tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836626523730428629.post7340445071723417300..comments2008-06-18T21:23:58.340ZPeter Birleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151038202878630485noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836626523730428629.post-19517683155499744662008-06-18T21:23:00.000Z2008-06-18T21:23:00.000Z2008-06-18T21:23:00.000ZPeter you're spot on abut this. IT leaders need to run their departments as businesses nowadays - not just delivering but selling and marketing. I think this is why many CIOs are building teams of BRMs (Business Relationship Managers) to in essence be their salesman.<BR/>I've just wrote about this on my own blog - take a look!Simon Stapletonwww.simonstapleton.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836626523730428629.post-74556385077425322372008-05-02T16:47:00.000Z2008-05-02T16:47:00.000Z2008-05-02T16:47:00.000ZPeter,<BR/><BR/>One of the main differences between professions like engineering or architecture and IT is that for many years they have been fully documented.<BR/><BR/>Like IT, the very complex projects they manage involve many related assets, processes and people. Yet unlike IT, the business and the professionals can easily understand each other and these days disasters are fairly rare.<BR/><BR/>Why? Because they have simple means of communicating with each other. After all, how could complex things like skyscrapers or bridges be built without blueprints or engineering diagrams?<BR/><BR/>It is this easy to understand big picture of the business and IT relationship that has been missing until now.<BR/><BR/>To create this picture, and enable business and IT to speak a common language, understanding dataflows is critical. It is the understanding, documenting, and engineering of them which is key to managing complexity.<BR/><BR/>If we have a simple picture of how each dataflow moves across and through the assets of the business the responsibilities, roles, risks and costs of every IT resource (or group of IT resources) employed in support of each business activity (and/or set of business activities) can be clearly visualised and, thus, understood.<BR/><BR/>By attaching value meta data to data flows and cost information to IT assets, we can start to assess the ratio between IT support costs and the value of the contribution of IT to the business.<BR/><BR/>Which means IT can speak to the board in the language it understands, that of money. It also means that IT will be fully documented, providing a standard for governance and a foundation for professionalism.<BR/><BR/>If you would like to read more about the above see this Wikipedia <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBASHI" REL="nofollow">page</A>:<BR/><BR/>My blog post <A HREF="http://www.keystonesandrivets.com/kar/2007/09/it-exists-for-o.html" REL="nofollow">IT exists for one reason</A> explains more about the importance of understanding how data flows through the business.<BR/><BR/>regards<BR/><BR/>PJWPaul Walliswww.stromasoftware.comnoreply@blogger.com