Pulling the Processes Together

IT consulting services company Pepperweed Consulting has released a free, downloadable version of its Process Model, its intellectual property around how to govern, manage, control, operate and secure the IT function.

It’s a detailed and in-depth guide on 21 processes, ranging from ITIL to portfolio management to asset tracking to security — and how to tie them all together — with demand and resource management expected to be added to the model this quarter and supplier management sometime following that.

“We took 21 of our processes we worked with and applied the 80/20 rule, to say this is a great generic place for any organization to start,” says Greg Downer, vice president of consulting services. “The biggest value in the model is not necessarily its depth and detail to start from, but the fact that we thought about how asset management ties to configuration management and portfolio management ties to financials, and so on, and put a model together that helps organizations avoid rework.”

Downer says Pepperweed sees a lot of companies doing change management, for example, and then they get to configuration management and they have to redo half of change management, because they have been thinking about the processes in isolation.

The process model won’t help with specific upfront assessment and strategy and managing cultural adoption around changing how the IT function operates — you’ll still need a consultant for that, and Downer says Pepperweed isn’t shy about wanting to be that choice. But he sees the model as key to organizations as they aim to really drive IT transformation.

“So much time is spent on process flows and specifications and people get in a room and argue for days about what change management status codes should be. We’ve been there,” he says. “We’ve used our IP to drive people there, so with this people can focus on the real risks associated with their [transformation] projects.”

What are the business drivers pointing companies to these transformation initiatives around IT management and investment focus to begin with?

“Business and IT alignment — we see the IT function is maturing rapidly because the business is demanding that it does,” says Downer. “That is driven by the rate of business process automation. With that comes more complexity in IT, and more scrutiny in terms of audit. The main driver pushing the overall maturity of the IT function is the audit boom. That is very real and the auditors return to make sure you are making progress and have key controls. People often forget that IT is the youngest business function ... it has been new, innovative, and fun, and now it is time to make it more process-focused.”