Still struggling to unlock the IT ‘chamber of secrets’?

Photo by Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash

Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not knowing it.

Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick

Think of a critical Business Process or Customer Journey. What if you could see dependent items and related risks in the IT landscape? A common example of a Create Order process spanning five degrees of separation:

Create Order process -> Customer Website -> Order API -> ERP Application -> ERP application servers -> Operating System technologies

Now think of a Tier 1 Application or Integration (e.g. API). What if you could see dependent items and related risks?

In these two scenarios you’re looking top-down (ie., what does the item need?).

Similarly, think of an API, Server, or Technology. What if you could see items needing it? In this scenario you’re looking bottom-up (ie., what needs the item?). For example, where is Microsoft Windows Server 2016 used, what Applications need it, and what Business Processes or Customer Journeys need it?

What if you could easily and quickly see top-down or bottom-up across five degrees of separation for any item in the IT landscape?

How might having access to this chamber of secrets change productivity, communication, alignment, and outcomes in your IT organization?

Examples if you had access to this chamber of secrets to easily see top-down:

• Foresee risks to critical Business Processes or Customer Journeys. Revise priorities and budgets.
• Faster project scoping and assessment. No need to wait days or weeks for scope that might only be 80% accurate.
• Lead and Disrupt. Awareness of data as integrations as you ponder new products or services.

Examples if you had access to this chamber of secrets to easily see bottom-up:

• Speed incident response. Does that seemingly-innocuous outage impact a critical Business Process or Customer Journey?
• Awareness of impacts when needing to do an urgent patch.
• Coordinated outage management for maintenance, upgrades, or releases.
• Communication and alignment when designing and releasing a new version of an API.
• Communication and alignment when planning to retire aged or unsupported Technologies.
• See where Data is stored and how it flows. Think of this as Data Lineage or Data Genealogy.

How might having access to this chamber of secrets allow you to see around corners, and minimize preventable problems for customers and business partners?

This is why we created 8folios. Download our Overview PDF (no registration required, no tracking links) and learn more.

Take control. Contain the complexity of IT. Unlock and utilize the IT chamber of secrets.