Deal More Effectively with Demand for IT Staff Info-Tech Research Group 1
Executive Summary What is success? A successful demand management process provides management with high level control over what gets done, and deals with competing requests fairly and transparently. Get management to lead planning. Joint Management-IT planning, driven by the business, not IT, is essential to create a long-term plan that is aligned with staff budgets. The planners should meet monthly to review and revise the plan in light of changing organizational priorities. Handle unplanned requests consistently and transparently. A defined framework for prioritizing unplanned requests helps to reduce the amount of arm-twisting and escalation that is characteristic of informal environments. Don’t allow staff to make priority decisions. Work assignments should be clearly prioritized and the number of concurrent tasks minimized. Info-Tech Research Group 2
Ineffective management of demand is a key problem, trumping even IT/Business Alignment and Project Prioritization. Of several essential businesses processes on the list of things adversely affecting organizational effectiveness, organizations are least happy with current Demand Management practices. More than 25% of organizations are unsatisfied with current Demand Management practices. Likely causes for this assessment include: Lack of consistency and visibility into prioritization processes. Minimal management direction and involvement in prioritization. Too many requests receiving approval. Inaccurate deadline estimation due to lack of historical data. Info-Tech Research Group 3 3
IT Leader, Non-Profit Education Steering Committees primarily take on project prioritization; for tasks, IT leaders are generally on their own. More than 60% of organizations leave task prioritization to the IT leader. “ I do a lot of prioritizing in my head based on risk management. When I have two different things to do in a day, part of what I look at is what is the risk to the organization of doing or not doing one of these [projects]. When the risk is really high and really expensive, it becomes a higher priority. We have a certain amount of work to do by a certain date. IT Leader, Non-Profit Education ” Info-Tech Research Group
To avoid chaos, clearly outline key guidelines for handling non-project requests. Use the “Policy for Special Request Handling” to: Establish criteria for setting priorities with business management. Concise requestor expectations guide IT and minimize escalations. Provide broad visibility to submitted requests to reduce the number of low-priority requests. Define the rules of engagement for non-project requests. Reduce ambiguous or back-door requests. “ The introduction of a disciplined prioritization process helped us reduce the number of requests by 50% in a year. CIO, Healthcare ” Info-Tech Research Group
Improved planning and tracking methods reduce the imbalance between staff availability and demand. Use the “Assessment Tool for Improving Staff Planning” to: Evaluate the current approach to staff planning to identify recommended improvements. Identify resources required for planned projects. Ensure that sufficient staff are set aside to support operations. Plan for staff availability to address unplanned, growing, and delayed tasks. Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group 6 6 6
Stay on top of projected and actual staff allocation to facilitate agility in staff and resource planning. Use the “Staff Allocation Tool and Report” to: Track staff availability and allocation to ongoing project and non-project work. Identify projected staff shortfalls in time to fix them. Outline who is available, so that new work can be allocated and commitments made. Establish simple record-keeping of staffing issues and problem resolutions. Improve future staff estimates by saving and using historical data. Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group 7 7 7
Follow an effective and consistent process to close the gap between approved demand and capacity. Info-Tech Research Group