Mapping Your IT Ecosystem
The IT operational platform is a complex set of tools and processes that are indigenous only to IT. This ecosystem, sometimes referred to as “ERP for IT”, has evolved without the benefit of a master plan, resulting in a hodge-podge of disjointed workflows, databases, and untapped functionality spanning multiple physical platforms and multiple vendor products.
Those companies fortunate enough to have established a level of consistency in their IT platform enjoy shorter delivery times, faster issue resolution, and efficient flow of information throughout the systems lifecycle. With admiration, we tip our caps to these “Masters of their IT Domain”. For the rest of us, building an enterprise-class operational platform for IT should be a top priority.
Generally speaking, IT management systems can be grouped into five categories (link to “Conceptual Map of IT Ecosystem”):
- Project and Portfolio Management: tools for defining IT strategy, planning and resourcing projects, and tracking implementation
- Software Delivery and Quality: tools for managing the SDLC process from requirements through development, testing, and deployment
- System Operations: tools for managing system configurations, data center operations, and user support
- Organization: tools for managing IT human resources
- Administration: tools for managing financials, assets, and performance metrics
Vendors like IBM, Computer Associates, HP, Oracle, BMC, and countless others offer products to suit the requirements and budgets of any size organization.
Our business partners, too, are beginning to recognize the need to manage IT with the same rigor and discipline as other operations, and are more willing to invest the necessary funding to upgrade these tools and processes. However, before you embark on a multi-year effort to forklift out the current tools in favor of something new, you should consider exploring what you already have to see if there might be some life left in it. Your current tools are a treasure trove of historical information on the IT operation, and analyzing this data will provide you with a better understanding of how the organization has been performing, where processes and systems are lacking, and where you should prioritize your IT improvement efforts. These tools might also have untapped functionality that could be unleashed at far lower cost and disruption to the organization vs. installing something new.
Build a Systems Map for your Organization
Regardless of whether you choose to leverage what you have, buy something new, or build your own “ERP for IT” toolkit, it would be a worthwhile exercise to build a map of your current platform. Assuming that you’ll want to upgrade your operational metrics as well, this systems map is a necessary first step in the measurement process to identify the data sources for those metrics (link to “Translating Data into Action”).
The following four activities will help to structure your efforts:
- Inventory of Systems: for each of the five ecosystem categories, list any and all tools being used, by user groups and by “owner” (administrator) of the tool
- Data Flow Map: show how activities (e.g., tickets, work requests, approvals) flow through the operation, regardless of what system(s) are used
- Source Systems for Metrics: identify which source systems provide the best snapshot of the operation, for each set of metrics you want to implement
- Existing Reports and Feeds: identify all reports, extracts, and interfaces into and out of each tool
As you inventory the tools, reports, and feeds, take anything you can get—spreadsheets, e-mails, paper reports—all the way down to the raw data extracts that are used to create the reports. Don’t waste time building new feeds or modifying existing ones until you’ve had a chance to analyze what you already have. Guaranteed you will gain better insight into the data, and get more from your efforts when you do decide to modify the interfaces.
Similarly, for the data flow map, it is important to highlight every entry point for the various work requests, whether officially “ticketed” or not, so as not to miss process steps that have been introduced to compensate for system limitations:
- Type of work request
- Who requests it?
- Who receives it?
- What system(s) are used to manage the workflow (if any)?
- How do tickets flow through each process step?
- What other systems, processes, and organizations do these tickets need to interact with?
- What are the end results of each type of work request?
From this exercise, your systems map will quickly take shape, and it will become glaringly obvious where there are discontinuities in the process, where there are holes in the toolset, and where your efforts can best be prioritized to plug these holes and begin the evolution of your IT ecosystem.