14 signs your cloud journey may be off track
Does your team need buy-in from the IT department to get things done? Perhaps a manager responsible for a “strategic” service or someone who prioritises access to IT services? These individuals are Gate Keepers who often hinder organisations trying to realise the full value of cloud investments. Let’s explore why this is a problem and what you can do to fix it.
The Gate Keeper
Gate Keepers are a legacy of traditional IT project delivery processes. As we discussed Sign #5: Your business is not willing to fund your cloud service whenever a business requests a service not offered by IT, a new project is spun up to deliver it. From time to time, IT managers will see this as an opportunity to introduce technology that becomes “strategic” for the company. Familiar examples include the “data lake”, which places all company data in one spot; the “identity solution”, whereby customers can use one login for all company services: or the “message broker”, which allows data to be transmitted over a secure channel and single platform.
Of course, each of these examples have merit. The issue is not the solution; it is how the solution is delivered to the rest of the business. If the solution is delivered through traditional IT delivery models, there’s a strong risk that the IT manager will build an empire around the technology, becoming the “technology owner”. For some technology owners, responsibility for a “strategic” piece of technology provides some form of job security as they hold the keys to a service used by everyone in the business.
This isn’t necessarily a problem, especially if the rest of the business can access the service on fair and equitable terms. Unfortunately, as discussed in the previous article Sign #7: Your IT-project pipeline is progressing slowly, if the business needs to engage experts to use the service, then the different business initiatives must be sequenced and prioritised.
This opens the door for disputes, as teams vie for priority. As with any large organisation, teams will make use of personal relationships, past agreements, and promises of future help to get ahead of the queue. This type of environment offers strong incentive for technology owners to weigh in on the priorities, becoming, in effect, Gate Keepers.
Working in these conditions reduces agility, leading to delays and cost increases. As detailed in, Sign #7: Your IT-project pipeline is progressing slowly, the solution is to introduce a cloud-user journey, so your IT Product teams can access the service in parallel, retiring the queue altogether.
Rethinking Roles and Responsibilities
The cloud-user journey is a core component of a well-functioning Cloud Operating Model. Gate Keepers are an impediment to the introduction of your cloud user journey, to your Cloud Operating Model, and to ultimately improving your organisation’s agility.
However, there is a solution – transforming the Gate Keeper from technology owner to Product Manager, converting their “strategic” solution into a cloud service.
Why would Gate Keepers make this move? Change can be difficult, especially if those asked to change see no benefit in doing so. Furthermore, the Gate Keeper’s team of experts may see the shift towards self-serve, on-demand service as a threat to their jobs. After all, other teams have no choice but to use them to get things done, so what will they do if Product IT teams can self-serve? We’ll discuss this challenge in a future article.
Organisational change like this is easier said than done. It requires the implementation of a proper change management program. The program must be able to explain:
Why the business needs to change. In this case, the improved agility that comes with implementing a Cloud Operating Model.
How individuals can take advantage of the change by. For example, taking on more responsibility, better remuneration, or improved marketable skills.
The consequences if change does not occur. For example, loss of market share, reduced profits, or job losses.
The Gate Keeper is an example of old IT department roles that no longer fit in an organisation moving to a Cloud Operating Model.
At DigiRen, we have years of experience building cloud solutions, specialising in Cloud Operating Models that enable businesses to reap greater value from their cloud investment.
Introducing a change management program that brings the whole of your organisation on the journey is critical to successfully implementing a Cloud Operating Model. If you would like our help or want to learn more, please contact us at solutions@digiren.com.au and follow us on LinkedIn.