IT Management & Effectiveness

IT Strategy and Application Architecture

Many companies find that they can achieve greater alignment of their Information Systems group with business objectives. Our work generally starts with aligning IT planning with business needs. We develop a high-level strategy, that leads to an application and possibly a data architecture. The key deliverable is an IT Road Map which presents a high-level picture of the work and new projects that IT will be deliver over the course of the next 18 to 30 months. Depending upon the organization, this could be very high-level or could result in a mapping of business processes to IT systems and potential IT tools, along with data mapping and architectural planning.

Project Review/Risk Assessment of Critical and High-Exposure Projects

One service where we are growing exponentially is in the area of an independent project review. We like to take some very high-profile projects and assess the risks as to delivery on-time and on-budget, with the agreed upon scope. We have done this with projects under $1 Million and as large as $80 Million. Our approach is to talk with the project sponsors, the PM, the various team leads, and then provide the executive leadership with some insights. We look to assess the risks and the general health of the projects. Depending upon the project, this is usually a two to six week effort, and we have received some very good feedback on our work.

IT Governance and Effectiveness

This is a growing part of our practice, and we often find that new clients enjoy a brief review of their IT functions, and an analysis of what is working, what is world-class, and where our clients might improve.  We have been effective at designing governance and project prioritization models, as well as implementing service and delivery models. We have led IT organizational transformation projects designed at improving business alignment and the ability of IT to delivery projects more predictably, balancing effectiveness with efficiency.

Another area we focus on is the establishment of an IT-wide Program Office, focused on the tools and measurement of IT projects, both from a project portfolio management standpoint, as well as providing insights into the health and progress of major initiatives and providing project management leadership to critical programs.

IT Processes and Methodologies

One of the challenges affecting many CIOs today is how to effectively and efficiently deliver and maintain IT solutions. We have found the ITIL methodology for service delivery to be a very effective framework to build or maintain a World-Class information systems team. We also find that as IT organizations strive to move to higher CMM ratings, the ability to successfully estimate project costs and schedules and to predictably deliver on those budgets and schedules becomes a greater struggle.

We work with our clients to find the right mix of process, tools and methodologies in the application development area as well as support and maintenance. We like a best-practice vision of a system development lifecycle management (SDLM) methodology that incorporates better and better forecasts of cost and schedule at various phase-gates along a project cycle, e.g. new estimates after feasibly, and before design, and again after design and before development. Some organizations even authorize only enough funding to get through a phase, and then require a revalidation of estimates and business case before proceeding to the next phase and new funding authorizations.