Play 6 – Bring In Standards For Technology, Anchored Around Applications
- Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
- Target time: 6-12 weeks
- Maturity: 0 to 2
- Project implementing applications with no oversight, duplicate applications being built/acquired Cost rationalisation wanted
- Concerns that people are choosing inappropriate technologies
- Technology list available, in Excel or a CMDB
- Technology not mapped to applications
- No/Few standards defined
- Communication to relevant IT teams from senior leader
- Clarity on who the application owners within IT are
- Engagement with infrastructure team(s)
- Work with the infrastructure teams, tidy up the technology list and define standards for the technologies, leave the ones that are off strategy
- Identify the technology components the organisation needs – work back from the products if needed
- Map the products to the technology components
- Prioritise the application list based on risk or importance, and identify the technologies utilised by those applications
- Create the technology architecture for the applications
- Provide the Technology Product Selector as a tool for projects and change
- Highlight application/technology risk
- Projects engage and use the technology selector as a starting point
- The CIO sees risk across the estate and can engage the business om mitigation
- Technologies become controlled
- Build out of technology costs of unnecessary technology and plans to mitigate risk emerge
- Technology Alignment
- CIO – key areas of concern
- Infrastructure Teams – technologies and standards
- Application Owners – application information
- Engage and regular updates with the CIO on risk and non-strategic technology
- Engage the PMO and Change in the use of the Product Selector to speed projects – don’t impose, suggest usage initially
- Engage Infrastructure to identify technology risks and mitigation options
- Engagement between IT – infrastructure and Projects
- IT projects engage EA, leveraging the enterprise architecture artefacts to speed project delivery
- EA adding clear, demonstrable value
| Steps | A1.1 | T1.1 | T1.2 | S1.4 | A1.3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What | Capture the applications with basic details and services | Capture the technology products against the technology reference model | Create the technology reference model | Define standards for your technologies and define lifecycle status for your technologies | Map the technologies to the applications using them |
| Usage | Have a list of applications used that can be the anchor for the rest of the work. Define strategic applications in line with your target state | Identify duplicate and high risk technologies | Anchor for technology products created | Anchor for Design Authority discussions, for projects to leverage in technical designs. | Provides a view on application alignment to standards and also can be used to highlight technology risk |
| Interested Parties and expected response | Business & IT Interested but not excited | CIO Initiates activities based on duplicate technology or risk | CIO Interested but not excited | CIO Keen on convergence on the standards, will want a plan Projects Keen as it reduces design time – may push back if want non standard technologies | CIO Very interested as risk can be seen. Will want plans for ‘at risk’ applications or those using non-standard technology |
| Approach | By Business Unit/Area | Overall Enterprise | Overall Enterprise | Overall Enterprise | By Business Area |