The Service Organization Part 1
This focus on task segmentation was essential at one point of history due to limitations of knowledge, skills, communication tools and a lack of collaboration technologies. Simply put the only way for large groups of individuals to collaborate in complex processes such as building a car was to give them each only one thing to do and let them focus on doing that one thing to the mental exclusion of all else. Eg: Your job is to put break pedals on the cars as they move past, you will do this as efficiently and as quickly as possible. This is what you are paid to do, nothing else, anything you do outside this task is someone else's job.
In an IT context this translates to management silos that are created around like technologies and platforms such as servers, databases or applications. You see the culture of task segmentation clearly when the individuals in these entrenched silos such as network administrators or application developers believe fervently that they are doing the Service Desk a favor if they fix something.
The inherent problem with task segmentation is that by the very act of breaking down the complex processes into individual tasks or activities the overall picture is lost to the knowledge and understanding of those who work within in it. For example an IT Service such as Email is never found within a single technology domain but is comprised of applications, servers, databases, etc.. To not understand how it is built and delivered is to loose critical management information.
We have lost sight of the forest by focusing on the trees!
To extend the car analogy just a bit further consider that the average IT shop hires and focuses on highly specialized mechanics versus general mechanics. We have recruited and hired the best wheel mechanics in the market. No one can remove tires faster or more efficiently than our technicians. We have developed entire certification models and career paths on just this one activity. We base their performance evaluations entirely on how well they perform this specific activity and we get what we measure. However, these same star individuals would think nothing of whipping the tire off the car when it's on the highway versus parked safely in the driveway. In their minds if they see any indication that the tire needs replacing they do it immediately without consideration of the car as a whole let alone the driver.
Oh they know there is a car but it is this conceptual thing that they don't understand well. They certainly don't understand the full implication of the wheel (server, switch, application) to the car. They probably are aware of the axel but little else. It would never occur to them to ask the driver whether now was a good time to change the tire since they have never met him or her. In short we have specialized by task segmentation to the point of having lost site of the purpose of the task. What IT needs are general mechanics that understand the entire workings and relationship of the major systems to support the goal of driver transportation.
“Effective managers have long known that you manage by processes…what's new is the enabling technology…the less developed information systems that supported command-and-control structures couldn't do that. In fact, those structures — which can probably be traced back to the church and to the military as far back as Caesar — persisted precisely because for many years they were the only way to manage large complex organizations”.
P. Allaire Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Director of Xerox
This will be the first of several posts dealing with the subject of IT organizational design in support of service management.
Troy's thoughts what are yours?
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