Improving IT performance
IT performance encompasses the three key factors of IT: economy, efficiency and effectiveness, as illustrated on the left.

Optimising these three factors will increase the value for money and performance of IT in an organization. The effectiveness of IT is principally represented by the fitness-for-business-purpose of delivery processes and skills and ultimately the fitness-for-business-purpose of the applications/technology delivered (i.e. how well IT satisfies business needs). It is primarily concerned with the value IT adds to the business and with quality. The efficiency of IT is principally concerned with the use and productivity of IT resources (i.e. more product for the same cost/effort or the same quantity of product for less cost/effort). The economy of IT is principally concerned with cost.

These three factors tend to pull in opposite directions and they can be very challenging for an organisation to balance or optimise. To focus solely on economy or cost reduction, will tend to have an adverse affect on the quality and level of service (i.e. effectiveness). Focus on efficiency will tend to have an adverse affect on service costs (i.e. economy) and focus on effectiveness or quality improvement will tend to have an adverse affect on IT staff productivity (i.e. efficiency).

Ideally organisations should strive for an optimal balance of the three factors. In practice, clients at different times will tend to approach the issue of IT performance improvement with different priorities. For some, demonstrably high productivity (efficiency) will be key at a given time; for others, particularly those focused on ISO accreditation, demonstrably high quality products and services will be key (effectiveness); for others, cost reduction will be key (economy). This conflict is similar to that faced by project mangers trying to achieve a balance between delivering projects on schedule, to quality needs and to budget. In some cases delivering to schedule will be the overriding concern; in other cases delivering a quality product will be key; for other projects, staying within budget may be key.

These reasons have therefore led us to design ITM© to help us work with organisations to deliver IT performance.

A review of IT performance typically involves industry sector, functional and IT specialists working as a team covering a wide range of business activities and often operating to demanding timescales. In this environment, tight control over the quality of deliverables is absolutely essential. ITM© is intended to help ensure that quality deliverables are produced by providing the framework to conduct assignments.  It offers a straightforward and structured methodology to guide our consulting teams through each aspect of a consultancy assignment.