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September 15, 2008 By Merrill Douglas
council then can determine whether each project is providing a solid return on investment of time and money.
Initially the programs and divisions weren't happy to see their IT staff moved to a central organization, Ghods said. To ensure IT projects would continue to meet their needs, the CDFA assigned each division an account manager - an IT staff member who serves as a business-side liaison. "Any complaints, any initiatives for new projects, any kudos, could be communicated to these single points of contact from IT," he said. "If necessary, we would even house the IT liaison or account rep at their physical location at the division for a temporary period of time."
By creating a governance structure that supports better project and portfolio management and implementing tools to support that effort, the CDFA's IT organization can provide better service to its customers, Ghods said. "Aligning IT with the business [side] is the outcome of having project/portfolio management."
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I would argue that a decentralized IT infrastructure and service management approach is more appropriated in many enterprises. In order for IT to align with the business, there must be an in-depth knowledge by IT resources to the business needs that cannot be adequate or efficient in a centralized structure. The more complex and critical business units are then the greater need for a dedicated infrastructure and services or else the competition for resources from other disparate business units / agencies will impact IT response abilities. Also, as organizations move toward web service architectures the need for distributed structures will be enhanced and should result in reduce infrastructure needs and costs. Of key consideration are the "high availability" needs for businesses will greatly be compromised by a centralized infrastructure and service management only IT designs. Consider the unique needs of critical systems during a natural or man-made disaster. These systems have a greater need for dedicated resources not only during an event, but also in every-day operations. Using the same systems that are used everyday in normal operations are more effective and efficient when used in a disaster.
I would argue that a decentralized IT infrastructure and service management approach is more appropriated in many enterprises. In order for IT to align with the business, there must be an in-depth knowledge by IT resources to the business needs that cannot be adequate or efficient in a centralized structure. The more complex and critical business units are then the greater need for a dedicated infrastructure and services or else the competition for resources from other disparate business units / agencies will impact IT response abilities. Also, as organizations move toward web service architectures the need for distributed structures will be enhanced and should result in reduce infrastructure needs and costs. Of key consideration are the "high availability" needs for businesses will greatly be compromised by a centralized infrastructure and service management only IT designs. Consider the unique needs of critical systems during a natural or man-made disaster. These systems have a greater need for dedicated resources not only during an event, but also in every-day operations. Using the same systems that are used everyday in normal operations are more effective and efficient when used in a disaster.