Wide Angle Vision Enabled by Changepoint

By Mark D Green Business Development Manager - Governance Solutions Compuware Asia Pacific.

Without sight how does one see?  This is a common dilemma within business and I'm quite confident it is a topic of re-occurring pain in your business too, with only the intensity differing.

Sight within business is typically expressed as "visibility" and let's be honest with ourselves – lack of visibility is one of the biggest issues we combat on a daily basis within our careers.  This can take all sorts of forms: – some common examples being reporting cycles and processes that deliver up information that is incomplete, incorrect or just out right all too late;  the right hand not knowing what the left is doing; or worst of all, the business focusing on the wrong thing and more so, with gusto.  I'm assuming you have heard similar stories and are familiar with phrases like:

The list goes on and on, but the issue however remains constant.  The issue or bottom line is the lack of "wide angle visibility" across your business.  Once you have “wide angle visibility” across your IT organisation and know what should be focused on, then strategic/corporate direction will enable you to prioritise correctly. 

Once you know your priorities (with complete business visibility), you can measure your IT effectiveness and alignment to the business and at any given point in time and be agile enough to change where and when needed.  Given that priorities and strategic directions can and do change, your organisation needs the agility to move and change with informed decision making that includes consolidated, timely and accurate information at you finger tips.

It could be said that IT Governance is: “The organisational structure, leadership and processes ensuring IT sustains and/or enhances business strategies and objectives in a known way embraced by the whole business”.

In my various roles and 25 years within the IT industry, I have seen a lot of change but also a lot of similarity too.  What we have done in a short period of time is enable a lot of technology within our businesses and handed "IT" to the users’ right at their finger tips.

PC's have become, and are treated as commodity items.  What were once specialist applications have become commonplace desktop items.

One example that springs to mind is the common "word processor".  In the late 80's it was more of an "art form" and the artist were called typists, WP operators and desktop publishers and mostly called miracle workers when it went as expected.   Advanced functions like setting a page layout for the yearly Christmas party with more than two “fonts” was also somewhat of a specialised task that required real expertise to get it looking right when printed.  To get it printed in colour well that was “Very Special”.  These "SPECIAL TASKS" were in fact usually done by a "Desktop Publishing Guru” and not the day to day user.  If you compare it with today, these "SPECIAL TASKS" are now done very well and in fact most times better by the DAY TO DAY USER using their standard applications on their PC and in colour.  Not only that, the kids at home are doing it on the home PC's better than we at work in some cases!

My point is that we have created and handed over awesome power to the everyday user in a relatively short period of time.  Individual users and whole organisations have the ability to create new systems and information in diverse forms.  They can share and transfer items and information and in doing so have created a new set of issues - managing this mass creation of information – filing, access, interpretation – managing its existence across disparate systems and managing the issues of integration and redundancy.   

This leads us into one part of the Governance and visibility puzzle – the challenge of electronic document and information management, Governance rules need to establish the orderly and structured manner of which electronic items are stored, used, distributed, accessed, updated and tracked from a history point of view.  The explosion of information has happened in an “organic fashion” and mostly independently across multiple sub-businesses (L.O.B. and separate Business Units) and systems.  These systems now too require integration and information sharing which further compounds the potential complexity.

The necessary intervention is for business leaders to establish orderly governance structures to ensure appropriate visibility of the IT their organisations use.  These structures need complementary business cultures that recognise the importance of material and information and the need for controls.  The culture and controls should promote understanding of the business value in all forms of information – from the humble email through to important correspondence; business documents, contracts and financials; through to the “gut feel”, “market perception” including what your customers think and feel when dealing with you plus any other information used and needed on a day-by-day basis that forms up the under pinning information on which decision making is based.

True Governance goes far deeper than merely tracking activities, tasks, projects and portfolio of projects.  Knowing what project to persevere with, what to stop, and when to change priority, is front of mind in most businesses involved with projects every day.

The complexity of auditable decision making relating to this example goes far deeper than the time and cost.  It involves ensuring that every project, portfolio or program will in fact deliver true business value and is properly aligned to the strategic objectives of the business.  It involves monitoring additional factors which can not be quantified by a time or dollar value, such as what the client, customer and/or end user thinks about the outcomes.   It needs audit trails of change requests ("scope creep") to demonstrate whether due process was followed.  It means having timely and relevant reports available where and when you need them.  These and many other factors form a part of a true IT Governance solution.

This is where enabling tool suites like Compuware’s Changepoint IT Governance solution suite makes the difference when the business “is able to be enabled".  Enabling “wide angle visibility” of the business includes many other facets of its IT organisation not just projects. 

Only one who believes in fairies would also believe that installing software tools changes culture, procedures and enforces good process effectively.  This is why I say "able to be enabled".  Organisations that adopt a tool like Changepoint need not just software – they need process and culture that will work with the software to achieve the required results.

I personally stand by the three "P's" of IT success, People, Process and Product.  Without all of these pieces most, if not all, initiatives will fail to deliver effectively.  To achieve true effective control over your IT situation, the first step is to embrace IT Governance as an agreed way forward.  Then align the culture and define your processes.  As the final piece of the puzzle ensure it is enabled with the correct integrated ITG tool suite. 

It is not a matter of if, but it is a matter of when and where your business is at to embrace true IT Governance.  How ready you are to enable “wide angle visibility” for your business?

 

For further information on Compuware’s Governance Solutions contact: Mark D Green Business Development Manager - Governance Solutions

Compuware Asia Pacific

Level 16, 607 Bourke St

MELBOURNE, VIC, 3000

Phn:  +61 3 9261 4348

Fax:  +61 3 9261 4300

Mob: +61 419 387 110

Web:  http://www.compuware.com

Email: mark.green@compuware.com