The IT department

The support of information systems in organisation requires the development of an IT organisation, a department which supports the procurement, delivery and continued service of a range of enterprise systems and other systems in the organisation. How this is to be structured is a matter of debate. It can be a centralised department which serves all the needs of the organisation and where IT is centrally procured. It can be decentralised, where each function or section of the organisation has its own IT unit. An alternative approach is federal where some key functions of IT are operated central and some locally. IT may be organised around its customers or around the technology. Often the temptation is to take a too technical view.

Additionally an IT department needs standards and processes. Standards may include service standards such as ISO20000, governance standards such as ISO 38000 and specific specialist standards such as the ISO270001 security standards. Processes will cover approaches to development such as agile methods like Scrum and service processes such as the ITIL best practice processes. These need to be implemented over time; structure, skills and processes need to build up and the IT department needs to be a learning organisation, relating to the organisation it serves and aligned to its business.

Tasks

Question 1. Explore some examples of IT organisation. What are typical structures for IT? Is there a best structure? Provide a couple of case studies of IT organisation and critically appraise them. Identify the key management roles which will be required in the IT organisation, including the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Question 2. Expand on the differences between centralised, decentralised and federal IT structures. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Find out about how the structure of the IT department might be aligned with the structure of the organisation.

Question 3. Define a standard. Why is it important for an IT department to adopt standards? What are the most common standards used in IT? Differentiate between best practice and standards. What is shadow IT?