5-Step Solution to Streamlining IT

1. Focus on the core IT functions (infrastructure, database, and application) to reach a desired level of the COBIT Maturity Model¹ or similar other standards.  Make sure that the auxiliary functions are there mainly to reduce the burden of extra responsibilities introduced in the core functions. 


2. Identify all employees in some generalized groups² according to the level and discipline of academic education.


• Consider an employee’s certification (e.g., PMP, ITIL etc.) as the icing or tool and certificate (e.g., a degree in computer science) as the cake or subject matter knowledge.


• Understand and adopt standard IT job titles (e.g., Database Administrator³) and avoid vendor or product-based titles (e.g., Basis Administrator by SAP, ArcSDE Administrator for ESRI’s ArcSDE product etc.) that hide the true IT qualifications⁴ found in standard job titles.


3. Organize IT on the basis of enterprise application design architecture⁵, cloud computing service models⁶, and/or similar other proven frameworks.


4. Engage IT functions to identify, develop, and maintain their respective IT processes and associated standards, policies, procedures, and other documentation (e.g., systems diagrams, templates, request forms etc.).


5. Encourage employees responsible for operational tasks (e.g., monitoring, reporting etc.) of the core IT functions to use the systems' native tools instead of vendors’ tools that usually cause resource constraints in the IT systems and complicate IT automation.