When thinking of IT Service Management, it is common to immediately think of Service Desk, Incident, Problem, Change, Service Level Management and other common practices from the ITSM stable.
In fact, a few of us may have heard people state that ITSM has nothing to do with Architecture.
Very often, little attention is given to some of the other crucial practices that help CIO’s converge, the traditional, IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) aspects of ITSM, with Business Strategy.
Whilst there is no doubt to the criticality of I&O, many CIO’s who have come from an I&O background will chose to double-down on their chosen field(s) of expertise, whilst missing some of the management practices that link directly with Business Strategy and Objectives such as Portfolio, Organisational Change, Supplier, Relationship, Risk and the focus of this blog, Architecture Management.
It could be argued that all the practices within the ITIL4® framework link to Business Strategy, and that is true, especially when viewed through the lens of the ITIL4® Service Value System.
But there are practices, like Architecture Management that provide an almost, direct link to organisational strategy and objectives.
If we look at the ITIL4® key message about Architecture Management we read: “The purpose of the architecture management practice is to explain the different elements that form an organisation. This practice explains how the elements interrelate to enable the organisation to effectively achieve it’s current and future objectives, It provides the principles, standards and tools that enable an organisation to manage complex change in a structured and agile way.”
The ITIL4® guidance goes on to to describe the various layers of Architecture Management:
Business architecture Product and services architecture
Information systems architecture
Technology architecture
Environmental architecture
When CIO’s do focus on Architecture Management, it is common that the attention is set upon the middle layers of product, services, information systems and technology.
The CIO who has scaled the career structures through I&O could have an unintentional bias towards the middle layers, and yet the opportunities for strategic convergence lie within the management of business architecture.
So the question is, who is focused on the outer layers, such as Business Architecture?
Again, if we turn to ITIL4®, we see that Business Architecture is described as a formalised description of how an organisation uses its resources for realising its strategy and objectives.
Given this intent, how many I&O leaders have taken it upon themselves to seek a connection between the management of business architecture and the management of other ITSM practices?
We would wager that the answer is not many. Yet, there is gold to be found within that connection.
If you'd like to discuss this topic further with a member of our experienced team, please contact us at hello@itsmpeople.co.uk
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