In my previous posts, Division between Business and Technology - Is It Still Relevant? and Business and IT (Mis)Alignment, I talked about how the chasm between business and IT in many organizations is hurting the companies in many ways: late to market with new products, lack of innovation, not being to able engage the workforce (specifically millennials) effectively.
We can look at an organization from the top or from the bottom to see how best to organize the teams. There are some good examples on how to organize teams under CIO (see Frank Wander's book Transform IT Culture) and another way is to look at individual business divisions. Many organizations have been moving away from centralized IT organization towards business aligned IT organization at each business unit level.
With in each business unit, the division between business and IT is still maintained possibly because of past history or background of the individuals in charge of business and IT. A typical software development team would require the following individuals (people with following roles):
Projects vary in complexity from complex business requirements to complex IT requirements. Some one from business/product area can lead and own the delivery of projects that are more complex from business/product point of view. Similarly some one from IT area can lead and own the delivery of projects that are complex from IT point of view. If the project is really big and complex (say from view points of business and IT) then joint ownership of project with leads from business and IT would benefit organizations. For projects that are in the middle (combination of business and technology), either some one from business side or IT side can lead the delivery of the project.
Advantages of having this kind of collective/joint ownership of projects include:
For organizations to adopt this model, individuals need to change by trusting each other first and also individuals need to step up to learn new skills and to play different roles. We don't need every individual to play multiple roles since there will be specialized work on either end of the spectrum (business/product oriented and completely IT architecture/development oriented). Note that other individuals on the delivery teams should be encouraged to play multiple roles and also acquire different skills from others.
I am certain this type of flexible/collective organization will lead to employee satisfaction, more productive work, and timely delivery of projects.
We can look at an organization from the top or from the bottom to see how best to organize the teams. There are some good examples on how to organize teams under CIO (see Frank Wander's book Transform IT Culture) and another way is to look at individual business divisions. Many organizations have been moving away from centralized IT organization towards business aligned IT organization at each business unit level.
With in each business unit, the division between business and IT is still maintained possibly because of past history or background of the individuals in charge of business and IT. A typical software development team would require the following individuals (people with following roles):
- Product Strategist/Manager
- Development Manager
- Project Manager
- Business Analyst
- Architect
- Programmer
- Tester
Projects vary in complexity from complex business requirements to complex IT requirements. Some one from business/product area can lead and own the delivery of projects that are more complex from business/product point of view. Similarly some one from IT area can lead and own the delivery of projects that are complex from IT point of view. If the project is really big and complex (say from view points of business and IT) then joint ownership of project with leads from business and IT would benefit organizations. For projects that are in the middle (combination of business and technology), either some one from business side or IT side can lead the delivery of the project.
Advantages of having this kind of collective/joint ownership of projects include:
- Collective/joint ownership brings best of both teams
- Businesses derive their competitive advantage through leveraging technology
- Applications/systems delivered will be designed for business, easy to operate, tailored to the needs of business
- Makes it easy to adopt agile methodologies to bring products to market sooner
For organizations to adopt this model, individuals need to change by trusting each other first and also individuals need to step up to learn new skills and to play different roles. We don't need every individual to play multiple roles since there will be specialized work on either end of the spectrum (business/product oriented and completely IT architecture/development oriented). Note that other individuals on the delivery teams should be encouraged to play multiple roles and also acquire different skills from others.
I am certain this type of flexible/collective organization will lead to employee satisfaction, more productive work, and timely delivery of projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment