Review the article below, and address the following questions in your paper:
1 Discuss how your organization may evaluate or approach IT operations as a process.
2 Identify and discuss 2-3 challenges your organization may be experiencing due to current IT processes.
3 Research and discuss 2 different Business Process Management systems in the market today which may be of benefit
to your organization in addressing the challenges identified in question 2.
4 Conclude with recommendations for your organization based on your research.
ARTICLE
The Importance of IT Process Management
Because of continuing cuts, many IT organizations are now staffed at maintenance levels.
They can no longer throttle their contribution to the balance sheet by eliminating
consultants or reducing head count. However, corporate management continues to put
pressure on IT to provide additional value. In an effort to meet this and other requirements
many IT organizations are seeking new management strategies.
One area that has caught the attention of many IT organizations is the development and
execution of an IT process management improvement strategy. Although, to date, only a
small percentage of IT organizations have actually executed a formal IT process
improvement initiative, those that have succeeded in this area are receiving noticeable and
real dividends. By increasing the effectiveness of their internal IT processes, many of
these organizations have improved their adaptability to changing business requirements
and have developed IT performance measurements that reflect the alignment of
technology with business needs. Other benefits have included improved customer
relationships, additional staff bandwidth, and lower overall cost of ownership.
Because of the value this has shown, a growing number of IT organizations are exploring
how to develop and execute an IT process improvement program. However, for a variety
of reasons many have simply not been able to address this issue. Some of the most often
cited factors include not having the time, resources, or the skilled personnel to commit to
developing a comprehensive IT process management program. And, of course, the budget
tightening that has continued over the past few years has forced many IT organizations to
focus on other initiatives. IT budgets are increasing, but the history of a high degree of IT
failures and seemingly unchecked spending of the late 1990s has had its affect.
So, where does that leave the IT organization that would like to develop and execute an IT
process improvement program? The answer is gain a deeper understanding of the value
of an IT process improvement program, and to then build the business case that illustrates
the value to the business. With the affects on IT of current federal regulation, IT audits and
other business drivers IT management can easily make the case that this truly is an
essential initiative that must be undertaken. Given these recent factors alone it should be
easy for many IT executives to present the business case for an IT process improvement
initiative that clearly illustrates how this will enhance the growth and prosperity of the
business.
Over Measured and Under Processed
In today’s fast moving and global IT organization, processes are often severely masked by
software and systems tools. The extensive use of automated tools to manage the IT
environment has created organizations that over-measure the performance of tools rather
than the process the tools support. We say, therefore, that IT organizations are “over
measured and under-processed.†The reason this statement exists is that many
technologists have come to the false conclusion that “the tool is the process.†IT
organizations and technologists that fall into this category can be recognized by the
number of tools they have but only partially use or, in some cases, don’t use at all. Or, IT
organizations that purchase tools for internal processes such as change management,
project management, help desk support, etc., without ever developing the process
methodology for these IT disciplines. Therefore, buying tools based on the products
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generic requirements and process methodology, or even worse re-engineer their internal
processes and activities to fit to specifications of the tool. Talk about the tail wagging the
dog!
This is often because the underlying IT disciplines, their processes, activities, and
associated values, are not understood. However, the real problem lies even deeper than
this. It has been our experience that most IT managers have a solid understanding of the
technology tools that are used to oversee the environment and deliver the required
products and services to its constituency. When asked about the underlying processes of
IT disciplines most of these managers will evade any meaningful dialogue about the
process or measurement of these processes or the sequence of the activities required by
IT staff members or the time required to complete process activities in order to comply with
defined or expected service levels required to deliver a specific IT product or service.
To state this in another way, most IT organizations do a very good job of measuring and/or
tracking certain aspects of the IT environment, such as database transactions, network
uptime, trouble tickets, change requests, and so on. What is missing is the capability to
provide the end-to-end measurement and reporting of the IT organization’s
transformational processes that govern these and other important process activities.
Understanding IT Business Processes
Traditionally, unlike other business units, IT organizations have not employed the depth of
engineering principles required to effectively measure and benchmark their internal
processes that support “business†processes. In contrast, other business units such as
accounting or manufacturing spend a significant amount of time and effort measuring the
effectiveness and the business value of their processes.
What IT management often misunderstands is that numerous processes are required to
effectively manage the typical technology organization. These include processes to
manage customer-facing functions, internal department support, finance, procurement,
and asset management, just to name a few of the more obvious ones. The issue is not
whether IT has “business†processes, the concern is how they manage and measure the
effectiveness and value to the business of these processes.
Recently, CEI and Kedar co-hosted a web seminar that was attended by over 75
technology leaders on the topic of the importance that IT Process Architecture plays in
developing an adaptive and agile IT organization. During the seminar, an interactive, online poll of the audience was taken regarding the effectiveness IT process management.
The seminar participants were asked the following question: “How effective is your IT
process management strategy?†The results of that poll are shown in Figure 1.
Title of Your Paper
Your Name
University Affiliation Course Name Instructor Name
Date
Title of Your Paper
The initial paragraph is assumed in APA to include the introduction to your paper, and therefore does not require the heading of “Introductionâ€. Use the paper title as the initial paper heading, centered, in bold, with major words capitalized. This is known as Title Case. The heading and content should start at the top of the page with no extra spacing. The entire paper should be double-spaced with no extra spacing between headings or paragraphs. The first line of every paragraph should be indented 5 spaces, or .5†by default. This includes paragraphs following numbered lists and images. This opening paragraph should “introduce†the reader to the content covered in your paper. In many ways, the introduction serves as a mini-outline for the rest of the paper. So, as you continue to write the remaining sections, make sure to only include the information related to what you have “introduced†in your introduction paragraph. To sum it up, this section should tell the audience what you are going to talk about in the main body of your paper.
Opening Topic Heading-Level 1
Use a level 1 APA heading appropriate for the content to introduce this section, centered and in bold. The “body†of your paper should expand on the concepts covered in your introduction. It is appropriate to have main and subtopics in this section. The main and subtopics should be identified by using the appropriate Level Heading. This section should talk about what you told the audience you were going to address in your opening paragraph. Use additional APA heading levels following an outline format for each new concept section in your paper. Level 1 is centered and in bold. Level 2 is left-aligned and in bold, level 3 left-aligned, in bold and italics, etc. Each heading should be appropriate for the content contained in the paragraphs under the heading. Do not label the headings with numbers or Roman Numerals (eg., 1, 2, 3 or I, II, III).
Writing Mechanics
Professional and academic writing should be done in a clear and concise manner. Ideas should be presented in an orderly and logical fashion using a tone that conveys ther essential points of your work in an engaging and interesting manner for your readers. The mechanics of your writing should also follow a consistent pattern and not detract from your work. The mechanics of your writing are often just as important as the content of your work itself.
Insert one space after all punctuation, whether in the sentence, citation, or reference, except when using abbreviations (e.g., i.e., U.S.) or ratios (1:3). Be cautious in your use of the colon and semi-colon. Do not use a space before the comma or period in a sentence. Ensure that you both begin and end quoted content with quotation marks. When you quote a source directly, place the closing period outside the final quotation mark, after the citation.
Citing Your Sources
When using information from outside sources in your writing, you must cite those sources appropriately. There are two forms of in-text citations used within APA: Narrative and Paranthetical. In a narrative citation, the author appears within the sentence itself, and the publication date appears immediately following the author’s name(s) in parentheses. For example, Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle (2010) wrote a paper discussing educational research methods. In a parenthetical citation, both the author(s) and year appear within parentheses. As an example, when paraphrasing, you can follow the end of the information with a citation then follow with a period to end the sentence. The citation must include the author(s) and year, like this (Lodico, Spaulding, & Voegtle, 2010). In-text citations must match the references provided at the end of the paper. Only provide the author’s initials in the full references at the end of the paper, not within the citations. Refer to section 10 of the APA manual for examples of citing many different sources including websites, webpages, social media, visual works, audio works, webinars, TED talks, YouTube videos, etc.
Directly quoted content is stating verbatim information from another work or from your own previous published or submitted work. “When quoting directly, always provide the author, year and page number of the quotation in the in-text citation in either parenthetical or narrative format†(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 270). An example would be, “This is a hypothetical quote†(Scaduto, Lindsay, & Chiaburu, 2008, p. 27). Another example would be, Black (2020) stated that “this is another example of a quote citation†(p. 23). When quoting from a source that does not contain page numbers (e.g., a website, YouTube video, or some ebooks), provide readers with another way to locate the quoted content in the citation. Some acceptable methods include providing the heading or section name, a paragraph number by counting the paragraphs manually, or a heading or section name in conjunction with a paragraph number. For example, “This information represents a quote from a website†(Black, 2019, para. 3). You may also provide the paragraph number within that section as appropriate, such as (Black, 2019, Example section, para. 3).
There may be times when a website needs to be cited, but no named author can be located on the page. In these instances, the you can infer the author such as the organization or government agency itself. An example is the American Psychological Association reference given in this sample paper (American Psychological Association, 2020). When identifying the date of publication for a webpage, only use the copyright date shown on the page if it specifically applies to the date the content itself was published. Use the “last updated†date shown on the page if it applies to the content you are citing. “If no separate date of publication is indicated for the work on the webpage, treat the work as having no date†(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 291). As an example, an organization’s website with no author clearly identified and no date given for the quoted or paraphrased information cited would appear as (Organization Name, n.d.).
Conclusion
This section should cover the highlights of the previous content. The conclusion should “briefly†remind your reader/audience about what is included in the previous sections. Refrain from introducing new topics or ideas in this section, unless you want to revisit and rework/rewrite previous sections to include them. To sum it up, this section is going to remind your audience of what you just told them in the main text of your paper while making a final point. Once you have completed this section, you need to complete the References page. An outline of the Reference page is below.
References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
Lodico, M.G., Spaulding, D.T., & Voegtle, K.H. (2010). Methods in educational research: From theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Scaduto, A., Lindsay, D., Chiaburu, D.S. (2008). Leader influences on training effectiveness: motivation and outcome expectation processes. International Journal of Training and Development, 12(3), 158-170.
All references should contain the following four components: Author, Date, Title, Source. The source includes the publisher information and/or the DOI or URL. All references given must have matching citations in the body of your writing to show when they are used and give credit to the sources. List all references alphabetically by author’s last name. The reference page needs to be double-spaced and the second and any subsequent lines of the same reference should be indented using a “hanging†indent. All references should be in the same font as the rest of the paper. The content of this page should begin at the top of the page with no extra spacing.
Additional APA resources are below:
Official APA website
Purdue Online Writing Lab APA
Son of Citation Machine APA
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