Optimize IT Decision-Making
Fix inappropriate IT decision rights in your organization.
- Decisions around IT should be made by those most directly impacted, some by IT management and some by the organization’s management.
- IT leaders often find themselves in situations where organizational management abdicates their responsibilities in decision-making to IT, and IT pays the price in lost project opportunities and wasted spending. Conversely, when the business makes unilateral technology decisions without involving IT, IT has problems delivering on expense management, integration, and support responsibilities.
- There are specific actions that IT leaders must take to realign IT decision rights when they are chronically misplaced.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- A key objective for IT management should be to establish effective decision rights for IT versus the business. Misplaced rights can create problems for IT that create unnecessary work for it, and can result in failure to deliver adequate IT services.
- The business’s lack of involvement in areas like project prioritization and planning is no longer acceptable. IT leaders must learn new tactics to engage business decision-makers and determine decision-making accountability; otherwise, IT risks having to explain results that fail to meet key organizational objectives or having to answer for wasted expenses.
- IT should be the primary decision-maker for technical standards, vendor selection, and IT budget preparation and expense management. When business units or senior management make such decisions without at least IT recommendation, IT is still accountable for providing service, despite not being part of the decision process. If IT is being bypassed, IT management must seek to understand where it is failing to develop organizational confidence in its capabilities or value.
- Project prioritization, project planning, and IT process and policies are often championed from within IT but should actually be established by business decision-makers. When IT makes decisions that are later evaluated as unsatisfactory by the business, IT is held accountable for failing to achieve organizational objectives or failing to allocate resources to the right initiatives. IT must increase the level of business engagement so that decisions made are those of the business stakeholders and not IT.
Impact and Result
- Reduce the incidence of technology decisions made by the business without IT (or in conflict with choices made by IT) that create support and integration challenges for IT. These include direct business unit purchases of IT consulting and cloud services as well as software and end-user devices.
- Put business management in charge of those IT decisions that significantly impact the business, like priority-setting. Focus IT spending on those activities and projects that the business chooses, not what IT considers most important. Avoid wasting money and efforts on initiatives that don’t address key business needs.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Talk to an Analyst
Our analyst calls are focused on helping our members use the research we produce, and our experts will guide you to successful project completion.
Book an Analyst Call on This Topic
You can start as early as tomorrow morning. Our analysts will explain the process during your first call.
Get Advice From a Subject Matter Expert
Each call will focus on explaining the material and helping you to plan your project, interpret and analyze the results of each project step, and set the direction for your next project step.
Unlock Sample ResearchContributors
- Compton Petroleum Corp.
- Corvelle Consulting
- Empowered Networks Inc.
- Mineta San Jose International Airport
- North American Construction Group
- Pite Duncan, LLP
- Siemens Government Services
- Wales & West Housing Association
Manage Stakeholder Relations
Fund Innovation with a Minimum Viable Business Case
Master the Art of Stakeholder Management in Small Enterprise Environments