The Various Causes of Dysfunctional IT

 IT failures are often fatal, and the health of IT management directly impacts business success in the long run.

The contemporary organizations have different functions, structures, layers, and systems with Information Technology as the linchpin. The digital paradigm shift has come to a change in organizational forms away from the overly rigid hierarchies managed through command and control to more fluid and responsive network forms.

However, many managers still apply old silo management mindsets and take classic management practices. There are various causes of dysfunctional IT. Information management ineffectiveness decelerates the business speed and limits the full business potential.

Disconnect: IT management is complex and multifaceted, IT expertise has to come at every level though, not just technical, but also in product management, business architecture and analysis, project/portfolio management, quality assurance, and others as appropriate. Often, the "disconnect" part is the bigger issue that causes dysfunctional IT systems, miscommunication, and slows down the speed of business change and innovation. The disconnect occurs when the wishful thinking at higher levels detaches from the reality (where the rubber hits the road) at lower levels, due to the IT strategy management misalignment or IT skill gaps, so the business and IT gaps are enlarged, and functional walls go up.

To bridge the disconnect and achieve strategic coherence, highly influential IT leaders have to understand the “three sides of the coin”: IT, business, as well as the interaction between IT and business. Take multiple successful IT management approaches where they have people who are experts in their areas and where the leadership was tightly connected with them. This ensures that the IT organization builds something that solves business problems that need solving holistically and that the solution works and is implemented within the constraints.

Incompetence: When IT systems are dysfunctional, silo thinking or bureaucracy is propagating; when value proposition fails to be translated into meaningful operational deliverables; when the work is not done right and needs to be redone, then disasters emerge. IT incompetence perhaps further causes the business mighty fall.

To dig deeper, the dysfunctional IT systems are possibly caused by complicated processes, inflexible procedures, or incompetent people. The elements of an outdated IT system are built using depreciated tools, running on out-of-favor platforms, or documentation not matching the actual system. Keep in mind, IT management is about People, Process, and Technology. The first is people. Highly competent IT leaders and professionals will drive the processes and technology and knit all crucial elements into unique competency.

Weak governance and risk management: IT investment is costly and risky, mismanagement is the reality, such as IT planning deficiencies - too much staring at spreadsheets and reports, and too little focusing on concrete deliverables, governance, risk management, and real progress tracking. There is a myriad of information, much conflicting, the major factor is lack of honesty about the realistic and reasonable plan that can be achieved without the worry of executives and others pulling the plug. In some circumstances, IT management seems to miss a relatively important measure of success or failure, the ability to be agile; or the ability to change to meet the needs of the business.

IT fails due to the lack of governance structure when dealing with complex IT management that involves a high level of change at the process, people, product, or technology level. The weak governance symptoms include, but not limited to:

-fixate too early on resource availability rather than working out what skills and personal attributes will be required.

- short change risk management; too many generic and templated risks accepted by teams

-not build up a body of knowledge about underlying attributes for success

-Some key IT management roles go under-resourced or promoted and often misunderstood,

-sometimes fixate on methods adherence and not use a wider and more pragmatic range of approaches and adaptations of methodologies

-Suppliers/ subcontractors fail to keep promises on delivery

Information Management is not just about IT, but about the business across the enterprise scope and IT is at the unique position to oversee the functionality underlying the entire organization. Thus, IT failures are often fatal, and the health of IT management directly impacts business success in the long run. Whether IT needs to work within, on or across the systems depends on how you define the system scope and the integrated components of the system. The solid IT management disciplines and strong IT GRC will improve organizational maturity and accelerate business transformation.

Posted in: IT Transformation,Lessons from Failures