If you have worked in the IT industry for a while you might have seen this cycle a few times. Here I detail the typical path, so you can recognize it and play your cards right.
Step 01 — Shadow IT — Up Cycle
Here the business is fed up with central IT and decide to bring IT within department boundaries.
Lots of money is spent, things get done, and everyone in the business thinks shadow IT is the best invention ever.
Step 02 — Shadow IT — Down Cycle
There are two main issues that cause the downfall of shadow IT:
- Management Inability. Certain aspects of IT requires people with IT experience to manage it properly. But in shadow IT, management will be hired to fit marketing, finance, HR etc; not IT.
- Yes-culture. When keeping your job depends on pleasing one stakeholder, maybe two, you bet everyone is going to say yes to every idea from the stakeholder. Even when they should have said no.
This two issues contribute to a stinky mess to pile up sky-high over time. Shadow IT dies a death by a thousand cuts.
Step 03 — Central IT — Up Cycle
Here the business begs central IT to rescue shadow IT.
Lots of money is spent, and things bit by bit are brought up to a reasonable state.
Step 04 — Central IT — Down Cycle
Now that things are working reasonably, the business side starts to get stingy. If it is not under their control, they don't see why they should spend their money. Budgets are cut back, every IT proposal is too expensive."Just cut corners, why all the fuzz?"
Technical debt piles up, until it can't be repaid. Nothing gets done.
Congratulations! Go to Step 01. It starts all over again.
