Читать книгу IT Architecture from A to Z: Theoretical basis. First Edition - Vadim Aldzhanov - Страница 18

When forming an IT Strategy, one can determine the strategy on “Technological Architecture” and “Information Systems (Services) Architecture” of some IT infrastructure components, as well as recommendations on choosing solution. To understand the problems of the business and translate them into the IT language, you can use the method of “problem tree – solutions”. As can be seen from the diagram, business formulates its problems in the language of business. The task of the CIO is to translate the business language into a technical language, for the further development of IT projects and setting tasks for the IT department staff In order for business and IT to understand the need to demand from each other, it is necessary to define criteria for achieving goals and objectives, as well as metrics for their measurement.

“Problem – Solution Tree”

Financial control strategy

A financing strategy may foresee an organization’s behavior in IT financing. In particular, it is desirable to have a financial strategy on issues such as:

• cost of the solution as a priority when choosing an IT project solution, even if it affects the functionality. Solution capabilities must meet business requirements with minimal cost;

• focusing on the use of free software;

• balancing by cost or functionality.

For example, the cost of leasing circuits for different branches of the same bank may differ depending on the distance or geographic location. Let us say that the cost of a 10 Mbps channel (which is a standard and sufficient IT requirement) for a regional branch costs 500 USD. The city branch can get the speed of the channel up to 100 Mbps for the same cost. This branch has a current standard speed of 10 Mbps for about 100 USD a month. The average cost of a communication channel for all branches is about 250 USD. The leadership should have a certain strategy regarding this issue, i.e. provide branches with an opportunity to increase speed within the average cost, maximum cost, or leveling all up to the established channel speed (10 Mbps).

Outsourcing in the implementation and maintenance of Information Systems and projects should be used whenever possible. The capabilities and potential of the IT department staff should be increased.

Administrative strategy

The strategy of changes may foresee the organization’s behavior when changing in requirements, etc. As an example, let’s consider the situation when the number of employees remains unchanged, while the speed of Internet access has dropped significantly due to intensive use. As a solution, the bandwidth can be increased, that will affect the costs accordingly. This issue will periodically occur until it reaches the critical point. Another solution is “repressive” method, i.e. having analyzed the network traffic, the IT department determines that the misuse of the Internet has increased. Some administrative controls may lead to improvement of Internet speed without increasing the costs.