IT Success!: Towards a New Model for Information Technology

9.11. In closing – addressing the three fundamental questions

Running an IT department is ultimately about being able to successfully answer the following questions – in the following order:

1. Are we building the right things? In other words, is IT effort and expenditure in line with justified business objectives, or do we just cater to those business executives who have the most executive influence?

2. Are we building things right? In other words, are we taking into account the reality that meshing human behaviour and organizational processes in order to create workable systems is really an iterative process, whose benefits only really unfold over time? Or do we assume that they are physical things like a houses or bridges which can be neatly spec'd, signed off and tossed over the wall to the IT department or to a vendor for delivery – and that any subsequent work is considered an anomaly?

3. Are we managing assets? Once we've started delivering on our projects:

   • Are we able to track the resulting application costs down to the granular level of product development, operations and infrastructure? Or do we simply lump them into a catch-all category called maintenance and keeping the lights on, thereby ensuring that the CFO focuses on the whole instead of on the sum of the parts?

   • Do we actually have business people to measure the benefits and thus manage the resulting applications as assets to help realize the business case over time? Or do we just assume that the original business case is still ...