lean4it

IT4IT: what you need to know

First of 3 parts

Disclaimer: this post represents my personal views only.

I was in Edinburgh, Scotland this October for the official launch of the IT4IT standard by The Open Group. As a followup, I attended the HDI/IT Service Management Fusion conference in New Orleans a couple weeks later, where the Open Group booth had a constant flow of traffic.

As I watched Mary Jarrett of Shell's keynote on the IT4IT journey, I reflected that in some ways, this was the culmination of a journey I started with this blog, 12 years ago this fall.

I had begun with an initial interest in “ERP for IT.” However, this has never been a blog about ERP systems; rather, it started off questioning the lack of such systems for the domain of large-scale IT management. In other words, why was IT the barefoot cobbler's child in automating itself?

There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, and as I deepened my understanding of the problems, I rebranded the blog as lean4it. But the premise continues: IT remains under-managed relative to peer functions, relying on emails, texts, spreadsheets, word of mouth and gut feel as opposed to data-driven systems.

And solving IT management problems has never been more pressing. Why? Two words:

Digital transformation.

What ITIL didn't say

I never wanted to doubt you
but I'd be better off without you
I'm no good at lookin' the other way
It wasn't what you said
it's what you didn't say

Mary Chapin Carpenter, "What You Didn't Say," Shooting Straight in the Dark

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I find myself lately quoted in Forbes by the esteemed Jason Bloomberg, covering this year's ITIL debates. There have been some fireworks, no doubt. 

Jason gives a good flavor for the controversies. However, I think more can be said about the challenges faced by the framework-based practices: 

• Project Management with PMBOK/PRINCE2
• Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF
• Security and Governance with COBIT
• IT Service Management with ITIL

Many organizations base their IT operating model on some combination of this guidance. And many are finding this approach wanting, and challenged by Agile teams who have little patience for any of it. 

Why the challenge? I think, per the title of this post, it's not what the guidance says. It's what it doesn't. 

Charlie's current projects

Note: dm-academy.com has been redirected here for a time. 

Yes, I've been a bit lower key on this blog. Current content work is in the following channels:

• Survey textbook on digital

The first survey textbook for collegiate IT/IS written from a Lean/Agile perspective (and with Agile practices).

• Associated labs
• DevOps simulation for education (Calavera)
  
  
  
• The IT4IT standard, an open reference architecture for the "business of IT"
• The Minnesota Agile Study Group, working to bring Agile to local higher education, including the Digital Curricula Working Group (a grant-funded Minnesota State University project)