In the face of the current economic downturn, many companies have begun to transition into survival mode, streamlining their businesses as much as possible in an effort to stay afloat. These companies are seeking to run their businesses as efficiently as possible and, now more than ever, dont have the robust bottom lines to support technology initiatives that simply do not work. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Kleber Bacili explains how to streamline those wasteful and unruly IT projects that just have not been performing well.
Today,
years past the beginning of their implementations, unruly IT projects
left to grow uninhibited are being seen as exactly thatunruly. Now
with economic uncertainties abound, many of these companies are unable,
or simply unwilling, to give up on the IT projects in which they have
so heavily invested. But, rather than suffer
through these lean times with projects that are under-performing,
forward-thinking companies are recognizing the need to revamp these
projects to achieve the critical returns they once promised.
By implementing proper governance initiatives with a
well-planned and incremental approach, these companies are able to
streamline wasteful and unruly IT projects, thereby eliminating
duplicated development through governance practices.
IT initiatives should aim to:
1. Reduce wastefulness
By reusing previously tested and
validated components and services, the IT department can rapidly
leverage concrete results to the business areas. By reusing these
assets, companies are able to develop or integrate applications more
rapidly, with better quality while reducing costs.
It is important to also objectively
measure how many dollars of development hours the company has saved by
using what they already have. This can be achieved by using tools that
provide quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure reuse level and
to calculate the ROI for the enterprise services and components
portfolio.
2. Organize things during the down times
When the demand for business reduces
due to economic downturn, IT should concentrate efforts to "clean up
the room." By organizing and improving the way it develops
applications, correcting inefficient processes, and clearly defining
governance processes and policies, IT can be far better prepared to
meet business needs when the economy picks up again.
This enables more visibility of the
services and components portfolios, as well as more control of assets
and IT investments. Furthermore, IT doesn't need to wait for when the
economy resurrects to benefit from this effort because the reuse of
services and components reduces cost and improves time to market (TTM)
of applications.
3. Go with best practices and incremental steps
One size does not fit all! Many
companies do not have a clear idea of governance, so they are left
thinking that it requires large investments on software and consulting
services from the beginning. Companies that were unable to get the
return from IT projects that they expected may also think that they
didnt work because they didn't invest enough. But that is not the case.
One of the most important aspects of
ensuring streamlined IT projects is that you can structure an
incremental approach where the company can distribute investment
efforts along the way. This is done by prioritizing the actions that
will bring results more quickly, monitoring the process carefully
(measuring the ROI and reuse level) and giving consistent steps towards
more mature levels.
Facing the economic reality of our
current times, companies simply cannot afford to fund projects that
don't provide tangible benefits to meet business needs. Further, IT
projects that were once immune to cutbacks due to poor performance are
suddenly vulnerable. However, companies able to reuse existing assets,
improve TTM and effectively measure results can achieve great benefits
from IT implementations.
As companies continue to streamline
their business processes, it is imperative that they carry these
practices over into the IT department. A plethora of IT projects can
deliver tremendous business benefits, but this cannot happen if the
projects are not closely mapped back to the companies business
objectives. By ensuring proper oversight of IT projects and ROI,
companies can preserve their invested capital for projects that provide
maximum agility and benefit. Ultimately, it can improve the overall
ability of the company to thrive through today's economic challenges.
Kleber Bacili is the founder and CTO of Sensedia.
Kleber is responsible for product development and operations at
Sensedia. He is a SOA expert with published articles in various
international publications. He is also a professor on SOA and
component-based development at renowned universities. Kleber holds a
degree in Computer Engineering from UNICAMP and an MBA from Fundao
Getlio Vargas (FGV). He can be reached at kleber.bacili@sensedia.com.
IT Management 
