In a series of White Papers, based on our extensive experience in this area, we cover challenges of Information Systems in project-driven organisations: from the overall architecture to systems implementation, development and ongoing management. In this fourth and last White Paper 2018-06 ‘Why an Information System Management Function is Required That Is Different from an IT department’ we cover the specific issues related to the ongoing maintenance and management of the evolution of Information Systems. A specific function, Information Systems Management, is required, that is different from the usual Information Technology department. This White Paper explains why and what should be the remit of the Information Systems department and of Information Systems Engineers.
We often observe that organisations have IT departments that are very focused on the technical operation of the Information Technology infrastructure, and business users. The IT personnel often lacks awareness of business needs and knowledge of the specific business software running on the infrastructure, while business users are fully ignorant of the implementation aspects of the software they are using daily.
Most organisations are missing an intermediate link which we call Information Systems Management: while the IT department looks at the hardware, the Information Systems Managers look at the software. They build the bridge between the business needs of the business users and how to implement solutions in the organisation’s IT framework.
We encourage organizations to identify and formalise the role of Information Systems Managers; and to have them organised separately from the IT department. This should be a small group of personnel that drive the systems transformation of the organization. In these times when digital transformation is a motto for most organisations, this need becomes even more urgent.
Find more about the role and profile of this Information Systems structure in our new White Paper 2018-06 ‘Why an Information System Management Function is Required That Is Different from an IT department’.
If you can’t access the link to the white paper, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.projectvaluedelivery.com/_library/2018-06_Information_Systems_Mgt_v0b.pdf
