Process Culture
In September, we’ll release the findings of our Change, Configuration, and Release performance study. One of the findings in that study, is that a focus on managing IT processes predicts performance variation accross top, medium, and low performers in the study, as much or more than change, config, and release practices recommended in industry frameworks.
One of the key predictors of performance variation across the top, medium and low performers in the organization – was how much of a process culture existed in their shop.
Some of the behavior that is common among top performers is that executive management indicates that following process is “how we do things here”, and that HR policy helps set the expectation that following defined process and procedures is a basic job requirement, and that not following documented procedures is an exception.
Bottom line – if your IT organization doesn’t follow a specific way of doing things, then IT controls and ITIL best practices aren’t going to “stick” and generate expected risk reduction or performance improvement.