The first thing IT must do to remain relevant is to become effective in the delivery of foundational IT services. This includes ensuring basic availability of services, but also includes the on-going development and measurement of capabilities and disciplines which will enable the organization to operate efficiently and to constantly adapt to meet the changing needs of its customers.
CastlePointe offers the following workshops on building Organizational Effectiveness:
| Topic | Abstract |
Executive Series Topic OE-1: Building Capabilities to Create an Effective Organization |
Senior IT leaders are being asked to make their organizations more efficient (i.e. lower costs), yet more effective at the same time. The immediate solutions of staff reductions, consolidations and "optimization" go only so far. IT executives should look to 6 core organizational capabilities to identify the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that will enable them to create a truly effective IT organization. |
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| Topic OE-2: The DNA of Effectiveness: Your Mission and the 6 Organizational Capabilities | Every IT organization wants to be "effective." It sounds simple. Being viewed as anything less implies a fundamental failure. Yet the truth is that few IT organizations are as effective as they can be and should be. In fact, being effective isn't nearly as simple as it sounds. To begin with, IT organizations must ask the most important question - "Effective at what?" With a clear mission, IT organizations must develop 6 key organizational capabilities, driven by their mission, to become truly effective. |
| Topic OE-3: Bringing People, Process & Tools Together to Create Operational Stability | Despite years of investment in process improvement efforts, many IT organizations still struggle with maintain a stable environment. Efforts to create innovation are often stymied by IT's inability to simply keep systems running. The challenge is that organizations have often taken a one dimensional approach to solving the problem - implementing Incident, Problem or Change Management, installing monitoring tools, etc. This topic explores how to create an integrated approach that brings together all aspects of the operational model to create operational stability. (Note: This topic can include specific discussions on individual process areas, such as Incident, Event, Problem or Change Management, and how they contribute to operational stability.) |
| Topic OE-4: Creating Organizational Agility at the Intersection of Apps & Ops | The pace of business keeps getting faster and faster, yet with increasing complexity and compliance risks, the rate of change seems to get slower and slower. But the need for organizational agility is become urgent. As a result, IT organizations are turning to new application development approaches such as Agile and SOA to speed time-to-market. But these often run head-long into process management disciplines such as Change and Release Management. This topic explores strategies to bring these disciplines together in a holistic approach to driving organizational agility. (Available Q3 2010) |
Executive Series Topic OE-5: Measured Leadership: Putting Metrics at the Center of Your Management Approach |
For many IT executives, metrics and KPIs are an afterthought. They're reviewed periodically and maybe some questions get asked, but that's about it. But in large organizations, this often leaves large holes. To transform an IT organization, effective leadership must start with metrics and embed their use into every major management review and decision made. |
| Topic OE-6: Measuring IT Effectiveness | You can't manage what you don't measure. But if you measure everything and throw it into a big pile on the dashboard, you can't manage it either. Many people think that IT organizations don't have enough data, but in truth, they may have too much. Tool vendors and consultants have pounded the "measure it" mantra for so long that IT organizations are awash in data, but often are lacking any real actionable information. This topic will explore a range of strategies to measure IT effectiveness and drive action including metric correlation, the objective-driven metrics model and embedding metrics into the organizational management model. |
| Topic OE-7: Managing & Reducing IT Complexity | It's unquestionable that IT architectures and operations have become more and more complex over the years. The problem with complexity is that it has a direct relationship to reliability. The more complex a system becomes the less reliable it becomes. A certain level of complexity is unavoidable, but IT organizations must take an active approach to dealing with IT complexity if they want to be able to effectively provide reliable service. This approach essentially boils down to eliminating all complexity that can be eliminated and then actively managing the rest. This topic explores strategies that IT can employ to reduce and manage IT complexity, including rationalization approaches and the effective development and use of Configuration Management Systems. (Available Q4 2010) |
Thoughts, Ideas & Real World Experiences About Transforming IT Organizations
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