IT Management Processes

This article has described a model of business processes that specifies, in a concise manner, a complete set of processes for performing IT management in a medium or large size organization.

The definition of these processes is based on the enterprise architecture of the organization. It includes a comprehensive set of technical, managerial, and administrative processes that would be potentially feasible to implement in an organization of the size aforementioned; particularly, within the context of Venezuelan and Latin American public organizations and/or private. 

The main contribution of this work is the description of a model of business processes for an IT department based on the EA. The model may be applied in three different ways:

1. As a framework or reference model for the design and standardization of the IT processes and services of an organization.

2. As an evaluation model to be used as a comparison pattern for evaluating and reengineering the existing IT management processes of an organization.

3. To support the organizational design or restructuring of the unit responsible for the IT Management in an organization.

A relevant feature of our model is that it describes the direct relationship between the IT processes and the business, information systems and technology architectures of an EA. We believe that this way of identifying, defining and organizing the processes of the IT organizational unit leads to a fully accomplishment of the business goals. Besides, the proposed process model in itself constitutes a means to implement effective organizational alignment strategies business/IT required by any organization. 

Moreover, our process model integrates the different categories of technical, managerial, and administrative processes, which are common to any organizational unit, in contrast to the different proposals for the IT management mentioned in section 2. The main difference between our model and the one proposed by IBM is the definition of the central element on which the models make emphasis. The IBM model emphasizes on the delivery of computer services and its management; whereas, our model emphasizes on the management of the EA, as the central point to determine levels of alignment between IT and business.

The model is actually used as a framework for process re-engineering and organizational redesign of the IT departments of two Venezuelan government organizations. In both cases, the implementation of the resulting IT management processes and the associated organizational structures has faced problems related with the resistance to change. Many employees, who are accustomed to execute processes in one way, react or resist to perform their tasks in a different way. It may be seeing as a natural reaction, since changes normally produce anxiety and uncertainty. In order to reduce these problems, we have recommended the implementation of a plan for managing resistance to change based on several strategies, such as conducting appropriate training, communicating the change, and empowering employees to contribute with the changes. The verification and validation of the model applicability, in the two aforementioned cases of study, will therefore take some time and remains as future work. Based on the results of model validation, it would be possible to define refinements on some of the sub-processes and their activities, as an adaptation in response to the organization needs and contexts of use.