Strengthening Business & IT Relationships Through Detailed Process to IT Services Mapping
How Combining Two Separate Global IT Frameworks Helped IT to Anticipate Business Demand
In 2013, the IT division within a large government transport agency initiated an improvement to strengthen the relationship between the business and IT. To support this initiative, a mapping of business processes to IT services stream was kicked off to assist with anticipating business demand on IT.
The expectation was to establish a proof of concept (POC) based on ITIL® IT Services model that demonstrated the relationship between each business process, underpinning IT Service. Kirk Penn from Service Management Specialists was engaged to support the ICT Strategy and Architecture group to develop the POC.
Previous to the engagement, 70 percent of business functions had been mapped and contextualised into technology capabilities leveraging the TOGAF framework. While it’s not an impossible to combine two separate frameworks, it did introduce complexity that needed to be carefully worked through. TOGAF provides guidance to a technology component layering framework whereas ITIL® provides guidance on an end to end IT Service’s Lifecycle concept.
“Kirk is an extremely capable consultant with deep expertise in the area his current focus (Service Management)....Having worked closely with Kirk as a fellow consultant for about 10 months, I can say that that he is a clear thinker with ability to turn cluttered situations into clear problem statements" Santosh Arunachalam, ITSM Consultant, Mahindra Satyam
Kirk reviewed the mappings and context of the work previously undertaken. As the high-level business to IT Services alignment started to emerge, the focus moved to knowledge sharing and working through the translation of terminology. Business functions to business processes and technology capabilities to IT services within a single and reference model were also considered. A series of use cases and simulations were overlaid to refine and validate the model.
The initiative was extremely successful and very well-received. The Business to IT Services Model articulated the IT value proposition in clear easy to understand context. The strategy and architecture team were able to take the model one step further by overlaying the ‘end user customer requirement,’ providing even more context and value while providing IT demand and prioritisation insights.