IT Service Management

The organization chart shown in Figure 5.13 is a collection of functional boxes representing vertical tiers of reporting relationships.

Figure 5.13 Simplified vertical view of an IT organization

While the organization chart is a useful administrative tool, it is missing key components. It is missing the customers. It is missing the services provided to the customers. And it is missing the workflow through which those services are provided. In other words, the organizational chart does not show what the organization does, how it does it and for whom it does it.

Goal setting and reporting are done in silos. The criteria for employees are based on expertise for a specific technology or role, rather than competencies in strategic planning, business expertise, forecasting, or managing metric s. Each technology or functional manager perceives the other as a competitor rather than a partner; positioning themselves for priority, resource s, budget and advancement.

This approach prevents cross-silo issues from being resolved at low levels. Instead, the issues are escalated to functional managers who then address the issues with other functional managers. The result is then communicated downward, at which point the real work presumably begins. In other words, managers are continually forced to resolve low-level issues, taking time away from high-level customer issues. Low-level contributors, rather than resolving these issues, then see themselves as passive implementers, merely taking orders and providing technical information. Cross-functional issues frequently do not get addressed, often falling through the organizational cracks.

The opportunity for improving an organization often lies in these cracks: the white space of the organization chart. (The ‘white space’ of the organization chart is examined in Rummler.26) It is the points at which the boxes interface and pass information. While an organizational chart does fulfil an important administrative purpose, it should not be confused with the organization itself. This confusion may lead managers to manage the organization chart, rather than the organization. Rather, they should overcome inter-silo problems by conceptualizing and managing complete processes (Figure 5.14).

Figure 5.14 Process as a means for managing the silos of the organization chart

Some processes can be self-contained within a functional area, while others are cross-functional. Some processes manage and produce a product or service received by a customer external to IT. Organizational performance improves as these processes allow. The discipline of these processes is commonly known as IT Service Management (ITSM). ITSM means thinking of IT as a cohesive set of business resources and capabilities. These resources and capabilities are managed through processes and ultimately represented as services.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14