Improve IT-business Alignment with an Infrastructure Roadmap

Improve IT-Business Alignment with an Infrastructure Roadmap Balance stability and agility to support evolving business demands. Conflicting Demands IT is increasingly expected to be responsive and agile around changing business needs, but this doesn't reduce the need for stability, reliability, and efficiency. Stability is not the purpose of IT infrastructure.The purpose of stability is to facilitate growth, change, and continuous improvement. Your roadmap must be designed for agility. Assets Management IT Strategy An infrastructure roadmap is a center of gravity to keep planning processes unified while maintaining flexibility and momentum. Infrastructure Roadmap Architecture Planning Projects & Budgets 1 2 3 Focus on the roadmapping process itself Tailor the roadmappingprocess to your organization Tailor the adoption drivers into the roadmap process. HOW TO GET THERE ? STEP 1 Identify and document business initiatives An infrastructure manager's greatest strength tends to be broad understanding of technology, with deeper knowledge in some areas. But it's not enough just to think broadly about technology. Periodically, every IT manager needs to step back and orient plans around business factors, or why technology is needed. STEP 2 Green fields are rare. Start by mapping out your current legacy IT investments and "techno- logy debt". Existing investments and lifecycles are the first events that will populate your roadmap as will be decisions on which of these need to be migrated, retired, maintained, or updated and when. Evaluate and document current state of infrastructure assets and processes STEP 3 Evaluate and document opportunities in emerging technologies Start by brainstorming a full list of emerging tech. The purpose of generating a long list is to uncover potential long-term opportunities for innovation or transformation. Often one person is aware of an emerging technology but doesn't know its full potential value or use, other participants might recognize the value but hadn't been aware of the technology. STEP 4 The identified domains will vary from one organization to the next. Much depends on current organizational structure and the scope of the IT department's responsibilities. INFO-TECH has found a wide variety of domains on organizations' infrastructure roadmaps. By default, Info-Tech recommends starting with 4 – 5 basic domains (example above) and customizing or adding only if necessary. Define target states and action plans for each infrastructure domain Desktops / Devices Servers Security (or other) Storage Networks Domain Maps are developed and reviewed in collaborative roadmapping sessions, but should be owned and managed by IT managers responsible for individual technology areas or domains. This activity can be done as a group (if the infrastructure management team is small), as break-out groups, or distributed to the managers responsible for each domain to be completed and returned to the head of IT infrastruc- ture by a certain date. X In INFO-TECH's Infrastructure Roadmap Workbook all events and timelines entered, current technology debt, emerging technology plans, and domain maps can be consolidated in one overall view. STEP 5 Consolidate and review a master infrastructure roadmap X Commitment from each manager to the future state and action plans of their respective domain is absolutely required; commitment to the overall roadmap is ideal. X Validating alignment may be a step near the end of the process, but generating alignment should be top-of-mind in every step – including preparation, execution, and ongoing revision. Every piece of information you give a stakeholder that is not directly relevant to their interests is a distraction from communicating value to them. STEP 6 Start this project today Communicate the roadmap INFO-TECH RESEAR CH GR OUP www.infotech.com 1-888-670-8889