There is a great article over at Info World written by Bob Lewis that basically is trying to overturn the conventional wisdom of how to run an IT department, especially in larger companies. In a nut shell running the IT department “as a business, selling to its internal customers, its principal product is software that meets requirements” can become a train wreck. Running the IT department as a business causes the department to react instead of innovating, play catch up instead of leading the charge for new processes, and overall creates a system where IT and the business will be at logger heads, to the detriment of all.
“IT’s job is to recommend better ways to operate, using technical capabilities business managers might not even know are possible.”
Why are internal IT projects always behind the times? Because these projects are usually spearheaded by non IT individuals who do not live in the realm of the ever changing landscape of information technology. Instead IT should be integrated with the business and work every day to say how can we make this company run better!
“The job isn’t done when the software satisfies requirements. It’s done when the business runs differently and better”
So often IT projects are created to fit into already existing job processes, when in reality a new process should be created by the technology that works better for the company and it’s employees.
Anyways a great read for anyone who runs an internal IT department.
