Week 18 - Functional vs IT driven modernization

And so it begins, the eternal organizational battle between business and IT for the control of the modernization program. Business argues that they should be in the lead as they are the ones who are closer to the organization’s customers and they really know what needs to get done, IT counter argues that business might be aware of what the customers want but certainly have no idea on how to create product/offerings which can accomplish it. The discussion gets so intense that both sides break away and start working in silos, management is very concerned, and they start exploring which side should get control of the program.

Some people immediately side with business, with the understanding that they are responsible for meeting the revenue goals and they are the ones who are funding the business case. Some others counter argue that there is no reason for business to drive as none of the business process are changing and having business drive will only lead to the cost of the program invariably skyrocketing.

I would venture to guess that at some point in time, we all have been in a similar situation; either as part of the two bands lobbying for control of a program, or in the position of having to decide which camp will lead and which one will follow. The reality is that once the situation escalates into this kind of conflict, no matter what decision is made, it is extremely difficult to bring the program back into control. Most solutions will not be able to fully address both side’s concerns and there will always people who feel their inputs were not taken into consideration.

To avoid this argument, management could have decided one way or the other upfront, without asking for the team’s inputs and before any potentially discussions could take place. However, most organizations today don’t operate in a vacuum, the decisions are typically made as a group and reflect the diversity of a company’s work force, including all parties involved.?

The best way to win against the business vs IT beast is to deny it battle, and not by necessarily taking sides, but by implementing what we call a techno-functional approach to modernization. As it names implies, techno-functional considers both elements of business and IT when making modernization decisions.?

A techno-functional approach starts with the definition of value chain use cases, value chain use cases define what is the intended outcome of a technology platform in the context of a specific set of business processes for a specific set of users. In my experience, this approach moves IT and business from an adversarial position to a position where they need to collaborate to be successful, business needs to understand the purpose of every interaction throughout the value chain and how it creates value to the user, while IT needs to understand how to best support that interaction with the right technology tools and platforms.

Having an integrated, collaboration driven approach will further enable the organization to reach its program ROI even faster by refocusing all the energy into addressing the program challenges.?