.isaca.org/resources/cobit has 40 management and control processes
• APQC Process Classification Framework - https://www.apqc.org/process-performance-management/process-frameworks version 7.2.1 has 44 major IT management processes
• IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) https://ivi.ie/critical-capabilities/ contains 37 critical capabilities
The following model has not been evaluated
• Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) - http://www.sfia-online.org/ lists over 100 skills
Future Proofing Your IT Operating Model for DigitalDavid Favelle
Having worked with Operating Model for over 10 years, Dave has new adopted DevOps, IT4IT and Continuous Delivery alongside traditional frameworks. The concept of the value stream is central to the thinking. The presentation was delivered as a Keynote at the Open Group in Amsterdam October 2017 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7yH1JJKvqc&t=1969s
Note that Dave and the ValueFlow team deliver Operating Model on the ServiceNow platform.
Request to Fulfill Presentation (IT4IT)Rob Akershoek
The Request to Fulfill (R2F) value stream presentation. R2F is one of the four value streams of the IT4IT Reference Architecture of The Open Group.
How to manage your IT organization as a professional IT shop? Provide a self service portal for end-users and IT staff to order IT services and IT resources. Automate the entire process from request to actual deployment and provisioning.
A Brief Introduction to Enterprise Architecture Daljit Banger
Presentation to Metropolitan University (London) on the 16th Feb 2017.
The purpose of the session was to introduce core basic concepts around Enterprise Architecture and discuss the role of the Enterprise Architect .
ValueFlowIT: A new IT Operating Model EmergesDavid Favelle
ValueFlow IT has synthesised the old and the new of IT management frameworks into a multi-speed operating model. This accommodates the different pace layers (thanks Gartner) of the portfolio and tunes the IT organisational structures processes and tools.
Review of Information Technology Function Critical Capability ModelsAlan McSweeney
IT Function critical capabilities are key areas where the IT function needs to maintain significant levels of competence, skill and experience and practise in order to operate and deliver a service. There are several different IT capability frameworks. The objective of these notes is to assess the suitability and applicability of these frameworks. These models can be used to identify what is important for your IT function based on your current and desired/necessary activity profile.
Capabilities vary across organisation – not all capabilities have the same importance for all organisations. These frameworks do not readily accommodate variability in the relative importance of capabilities.
The assessment approach taken is to identify a generalised set of capabilities needed across the span of IT function operations, from strategy to operations and delivery. This generic model is then be used to assess individual frameworks to determine their scope and coverage and to identify gaps.
The generic IT function capability model proposed here consists of five groups or domains of major capabilities that can be organised across the span of the IT function:
1. Information Technology Strategy, Management and Governance
2. Technology and Platforms Standards Development and Management
3. Technology and Solution Consulting and Delivery
4. Operational Run The Business/Business as Usual/Service Provision
5. Change The Business/Development and Introduction of New Services
In the context of trends and initiatives such as outsourcing, transition to cloud services and greater platform-based offerings, should the IT function develop and enhance its meta-capabilities – the management of the delivery of capabilities? Is capability identification and delivery management the most important capability? Outsourced service delivery in all its forms is not a fire-and-forget activity. You can outsource the provision of any service except the management of the supply of that service.
The following IT capability models have been evaluated:
• IT4IT Reference Architecture https://www.opengroup.org/it4it contains 32 functional components
• European e-Competence Framework (ECF) http://www.ecompetences.eu/ contains 40 competencies
• ITIL V4 https://www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/itil has 34 management practices
• COBIT 2019 https://www.isaca.org/resources/cobit has 40 management and control processes
• APQC Process Classification Framework - https://www.apqc.org/process-performance-management/process-frameworks version 7.2.1 has 44 major IT management processes
• IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) https://ivi.ie/critical-capabilities/ contains 37 critical capabilities
The following model has not been evaluated
• Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) - http://www.sfia-online.org/ lists over 100 skills
Future Proofing Your IT Operating Model for DigitalDavid Favelle
Having worked with Operating Model for over 10 years, Dave has new adopted DevOps, IT4IT and Continuous Delivery alongside traditional frameworks. The concept of the value stream is central to the thinking. The presentation was delivered as a Keynote at the Open Group in Amsterdam October 2017 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7yH1JJKvqc&t=1969s
Note that Dave and the ValueFlow team deliver Operating Model on the ServiceNow platform.
Request to Fulfill Presentation (IT4IT)Rob Akershoek
The Request to Fulfill (R2F) value stream presentation. R2F is one of the four value streams of the IT4IT Reference Architecture of The Open Group.
How to manage your IT organization as a professional IT shop? Provide a self service portal for end-users and IT staff to order IT services and IT resources. Automate the entire process from request to actual deployment and provisioning.
A Brief Introduction to Enterprise Architecture Daljit Banger
Presentation to Metropolitan University (London) on the 16th Feb 2017.
The purpose of the session was to introduce core basic concepts around Enterprise Architecture and discuss the role of the Enterprise Architect .
What is the Value of Mature Enterprise Architecture TOGAFxavblai
Judith Jones received the Open Group award for Outstanding Contributions to the development of TOGAF 9 at 19th Open Group Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference Chicago - July 21-23, 2008. Former CEO of Architecting the Enterprise which has been a member of The Open Group for 6 years, she is personnally involved since 1997. As an active member of The Open Group and she is a major contributor and an editor of TOGAF 7, 8 and 9 as well as leading TOGAF projects for localisation, case studies, ADML, synergy and collaboration projects.
http://www.opengroup.org/member/member-spotlight-jones.htm
An overview of The Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture. It is a vendor and product-agnostic value chain-based operating model for managing the business of IT. While providing guidance on the design, procurement and implementation of the functionality needed to run IT, it also enables the systematic tracking of the state of IT services across the service life-cycle using four value streams - Strategy to Portfolio, Request to Fulfill, Requirement to Deploy, and Detect to Correct.
Download presentation from http://opengroup.co.za/presentations
This webinar features two IT4IT™ experts: Jim Hietala, VP Business Development at The Open Group and Michael Fulton, President Americas Division of CC and C Solutions, co-chair IT4IT Adoption Workgroup and Lead Author ITpreneurs IT4IT courseware.
Training and consulting providers looking to help your clients improve IT efficiency will enjoy this webinar. You will:
-Gain insight on how IT4IT serves the digital enterprise
-Discover its relation with Cloud, Agile, and DevOps
-Learn how it complements TOGAF®, Archimate® and ITIL®
-Find out what the training opportunities are for IT4IT
The Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture provides prescriptive guidance on how to design, procure and implement the functionality needed to run IT. The training content of IT4IT will be available for licensing in the ITpreneurs courseware soon.
Strategic Operating Model Defines How a Company Looks and Works. This document gives a good overview of the the various aspects of the concept including:
1. Understand the Linkage Between Strategy and an Operating Model.
2. Recognize the Key Components of a Company’s Operating Model.
3. Familiarize Use of Operating Models to Make Comparisons Across Companies.
Introduction to Enterprise architecture and the steps to perform an Enterpris...Prashanth Panduranga
This presentation was used to introduce Enterprise Architecture, Introduction to how to perform an Enterprise Architecture Assessment followed by TechSharp introduction.
Deliverables in the presentation is not clear, the slides represent what was shown as part of the demo.
List of deliverables:
Application Rationalization framework
Portfolio Analysis framework
Road Map
Current state analysis
Target State establishing process
System Context
System Landscape
Shadow IT And The Failure Of IT ArchitectureAlan McSweeney
The continued existence and growth of shadow IT gives IT architecture the opportunity show leadership. IT architecture can be the gateway for business IT solution requirements, from initial solution concept through to solution realisation.
Shadow IT is a set of reactions by business functions to an actual or perceived inability or unwillingness of the IT function to respond to business needs for IT solutions. There are many aspects of shadow IT:
• Shadow Projects
• Shadow Data
• Shadow Sourcing
• Shadow Development
• Shadow Solutions
• Shadow Support Arrangements
Shadow IT takes many forms and types
1. CUST – customised solution developed by a third-party
2. DEV – personal devices used to access business systems or authenticate access to hosted solutions used for business
3. DIY – end-user computing application developed by the business
4. HOME – organisation data sent to home devices to be worked on
5. MSG – public messaging and data exchange platforms
6. OPEN – open-source software used as a stand-alone solution or incorporated into other solutions
7. OUT – outsourced service solution
8. PROD – software product acquired by the business and implemented on organisation infrastructure
9. PUB – accessing organisation applications and data using public devices or networks
10. STOR – public data storage and exchange platforms
11. SVC – hosted software solution
Uncontrolled shadow IT represents a real risk to organisations. The experience from previous shadow IT examples is that they have resulted in real financial losses. IT architecture can and should take the lead in implementing structures and processes to mitigate risks while taking maximising the benefits of shadow IT.
According to Gartner, "The stongest performing IT organizations are distinguished by strong strategy practices. The weak performing IT organizations are distinguished by weak delivery practices."
Having an IT strategy and executing it are important.
This brief presentation covers:
1. Why IT Strategy?
2. What does a great IT Strategy look like?
3. How to create a great IT Strategy
4. How to make the IT Strategy real
As we head into a new year, one thing is for sure, the world of technology and IT will continue to evolve and be disrupted at a frightening pace. The role of the modern IT organisation will thus need to adapt and be agile in order to keep pace with this changing landscape and to continue to be valuable to the organisations that they service. As IT estates become more complex, internal IT functions will need to become more mature and efficient in the way they operate in order to be perceived as a valued asset to the business. The release of IT4IT at the end of last year provides an interesting and potentially highly valuable reference architecture for IT organisations to use to help achieve this level of maturity and efficiency.
The IT4IT standard has really started to pick up momentum as we start 2016 and it is great to see the increase in the membership of the IT4IT forum as well as the general interest that is being seen in the industry for this new standard. I recently co-presented a webinar in collaboration with the Open Group where we looked at the potential real-world application and benefits that IT4IT can offer. Mandate and mindset will be critical to the successful use of IT4IT but I am confident that this approach has the potential to be very beneficial for many organisations as the role of the IT function continues to be redefined.
Effective Strategy Execution with Capability-Based Planning, Enterprise Arch...Iver Band
The difficulty of strategy execution should not be underestimated
Capability-based planning helps make strategy concrete
Enterprise architecture closes the remainder of this gap, and ensures alignment and coherence
Enterprise portfolio management allows managing large enterprise landscapes based on business value
ArchiMate models tie it all together, providing a clear line of sight from strategy definition to realization
Powerful tool support makes this a strong combination!
How to Articulate the Value of Enterprise Architecturecccamericas
Ever struggled with the question, What is the Value of Enterprise Architecture? In this facilitated conversation, Michael Fulton will share his perspective on Enterprise Architecture and the value it provides to the CIO, to IT, and to the business.
Come ready to engage, because in the conversation we will discuss:
•The EA 7-year itch
•Several External Perspectives on EA Value
•The CC&C perspective on a simplified approach to EA Value
•Ensuring your perspective on EA Value is relevant for your stakeholders
At the end of this conversation, you should walk away with:
•A new perspective on the value of EA
•Tips and tricks on how to articulate and quantify EA Value for your key stakeholders.
What is the Value of Mature Enterprise Architecture TOGAFxavblai
Judith Jones received the Open Group award for Outstanding Contributions to the development of TOGAF 9 at 19th Open Group Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference Chicago - July 21-23, 2008. Former CEO of Architecting the Enterprise which has been a member of The Open Group for 6 years, she is personnally involved since 1997. As an active member of The Open Group and she is a major contributor and an editor of TOGAF 7, 8 and 9 as well as leading TOGAF projects for localisation, case studies, ADML, synergy and collaboration projects.
http://www.opengroup.org/member/member-spotlight-jones.htm
An overview of The Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture. It is a vendor and product-agnostic value chain-based operating model for managing the business of IT. While providing guidance on the design, procurement and implementation of the functionality needed to run IT, it also enables the systematic tracking of the state of IT services across the service life-cycle using four value streams - Strategy to Portfolio, Request to Fulfill, Requirement to Deploy, and Detect to Correct.
Download presentation from http://opengroup.co.za/presentations
This webinar features two IT4IT™ experts: Jim Hietala, VP Business Development at The Open Group and Michael Fulton, President Americas Division of CC and C Solutions, co-chair IT4IT Adoption Workgroup and Lead Author ITpreneurs IT4IT courseware.
Training and consulting providers looking to help your clients improve IT efficiency will enjoy this webinar. You will:
-Gain insight on how IT4IT serves the digital enterprise
-Discover its relation with Cloud, Agile, and DevOps
-Learn how it complements TOGAF®, Archimate® and ITIL®
-Find out what the training opportunities are for IT4IT
The Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture provides prescriptive guidance on how to design, procure and implement the functionality needed to run IT. The training content of IT4IT will be available for licensing in the ITpreneurs courseware soon.
Strategic Operating Model Defines How a Company Looks and Works. This document gives a good overview of the the various aspects of the concept including:
1. Understand the Linkage Between Strategy and an Operating Model.
2. Recognize the Key Components of a Company’s Operating Model.
3. Familiarize Use of Operating Models to Make Comparisons Across Companies.
Introduction to Enterprise architecture and the steps to perform an Enterpris...Prashanth Panduranga
This presentation was used to introduce Enterprise Architecture, Introduction to how to perform an Enterprise Architecture Assessment followed by TechSharp introduction.
Deliverables in the presentation is not clear, the slides represent what was shown as part of the demo.
List of deliverables:
Application Rationalization framework
Portfolio Analysis framework
Road Map
Current state analysis
Target State establishing process
System Context
System Landscape
Shadow IT And The Failure Of IT ArchitectureAlan McSweeney
The continued existence and growth of shadow IT gives IT architecture the opportunity show leadership. IT architecture can be the gateway for business IT solution requirements, from initial solution concept through to solution realisation.
Shadow IT is a set of reactions by business functions to an actual or perceived inability or unwillingness of the IT function to respond to business needs for IT solutions. There are many aspects of shadow IT:
• Shadow Projects
• Shadow Data
• Shadow Sourcing
• Shadow Development
• Shadow Solutions
• Shadow Support Arrangements
Shadow IT takes many forms and types
1. CUST – customised solution developed by a third-party
2. DEV – personal devices used to access business systems or authenticate access to hosted solutions used for business
3. DIY – end-user computing application developed by the business
4. HOME – organisation data sent to home devices to be worked on
5. MSG – public messaging and data exchange platforms
6. OPEN – open-source software used as a stand-alone solution or incorporated into other solutions
7. OUT – outsourced service solution
8. PROD – software product acquired by the business and implemented on organisation infrastructure
9. PUB – accessing organisation applications and data using public devices or networks
10. STOR – public data storage and exchange platforms
11. SVC – hosted software solution
Uncontrolled shadow IT represents a real risk to organisations. The experience from previous shadow IT examples is that they have resulted in real financial losses. IT architecture can and should take the lead in implementing structures and processes to mitigate risks while taking maximising the benefits of shadow IT.
According to Gartner, "The stongest performing IT organizations are distinguished by strong strategy practices. The weak performing IT organizations are distinguished by weak delivery practices."
Having an IT strategy and executing it are important.
This brief presentation covers:
1. Why IT Strategy?
2. What does a great IT Strategy look like?
3. How to create a great IT Strategy
4. How to make the IT Strategy real
As we head into a new year, one thing is for sure, the world of technology and IT will continue to evolve and be disrupted at a frightening pace. The role of the modern IT organisation will thus need to adapt and be agile in order to keep pace with this changing landscape and to continue to be valuable to the organisations that they service. As IT estates become more complex, internal IT functions will need to become more mature and efficient in the way they operate in order to be perceived as a valued asset to the business. The release of IT4IT at the end of last year provides an interesting and potentially highly valuable reference architecture for IT organisations to use to help achieve this level of maturity and efficiency.
The IT4IT standard has really started to pick up momentum as we start 2016 and it is great to see the increase in the membership of the IT4IT forum as well as the general interest that is being seen in the industry for this new standard. I recently co-presented a webinar in collaboration with the Open Group where we looked at the potential real-world application and benefits that IT4IT can offer. Mandate and mindset will be critical to the successful use of IT4IT but I am confident that this approach has the potential to be very beneficial for many organisations as the role of the IT function continues to be redefined.
Effective Strategy Execution with Capability-Based Planning, Enterprise Arch...Iver Band
The difficulty of strategy execution should not be underestimated
Capability-based planning helps make strategy concrete
Enterprise architecture closes the remainder of this gap, and ensures alignment and coherence
Enterprise portfolio management allows managing large enterprise landscapes based on business value
ArchiMate models tie it all together, providing a clear line of sight from strategy definition to realization
Powerful tool support makes this a strong combination!
How to Articulate the Value of Enterprise Architecturecccamericas
Ever struggled with the question, What is the Value of Enterprise Architecture? In this facilitated conversation, Michael Fulton will share his perspective on Enterprise Architecture and the value it provides to the CIO, to IT, and to the business.
Come ready to engage, because in the conversation we will discuss:
•The EA 7-year itch
•Several External Perspectives on EA Value
•The CC&C perspective on a simplified approach to EA Value
•Ensuring your perspective on EA Value is relevant for your stakeholders
At the end of this conversation, you should walk away with:
•A new perspective on the value of EA
•Tips and tricks on how to articulate and quantify EA Value for your key stakeholders.
Why New-age IT Operating Models are Necessary for Enhanced Operational AgilityCognizant
IT organizations need a new operating model consisting of automated tools, refined thinking around operating discipline, and more relevant talent acquisition and management strategies. This new model will not only help IT deliver tailored services to a new generation of users, but it will also unlock the vast potential of emerging digital business opportunities made possible by the quickly maturing SMAC Stack.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Model for Business & IT AlignementRick Lemieux
Today’s multi-faceted business world demands that Information Technology provide its services in the context of a fully integrated corporate strategic model. This transformation becomes possible when IT evolves from its technological heritage into a Business Technical Organization, or an “internal service provider.” This paper describes how the itSM Solutions reference model integrates five widely used service management domains to create a powerful model to guide IT in its journey into the business leadership circle.
E VOLVING STRATEGIC BUSINESS imperatives, trends, and disrupters are driving a seismic shift in the way IT organizations operate. This report-part of a series exploring the merger of business and technology strategies and the reimag- ination of technology's role in the business-aims to address fundamental questions about the future of work in technology
Report on strategic rules of Information System for changing the bases of com...Md. Khukan Miah
Achieving advantages requires broad IS management and user dialogue plus imagination. The process is complicated by the fact that many IS products are strategic though the potential benefits are very subjective and not easily verified. Often a strict ROI focus by senior management may turn attention toward narrow, well-defined targets as opposed to broader strategic opportunities that are harder to analyze.
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, .docxtiffanyd4
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business. This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company. This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business. FRAMEWORK Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1). FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved .
Never before has Information Technology (IT) played a more important role in bringing competitive advantage to an organization. Yet IT has never before been more complex. In the past, the mainframe paradigm provided turnkey solutions to complex business problems. The functionality was provided by
the software vendor, which may have also been the hardware vendor. The business processes were adapted to this functionality. As these processes evolved it was discovered that the systems were not sufficiently flexible or adaptable to meet the new demands of the business. The introduction of distributed processing provided a means to deal with the inflexibility and monolithic nature of these legacy
applications.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Strategic Alignment
Tim Campos
IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business.
This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company.
This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business.
FRAMEWORK
Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1).
FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework
These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved.
Nicholas Carr’s, Does IT Matter? asks the question – “isn’t it enough for IT to enable companies to operate more efficiently or deliver better services, to reduce costs or heighten customer satisfaction?” [1, p. 7]. This question is the infrastructure question. Carr suggests the investments in IT have “gone to waste” after the collapse of the Internet Bubble. While much has been wasted to what were probably poor business choices, IT investment as a strategic initiative still has merit. This merit needs to be connected to the financial performance of the business. The measurement and valuation of these investments must take place in the same way other investment decisions are made. Carr’s thesis is IT has become a commodity service and not the basis of a differentiated strategic advantage. As the costs of IT go down, its power increases the capabilities of IT outstrip the company’s needs. Again this is an infrastructure view of IT. Like the railroads and electric utilities, if is only a “utility” it will have difficulty describing its differentiated advantage.
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring.docxTatianaMajor22
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos of alignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of the organization's future? Is there a lack of information on strategic planning? Nope. I think the process of planning is poorly understood, and rarely endorsed. The reasons are simple enough. Planning requires a commitment of resources (time, talent, money); it requires insight; it requires a total immersion in the corporate culture. While organizations do plan, planning is invariably attached to the budget process. It is typically here that the CIO lays out his/her vision for the coming year Now a few years ago authors began writing on the value of aligning IT purpose to organizational purpose. They wrote at a time when enterprise architectural planning was fairly new, and enterprise resource management was on the lips of every executive. My view is that alignment is a natural process driven by the availability of the tools to accomplish it. Twenty years ago making sense of IT was more about processing power, and database management. We are in a new age of IT, and it is the computer that is the network, not the network as an independent self-contained exchange of information. If you will spend some time reviewing the basic materials I provided on strategic planning and alignment, we can begin our discussions for the course. Again, here is the problem I would like for us to tackle: If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos of alignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of the organization's future? Most of the articles I bundled together for this week are replete with tables and charts. These can be a heavy read. Your approach should be to review these articles for the "big ideas" or lessons that are take away. I think these studies are significant enough that we will conclude our first week with an understanding of the roles between executive leaders, and how they see Information Technology playing a role in shaping a business strategy.
Read the articles to answer the question. Please No Plagerism or verbatim but you are allowed to quote from the article.
Achieving and Sustaining
Business-IT Alignment
Jerry Luftman
Tom Brier
I
n recent decades, billions of dollars have been invested in intormation tech-
nology (IT). A key concern of business executives is alignment—applying IT
in an appropriate and timely way and in harmony with business strategies,
goals, and needs. This issue addresses both how IT is aligned with the busi-
ness and how the business should be aligned with IT Frustratingly, organizations
seem to find it difficult or impossible to harness the power of information tech-
nology for their own long-term benefit, even though there is worldwide evi-
dence that IT has the power to transform whole industries and markets.' How
can companies.
In this presentation, we will discuss in depth about the importance of technology in business, what IT governance is and its impact.
To know more about Welingkar School’s Distance Learning Program and courses offered, visit:
http://www.welingkaronline.org/distance-learning/online-mba.html
Your Challenge
As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating.
Vendors use a lot of marketing jargon, buzzwords, and statistics to sell their solutions, making objective evaluation rather difficult.
The endpoint protection (EPP) market is overcrowded and fragmented, resulting in information overload and consequently, a difficult vendor assessment.
Disparate product solutions are being bundled into one-off solutions or suites, often resulting in less efficient solutions than the more niche players.
Imminent obsolescence is an issue. Previous EPP solutions have not adapted with the rapidly evolving threat landscape and are no longer relevant, resulting in breaches or vulnerabilities.
Critical Insight
Don’t let vendors and market reports define your endpoint protection needs. Identify the use cases and corresponding feature sets that best align with your risk profile before evaluating the vendor marketspace.
Your security controls are diminishing in value (if they haven’t already). Develop a strategy that accounts for the rapid evolution and imminent obsolescence of your endpoint controls. Plan for future needs when making purchasing decisions today.
Endpoint protection is a matter of defense in depth and risk modelling, there is no silver bullet protection and mitigation solution. As end-client-technology providers release regular product/software updates, security tools will become outdated. Multiyear endpoint protection commitments will leave you playing a constant game of catch up.
Impact and Result
The solution is a holistic internal security assessment that not only identifies, but satisfies, your desired endpoint protection feature set with the corresponding endpoint protection suite and a comprehensive implementation strategy.
Use this blueprint to walk through the steps of selecting and implementing an endpoint protection solution that best aligns with your organizational needs.
Your Challenge
Companies understand the importance of business process improvement (BPI) and recognize the touted benefits: cost savings, waste elimination, and process efficiency.
With this said, 70% of companies that embark on process improvement initiatives fail.
The high probability of failure is attributed to a number of factors, including lack of continuous improvement and failing to define measurable outcomes.
Our Advice
Adopt a forward-facing outlook. Don’t focus solely on the current state, set improvement targets upfront to drive the initiative.
Break problems down into root-cause variables. Don’t look at the symptom, dive deeper and alleviate the root cause.
Empower business analysts. Create a practical process improvement methodology that your analysts can follow.
Impact and Result
Kick off process improvement by identifying the goals and defining the improvement targets.
Start by referring to the operating model and identifying level 1, 2, and 3 processes. Once the team understands the relationship between processes, they can begin to map a level 3 process using a standard mapping notation.
Use qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing the root cause rather than the symptoms.
Ensure the design is aligned with the initial improvement targets. Focus on value-added activities.
Consistently monitor the process and assess the root-cause variables to gauge the success of the process improvements.
Your Challenge
Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
Vendors have well-honed negotiating strategies. Without understanding your own position and leverage points, it’s difficult to withstand their persuasive – and sometimes pushy – tactics.
Software – and software licensing – is constantly changing, making it difficult to acquire and retain subject matter expertise.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software contract review.
Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
Learning to negotiate is crucial.
Impact and Result
Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
Redline the terms and conditions of your software contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.
Your Challenge
Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”
Impact and Result
Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and takes a balanced approach toward deploying changes, while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
Establish easy-to-follow intake, assessment, and approval processes, and ensure that there is visibility into changes across the organization.
Your Challenge
Infrastructure, by focusing on the reliability, availability, and serviceability of existing platforms, is perceived as a cost center rather than a business enabler.
Business stakeholders look to external vendors, rather than Infrastructure, to exploit emerging technologies. This leads to duplication of effort, inconsistent standards, and ineffective IT governance.
Infrastructure directors are unable to draw a line showing how their activities directly support the overall business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Think of the roadmap as a service, not a product. Its value is inversely proportional to the time since its last update.
Alignment perception issues can be addressed by having the infrastructure practice formally engage and communicate with business stakeholders.
Shadow IT can provide business-ready initiatives that need only to be tweaked to align with Infrastructure’s internal goals.
Impact and Result
This blueprint will help you build:
A formal channel and way of communicating value bottom-up and top-down between IT and the executive team.
A methodology to prioritize and create projects that generate business value.
A tool that can produce multiple outputs of value for different audiences using the same data.
An ongoing roadmap process, rather than a static document, that is able to adjust and react to evolving business circumstances.
Your Challenge
Risk is an unavoidable part of IT. And what you don't know, can hurt you. The question is, do you tackle risk head-on or leave it to chance?
Get a handle on risk management quickly using Info-Tech's methodology and reduce unfortunate IT surprises.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
1. IT risk is business risk.
Every IT risk has business implications. Create an IT risk management program that shares risk accountability with the business.
2. Risk is money.
It’s impossible to make intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what they’re worth.
3. You don’t know what you don’t know.
And what you don’t know can hurt you – so find out. To find hidden risks, you need a structured approach.
Impact and Result
Stop leaving IT risk to chance. Transform your ad hoc IT risk management processes into a formalized, ongoing program and increase risk management success by 53%.
Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest risks before they happen.
Involve key stakeholders including the business senior management team to gain buy-in and to focus on IT risks that matter most to the organization.
Share accountability for IT risk with business stakeholders and have them weigh-in on prioritizing investments in risk response activities.
Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
Your Challenge
Companies are approving more projects than they can deliver. Most organizations say they have too many projects on the go and an unmanageable and ever-growing backlog of things to get to.
While organizations want to achieve a high throughput of approved projects, many are unable or unwilling to allocate an appropriate level of IT resourcing to adequately match the number of approved initiatives.
Portfolio management practices must find a way to accommodate stakeholder needs without sacrificing the portfolio to low-value initiatives that do not align with business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Failure to align projects with strategic goals and resource capacity are the most common causes of portfolio waste across organizations. Intake, approval, and prioritization represent the best opportunities to ensure this alignment.
More time spent with stakeholders during the ideation phase to help set realistic expectations for stakeholders and enhance visibility into IT’s capacity and processes is key to both project and organizational success.
Too much intake red tape will lead to an underground economy of projects that escape portfolio oversight, while too little intake formality will lead to a wild west of approvals that could overwhelm the PMO. Finding the right balance of intake formality for your organization is the key to establishing a PMO that has the ability to focus on the right things.
Impact and Result
Eliminate off-the-grid initiatives by establishing a centralized intake process that funnels requests into a single channel.
Improve the throughput of projects through the portfolio by incorporating the constraint of resource capacity to cap the amount of project approvals to that which is realistic.
Silence squeaky wheels and overbearing stakeholders by establishing a progressive approval and prioritization process that gives primacy to the highest value requests.
Read this Executive Brief to understand why your team should make the case to modernize your communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Understand why it's time to move forward with modernizing your communications infrastructure.
Discover the productivity and efficiency gains you can achieve.
Redefine how you think about communications.
Learn how to build a strategy that addresses both unified communications and collaboration.
Understand Info-Tech's methodology and approach to modernizing communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Info-Tech is the most innovative firm in the industry, and we pride ourselves on delivering better research than anyone.
Become a member and unlock a range of data-driven tools and resources to drive systematic IT improvement.
Your Challenge
It is difficult to start the project, engage the right people, and find the necessary requirements to drive the value of an enterprise architecture operating model.
It is challenging to navigate the common enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks and right-size them for your organization.
The EA practice may struggle to effectively collaborate with the business when making decisions, resulting in outcomes that fail to engage stakeholders.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The benefits of an EA program are only realized when all components of the operating model enable the achievement of the program goals and objectives. Many times organizations overplay the governance card while ignoring the motivational aspects that can be addressed through the organization's structure or stakeholder relations.
Info-Tech’s methodology ensures that all components of an EA operating model are considered to optimize the performance of the EA program.
Impact and Result
Place and structure your EA team to address the needs of stakeholders and deliver on the previously created strategy.
Create an engagement model by understanding each relevant process of COBIT 5 and make stakeholder interaction cards to initiate conversations.
Recognize the need for governance and formulate the appropriate boards while considering various policies, principles, and compliance.
Develop a unique architecture development framework based on best-practice approaches with an understanding of the various architectural views to ensure the creation of a successful process.
Build a communication plan and roadmap to efficiently navigate through enterprise change and involve the necessary stakeholders.
Your Challenge
Business transformations are happening, but CIOs are often involved only when it comes time to implement change. This makes it difficult for the CIO to be perceived as an organizational leader.
CIOs find it difficult to juggle operational activities, strategic initiatives, and involvement in business transformation.
CIOs don’t always have the IT organization structured and mobilized in a manner that facilitates the identification of transformation opportunities, and the planning for and the implementation of organization-wide change.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t take an ad hoc approach to transformation.
You’re not in it alone.
Your legacy matters
Impact and Result
Elevate your stature as a business leader.
Empower the IT organization to act with a business mind first, and technology second.
Create a high-powered IT organization that is focused on driving lasting change, improving client experiences, and encouraging collaboration across the entire enterprise.
Generate opportunities for organizational growth, as manifested through revenue growth, profit growth, new market entry, new product development, etc.
Craft an End-to-End Data Center Consolidation Strategy to Maximize BenefitsInfo-Tech Research Group
Your Challenge
Data center operating costs continue to escalate as organizations struggle with data center sprawl.
While data center consolidation is an attractive option to reduce cost and sprawl, the complexity of these projects makes them extremely difficulty to execute.
The status quo is also not an option, as budget constraints and the challenges with managing multiple data centers continues to increase.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Despite consolidation being an effective way of addressing sprawl, it is often difficult to secure buy-in and funding from the business.
Many consolidation projects suffer cost overruns due to unforeseen requirements and hidden interdependencies which could have been mitigated during the planning phase.
Organizations that avoid consolidation projects due to their complexity are just deferring the challenge, while costs and inefficiencies continue to increase.
Impact and Result
Successful data center consolidation will have an immediate impact on reducing data center sprawl. Maximize your chances of success by securing buy-in from the business.
Avoid cost overruns and unforeseen requirements by engaging with the business at the start of the process. Clearly define business requirements and establish common expectations.
While cost improvements often drive data center consolidation, successful projects will also improve scalability, operational efficiency, and data center redundancy.
Your Challenge
Organizations are struggling to keep up with today’s evolving threat landscape.
From technology sophistication and business adoption to the proliferation of hacking techniques and the expansion of hacking motivations, organizations are facing major security risks.
Every organization needs some kind of information security program to protect their systems and assets.
Organizations today face pressure from regulatory or legal obligations, customer requirement, and now, senior management expectations.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Performing an accurate assessment of your current security operations and maturity levels can be extremely hard when you don’t know what to assess or how to assess it.
Alignment can be a difficult area for security to get right when it’s trying to balance both regular IT and the business.
Communication is needed between the business leaders, IT leaders, and the security team for an effective security strategy to be in place.
Impact and Result
Info-Tech has analyzed and integrated regulatory and industry best practice frameworks, combining COBIT 5, PCI DSS, ISO 27000, NIST SP800-53, and SANS to ensure an exhaustive approach to security.
Through this process, a comprehensive current state assessment, gap analysis, and initiative generation ensures that nothing is left off the table.
This project will elevate the perception of the security team from being a hindrance to the organization to an enabler.
Your Challenge
Even though organizations are now planning for Application Integration (AI) in their projects, very few have developed a holistic approach to their integration problems resulting in each project deploying different tactical solutions.
Point-to-point and ad hoc integration solutions won’t cut it anymore: the cloud, big data, mobile, social, and new regulations require more sophisticated integration tooling.
Loosely defined AI strategies result in point solutions, overlaps in technology capabilities, and increased maintenance costs; the correlation between business drivers and technical solutions is lost.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Involving the business in strategy development will keep them engaged and align business drivers with technical initiatives.
An architectural approach to AI strategy is critical to making appropriate technology decisions and promoting consistency across AI solutions through the use of common patterns.
Get control of your AI environment with an appropriate architecture, including policies and procedures, before end users start adding bring-your-own-integration (BYOI) capabilities to the office.
Your Challenge:
As Portfolio Manager, you’re responsible for communicating portfolio results and future capacity to your steering committee.
Business and IT leaders need more accurate information on project status and resource availability to decide when to start and stop projects.
You need to better understand the needs of the PMO and assess the costs and benefits associated with different tools and approaches to PPM.
Our Advice - Critical Insight:
PPM is a practice, not a tool. Before succeeding with a commercial tool, you need to establish discipline and trust around reporting processes, which can be done using spreadsheets and other simple tools.
Portfolio management is separate from project management. Think of it as the accounting department for time. Project managers report into the portfolio and are held accountable to it, but it isn’t simply an extension of project management.
Our Advice - Impact and Result:
Decrease the wasted portfolio budget by reducing the number of cancelled projects and other sources of efficiency.
Establish the portfolio as the “one source of truth” for project reporting by increasing rigor around project status updating and reporting.
Align project intake with resource capacity to improve throughput, quality of estimates, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Your Challenge:
Implementing a shared services model is a difficult process to undertake, and is comprised of many different components. Becoming a shared services provider is comparable to becoming a vendor and most IT groups don’t have the capabilities to easily make the transition.
Most companies look to achieve cost reductions through offering a shared services model. Adopting a shared services model doesn’t always result in these intended cost reductions. Simply combining the operations of two IT organizations doesn’t necessarily result in economies of scale and cost efficiencies. Before leaping forward with your shared services implementation, determine if the project will deliver value to your organization.
Our Advice - Critical Insight:
Implementing a shared services model needs to be viewed as more than simply extending a current service to other sites. The organization providing services essentially turns into a vendor. As a vendor, think of the IT service you’re offering as the “product.”
Remember that there are people, process, and technology capability pre-requisites to successfully becoming a shared services provider. These capabilities are not typical for the average IT shop, and need to be taken into consideration when you look to transition to a shared services model.
Our Advice - Impact and Result:
Before jumping into the implementation of your shared services project, assess your customer requirements and your current people, process, and technology capabilities to assess whether your organization is ready to implement a shared services model.
Understand the financial implications of moving to a shared services model prior to implementing. Make sure there is a strong case for implementation.
Your Challenge:
Situation
Enterprise Architecture increases the organization’s ability to provide consistent services, accessible information, scalable infrastructure, and flexible technology integration on demand. It helps bridge the gap between business and IT and creates a shared enterprise vision.
Complication
EA programs that are run without the required EA capability level are prone to failure.
EA capability optimization and EA operating model design skills are not common, as they are not everyday tasks.
Our Advice:
Critical Insight
Using this research while assessing and optimizing your EA capability will help you:
Architect the EA capability by applying four architectural perspectives: Contextual, Conceptual, Logical, and Physical. Develop an EA Operating Model starting at the contextual level, and proceeding through to the physical.
Develop a sponsored mandate for EA capability. Identify and engage EA capability stakeholders. Determine organizational scope, i.e. responsibility and authority of EA. Identify business drivers for optimizing an EA capability. Analyze organizational context. Secure executive support and authorization to execute.
Establish EA capability purpose and strategic direction. Write EA capability vision statement. Craft EA capability mission statement. Define EA capability goals and measures. Create EA principles. Assess current and determine target EA capability level.
Document EA management process. Define EA management practices. Define interactions between EA management and other processes. Define EA capability performance and value measurement approach.
Design EA organization and roles. Design EA organization structure. Define EA roles. Define required skills and proficiency levels for EA roles. Determine required EA staff capacity.
Standardize EA tools and work products. Establish an EA repository. Decide on EA tools to be used. Define EA artifacts and work products.
Develop an EA capability improvement plan. Consolidate and refine steps required to roll out the target EA operating model and improve EA capability. Draw an EA capability improvement roadmap.
Your Challenge:
Impending audits intimidate CIOs and business executives – and for good reason.
A failed audit can result in punitive fines and injunctions that disrupt continuing operations until violations are resolved.
These highly visible failures are best prevented through auditor-enterprise collaboration and pragmatic audit management.
Our Advice:
Critical Insight
Shift the audit paradigm: auditors need to be enabled, not resisted.
Auditors provide a value-added service that you are paying for. Establishing an effective relationship and enabling the audit team can ensure you get value from the engagement. However, you must also be vigilant in mitigating the risk of damaging findings
.
Impact and Result
Effective audit management means acting with kindness to establish an effective relationship and taking vigilant, calculated steps to reduce the risk of adverse findings.
Clarify the audit scope and prepare documentation in advance.
Start off on a positive note and enable the auditor.
Manage audit logistics to minimize business disruption.
Dispute unwarranted findings.
Continuously improve your auditability.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
2. Info-Tech Research Group 2Info-Tech Research Group 2
The IT operating model is not a static entity and it
should evolve according to changing business needs.
However, business needs are very diverse and groups
consume technology in different patterns. The IT
operating model needs to support and enable multiple
groups of technology service consumers, while
continuously adapting to changing business conditions
and needs.
Gopi Bheemavarapu,
Senior Manager, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group
Optimize how IT adds value for consumers of technology services.
ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
3. Info-Tech Research Group 3Info-Tech Research Group 3
This Research is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
This Research Will Assist: This Research Will Help You:
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
This Research Will Also Assist: This Research Will Help Them:
Our understanding of the problem
CIOs
Head of Enterprise Architecture
CTOs
Assess the current IT operating model’s ability
to provide technology services to consumers.
Optimize the IT operating model by changing
its elements of governance, sourcing, process,
and structure.
Enable the IT operating model to be
responsive to changing business conditions.
IT Directors
C-suite
Understand how IT creates value for the
organization.
Realize how the IT operating model must
change to respond to changing needs of the
internal and external technology service
consumers.
4. Info-Tech Research Group 4Info-Tech Research Group 4
Resolution
Situation
Complication
Info-Tech Insight
Executive summary
• Traditional IT operating models tend to be static and are not equipped to
deal with evolving business needs (Mercer et al.).
• The IT organization has a difficult time identifying and acting on
changing market and technology trends.
• IT is becoming more integrated in the creation and delivery of value.
• Organizations have to adapt to numerous trends, increasing pressure on
IT to move at the same speed as the business (Mercer et al.).
• The business, seeing slow IT reaction, looks to external solutions to
address its challenges (Frost & Sullivan).
• Organizational leaders don’t have a unified definition of an operating
model.
• Determine how each technology consumer group interacts with IT. Use consumer experience maps to determine
what kind of services consumer groups use and if there are opportunities to improve the delivery of those services.
• Identify how changing business conditions will affect the consumption of technology services. Classify your
consumers based on the business uncertainty and their reliance on IT to plan for the future delivery of services.
• Optimize the IT operating model. Create a target IT operating model based on the gathered information about
technology service consumers. Select different implementations of common operating model elements: governance,
sourcing, process, and structure.
The IT operating model is not a static
entity and should evolve according to
changing business needs. However,
business needs are diverse, and the IT
organization must recognize that the
business includes groups that consume
technology in different patterns.
The IT operating model needs to support
and enable multiple groups, while
continuously adapting to changing
business conditions.
5. Info-Tech Research Group 5Info-Tech Research Group 5
Business strategy first, IT strategy second, and operating
model third
The CIO and the IT organization establish the appropriate IT operating model after strategic planning is complete. The
IT operating model seeks to answer the “how” to the IT strategy’s “what.”
Business
Strategy
IT Strategy
IT
Operating
Model
“Why does our
enterprise exist in
the market?”
“What does IT need
to be and do to
support the
enterprise’s ability to
meet its goals?”
“How does IT need
to operate on a daily
basis to meet the
goals of the
strategy?”
The operating model in its simplest form dictates where and how critical work gets done across a
company. It serves as a vital link between a company’s strategy and the detailed organization design that
it puts in place to deliver on the strategy.
- Bain & Company
6. Info-Tech Research Group 6Info-Tech Research Group 6
The IT counterpart to the business operating model sets an IT
organization apart and determines how IT adds value
Pick any two companies in the same industry, and it is likely that about 70% of their respective
operating models look remarkably similar. But the 30% of the operating model that is different –
and reflects the company’s particular strategy, portfolio, and culture – can make or break the
company. The best operating models suit a company’s unique profile.
- Bain & Company
Business Operating Model
“How do we compete?”
“How do we add value?”
“How do we interact?”
IT Operating Model
“How do we make technology
decisions?”
“How do we provide services?”
“How do we organize our teams?”
“How do we leverage vendors?”
“How do we foster a strong culture?”
Source: Bain & Company
7. Info-Tech Research Group 7Info-Tech Research Group 7
Traditional IT operating models are not getting the job done
CIOs are fast realizing that their carefully crafted enterprise-wide technology infrastructure and
talent base built over the years are falling short in light of disruptive forces. The growing need to
cultivate an agile organization that can quickly respond to market disruptions makes it imperative
for organizations to intertwine their IT and business objectives.
- Cognizant
22% of IT executives agree
17% of IT executives agree
2012
2013
IT organization is very effective in driving
technology enablement or innovation in
business processes and operations.
18% of IT executives agree
10% of IT executives agree
IT organization is very effective in
introducing new technologies faster and/or
more effectively than competitors.
Adapted from: McKinsey & Company, “IT under pressure: McKinsey Global Survey results.”
8. Info-Tech Research Group 8Info-Tech Research Group 8
Attempts at dividing the IT organization into two separate
camps has yielded sub-par results
A bimodal IT operating model might sound great in theory, but in application, this model often fails to account for the
complexities of its implementation.
Instead of dividing an IT organization and its people between activities that are seen as either boring or static versus
exciting and fast-paced, IT should organize and mobilize in a dynamic manner to meet the technology service needs
of consumers who move at different speeds and in various business directions.
The problem organizations run into creating bimodal systems is the stigma that the mode 1 group
operating back-office systems is slower than the mode 2 unit building digital technologies.
Employees may not want to work on mode 1 because of the perception that it is not innovative.
That creates a dangerous culture that could lead to competing architectures.
- Bill Ruh, CDO at GE
Support
Innovate Integrated Technology
Services at Your
Speed
Consumers Consumers
IT IT
Source: CIO.com. “Why bimodal IT kills your culture and adds complexity.”
9. Info-Tech Research Group 9Info-Tech Research Group 9
Definition of an IT operating model
The IT operating model defines how the IT organization
is mobilized and organized to enable the enterprise to
achieve its goals.
The model communicates the interplay of governance,
sourcing, processes, and organizational structure that
facilitate the delivery of technology services to internal
and external technology service consumers.
Business and IT leaders alike talk about operating models, yet they are rarely on the same page. Info-
Tech provides a simple definition for the IT operating model.
10. Info-Tech Research Group 10Info-Tech Research Group 10
Elements of an IT operating model
The IT operating model consists of four elements, which when optimally combined, enable IT to deliver technology
services to consumers in a manner that matches their business realities and patterns of technology consumption.
Governance
Elements of an IT Operating Model
Sourcing
Process
Organizational
Structure
Governance ensures that
stakeholder needs,
conditions, and options are
evaluated to determine
enterprise objectives to be
achieved, setting direction
through prioritization and
decision making, and
monitoring performance
against agreed-on direction
and objectives.
Describe an organized set of
practices and activities to
achieve certain objectives
and produce a set of outputs
in support of achieving
overall goals. Processes can
have various levels of
formalization and
stakeholder involvement.
Outlines the optimal mix of
sourcing models that is
utilized to create, deliver,
and support technology
services and products.
Sourcing is usually broken
down into three broad
categories: insourcing, co-
sourcing, and outsourcing.
The arrangement of lines of
authority, rights,
communications, and duties
of an organization. The
structure determines how
the roles, power, and
responsibilities are assigned,
controlled, and coordinated
across the IT organization.
Source: COBIT 5: A Business Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT.
11. Info-Tech Research Group 11Info-Tech Research Group 11
Measure the impact of operating model changes using one
simple indicator: overall business satisfaction with IT services
Improved
Business
Satisfaction
with IT
Services
Changes to the IT operating model are aimed at improving the delivery of technology services. As such, any
modifications to how IT operates and delivers those services should improve the perception of value from the
consumers and their satisfaction with technology services.
Use Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic program to collect baseline data. After a set time period (6-
12 months), conduct the diagnostic again to measure the changes in overall satisfaction with IT services.
Processes will be
structured, standardized,
and formalized to fit the
needs of the consumers
and to optimize the delivery
of specific services.
Decisions will be made at
the right speed with the
desired level of business
involvement.
Teams will be structured
and staffed to deliver
services to consumers in
the most appropriate way.
IT will optimize the use of
internal resources and the
reliance on third-party
knowledge and capabilities
to deliver services.
12. Info-Tech Research Group 12Info-Tech Research Group 12
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