It is
commonly accepted that the definition of Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one
or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.
By the
definition, we can tell at least two things: first, that there cannot be a
“magic bullet” because you have to define your goal before defining the
strategy and the goals may vary between enterprises. And the second thing is
that it is not going to be easy because of the uncertainty factor.
So, What can
we do?. Software Engineering has tried, for some years now, to find an answer.
Many methodologies like ITIL, CMMI, COBIT or lately TOGAF have proved very
useful to better manage the IT departments and somehow they also helped with
the strategy. All of them promise to “add value” because the role of IT is
changing from being a support department to be the core of the business. In
fact many IT terms has been applied to business (Service Oriented Enterprise,
Process Focused Organization,…).
It is not my
intention to make a digression about the several methodologies currently in the
market, nor about the different organization’s types. I’d rather express my
personal beliefs based on my own experience even though they don’t match with
any methodology and they are nothing but some principles I think useful to have
in mind when setting a strategy.
First
principle: Simplicity. Simplicity
means different things in different contexts, but applied to IT Strategy or to
IT development, simplicity is related with efficiency.
You probably don’t need the latest “cool” technology to do that report and you
are adding an overhead any time you use something new in your technology stack
(yes, you will need someone who knows about the new cool thing, pay for maintenance,
patchs,…). Does it mean that you never have to use new technologies?. Short
answer, NO. You have to carefully evaluate the pros and cons and I dare to say
you should estimate a ROI (it can be your own flavour of ROI) as the business
people do. In my opinion, simplicity should be in the DNA of any organization.
Establish a process. Some one could say, “A process?, What about
simplicity?”. A process is overhead when we are taken into consideration an
isolated development or only one system deployment. When we are talking about
Enterprise IT, establish a process is the best way to learn what is working for
you and what is not. Thus, a process is, at least, a very good information
source about how you are doing and also the only way to add quality to the
final product.
Promote TEAMS!. I have seen many times people
working in the same place; they call it a team but they were not. Ideally, team
members must have complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common goals, have a foreseeable shared future, and share a common fate. Let’s face it. At the end of the day you have
to rely on your people to do the right thing and a team is better than an
individual by far. People can do amazing things working together.
Knowledge Management. Internal resources (internal teams) most
often cannot cope with all the work and you have to seek help outside. That’s
good in many aspects. New points of view, new skills, fresh air…. But there is
one thing you never can let go. Knowledge. In your strategy, there must be a
way to ensure that you do not depend on someone’s good will (establish a
process and promote team working can be on handy). It is your duty to keep the
situation under control at all times.
Try to have
your own Royal Marine Corp (in many
places known as Architecture Team). When talking about development, there’s always the requirements definition
thing. The business users want something that they don’t know but they would
recognize if they could see it. Well, the Royal Marine Corp can produce
something very quickly. Mobility applications, Social Networking integrations,
the Cloud Computing applications, you name it. When there is no time, your
reduced but highly motivated and skilled team can do the job.
In summary,
in my vision, there is the central principle of keep it simple, try to be
reliable, your people is the most valuable thing you have, don’t lose control
and sometimes you need a commando to do the dirty job.
Posts
