Taking the technology out of information technology
There's an interesting change of emphasis taking place in how organisations think about technology - with a shift in focus from the technology itself to how that technology is implemented and managed.
22 August 2007
It wasn’t that long since product skills were the primary measure of an IT professional. Indeed, organisations tended to think about specific technologies as the things that gave their organisation an edge, reduced costs or solved a particular problem.
Now, a new way of thinking is emerging. The technology is important, but – let’s face it – technology changes. It’s now accepted that technology will churn every few years or so. What’s constant, then, is the need to implement technology and to support it.
Also, there’s been a realisation that technology alone doesn’t deliver competitive advantage. Poorly implemented technology or badly supported systems simply don’t deliver the goods. Systems that are delivered late don’t save money, they cost money. What’s more, even if technology is implemented well, the users of that technology still need high-quality support.
The focus is shifting then to the quality of the implementation of technology and the quality of how it is utilised day in, day out.
The first issue is the planning and implementation of a new technology. This might be a new telephone system, a new WAN, a new companywide desktop configuration – pretty much anything. Implementing these technologies well certainly requires product knowledge – but the key success factor is how well the implementation project will be created and managed. Late technology projects and projects which overrun their budgets often hit the headlines – sometimes in spectacular fashion, such as the Child Support Agency’s database, often cited as the heart of the agency’s operational problems, despite years of development. It’s a real fear that a new technology project won’t deliver the expected benefits, but will actually seriously impact on the performance of a company.
With stakes this high and the pressure continually on, it’s no surprise that project management has become a hot skill for IT professionals. Let’s face it – managing new projects is a substantial part of an IT professional’s role and the risks from not having strong project management skills are as great as not having the right technology skills.
PRINCE2 has gained an astonishing amount of traction within the IT community and within many organisations, which have adopted this ‘de facto’ standard for managing IT projects (although it can be utilised for pretty much any kind of project). PRINCE2 is used worldwide, and, as a skill, it’s pretty portable – once gained, it can be used to manage pretty much any type of project. For organisations, it’s a lasting investment – technologies come and go, but project management skills remain valid for many years, so the payback from training lasts far longer.
In many ways, project management skills have become the essential ‘second string’ to many IT professionals’ bows – and a primary skill for others. PRINCE2 is by far and away the most successful project management methodology in the IT sector and is especially popular in the UK.
The main focus of PRINCE2 is project planning and implementation – getting projects delivered on time and within the expected budget, and making sure that they will deliver the required business benefit.
Once complete, many IT projects deliver some kind of service to the business – often an essential business system that requires continual high performance and total up-time. Managing these systems, and their users, is a job in itself – and requires high standards of support.
To help, another methodology (or, in this case it’s more correct to say ‘framework’) is gaining ground rapidly – ITIL. ITIL (the IT Infrastructure Library) is a framework for IT service management. It’s highly customisable – as it would need to be – but also highly structured, and is aligned to the international standard, ISO 20000.
Just as PRINCE2 can save organisations time and money when deploying IT systems/projects, ITIL provides a highly efficient way of delivering IT service – helping organisations get the most from the projects on which they have such high expectations. Again, ITIL is highly popular in the UK (it was originally created by a government agency) but is enjoying widespread adoption around the world.
While there is no formal link between PRINCE2 and ITIL, for many companies these are two natural bedfellows, helping IT – regardless of what it is – to be delivered and managed in the best possible way, resulting in higher standards and lower costs.
PRINCE2 and ITIL are forming the backbone of many companies’ IT strategies, and technology itself is taking a back seat, with the focus on quality delivery and management, regardless of what the underlying technology is.
That’s not to say that technology isn’t important – it clearly is – but it shows that IT is maturing into a high quality business service with the potential to be the best implemented and run service within many organisations.
