When explaining the components of IT infrastructure (e.g., hardware, application

Question

When explaining the components of IT infrastructure (e.g., hardware, applications, etc.) to a non-IT person, you might describe how they are similar to the components of a non-IT infrastructure we see and use every day as citizens of a city (for example, roads are one component of this non-IT infrastructure). Describe how you would explain the concept of IT infrastructure to a non-IT person, using this non-IT infrastructure as an analogy. Be sure to describe as many of the IT infrastructure components as you can using this analogy, and also discuss how these two infrastructures are similar in how we manage them, and what advantages we derive by managing them well.

Explanation / Answer

I have been part of developing and maintaining both an Enterprise Project Management Office (PMO) as well as an IT Enterprise Architecture service for multiple organizations throughout my career. I have found it interesting that most organizations have been quick to adopt the needs for an Enterprise PMO but have been slow to identify the need and implement an IT Enterprise Architecture group. I've struggled to understand why one has so much support relative to the other and thought I would use an example of home improvement that most people would be able to correlate to the IT corporate world to help leadership understand why EA is just as important within an organization.

Let’s say you decide to build a shed in your backyard. This is a standalone structure with minimal complexity. Having a single project manager coordinate and manage the work is probably acceptable. They could do all the work themselves; hire a single person to perform all the work or they could hire out the individual components such as the cement foundation, construction, roofing, and painting separately with minimal hiccups in the process. Aside from passing some basic specifications between the individual contractors, not much coordination at the detailed level needs to occur for the transition between work items. It may take you a little longer but the tradeoff is that you don’t have another resource costing you money which may be acceptable for a small shed that doesn’t connect to your main house.

Now let’s expand that project from a standalone shed to a more complex structure like a house. Having the project manager simply purchase the supplies, build a schedule, and hire all the resources is not sufficient. If the individual trades are not talking, nothing is going to go together properly even if the people hired are experts in their field. Let’s just say for example that the project manager hires two master plumbers, one for each bathroom in the house. One decides to use 1 inch copper piping and the other uses .5”. Both are up to code and meet the requirements of the home. At some point these bathrooms need to connect to the main water system. Since they used different size piping, you have to buy adapters, spend more time making the connections, and you can’t reuse material between tasks. You may even have bottles necks in water flow where the larger pipe connects to the smaller. The project is now behind schedule and over budget. Was this the responsibility of the Project Manager? Were they supposed to understand the details and specifications of all products being used on the job? For small jobs like the shed, this is a reasonable expectation for the Project Manager, but for a large home, managing the work, hiring the contractors, purchasing all the materials, and taking on this role may be too much to ask for anyone. Having an Architectural Engineer coordinate and manage the design and detailed aspects of the build may benefit the Project Manager not just from a knowledge perspective but to also will allow the Project Manager to focus on their key responsibilities so both resources can be more efficient.

So few IT projects now are truly standalone sheds or systems. A house probably even isn’t the right analogy for large corporation where some projects or programs have grown to small cities in terms of complexity and integration. Does that mean you can’t be successful without an Enterprise Architecture group? It’s not that black and white. You can probably still build your systems and meet your customer requirements but like the house example you will spend a lot of time adapting or interfacing your systems and lose reuse opportunities. At some point after so many tactical fixes and adapters, certain bottle necks may become incompatible pipes that can’t be retrofitted or may be too costly to justify the work. In some cases you may not even notice the issues for months or years down the road when you decide to add an addition or renovate the bathroom. On the other hand, could you build a house or a shed without a Project Manager? The answer to that question is probably no or at least not in the required timeline or budget. Even the smallest of projects that utilize more than one or two resources needs someone to oversee the work, manage the tasks, track the budget, etc. Many more projects will completely fail without a PM. This brings me back to my question of why so many organizations have been quick to adopt and implement and Enterprise PMO but slow to implement an enterprise Technical Architecture function. I believe it is because so many organizations have built sheds and small houses for so long that they don’t realize the need for Enterprise Architecture until the first time they upgrade to the large family home. All of a sudden those small bottle necks, delays, and integration points become major obstacles and loss of efficiently, delays in timeline, and overrun in costs become amplified or exponential relative to the smaller projects. At that point organizations tend to get tactical in nature rather than strategic in their response to the immediate issues, which to address properly would require turning the clocks back months or potentially years.

This is why adopting, implementing, and integrating an Enterprise Technical Architecture function into the processes and culture of an organization before you spend millions of dollars on that dream home that may not pass inspection or costs more than you can get a mortgage for is so important.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.