Shadow IT or Federated Innovation Center?
Shadow IT — sounds devious & deceptive. Lurking behind the scenes trying to remain undetected. A projection that scurries away or changes shapes when you shine a light on it. A descriptor meant to demean the entity or raise concerns when working with it.
Fundamentally, it would be a distraction for a business department to take on roles and responsibilities of IT. For example, why would a Marketing take responsibility for managing availability and quality of systems for themselves instead of focusing on their primary objectives in marketing effectiveness?
With the scope of business friendly analytical tools expanding to backend data management capabilities, business users have become more data savvy. Users are more inquisitive than ever and these tools are enabling them to dig deeper for answers to their more sophisticated questions using data. They’ve realized how empowering it is to have access and control of data.
Of course, this isn’t new to IT — empowering business with data is the purpose of their existence. However, over time, another purpose has surfaced: to prevent the power of information from falling into the wrong hands. IT understands the challenges and dangers of using data irresponsibly. IT is the grown up who has learned valuable lessons that building a new data solution isn’t easy and failing hurts. There needs to be boundaries and controls when it comes to data solutions.
The question is, do these hard lessons and strict boundaries hinder innovation? Imagine an aspirational elementary student who tells their grown up parents that they want to build an unmanned aircraft for their school science project. The parents may think it’s way too complex and it’s not realistic to complete by the project’s due date, (sub)consciously projecting their doubt and discouragement based on lessons learned from their experiences. This may look like poor parenting.
The business users are also relatively new to the world of data solutions. They don’t carry any baggage of lessons learned from using technologies of past decades. They’re aspirational and are equipped with better technologies to build their unmanned aircraft. Sure, their fresh perspectives can result in failure and require their nurturing IT partners to help them realize what went wrong and how to refine their approach. However, if one succeeds in a way that is wildly effective, it can help define a new approach to data solutions. This may look like innovation.
The concerns about Shadow IT are justified. Misuse & mismanagement of data, duplication of analytical efforts, increased technical debt, and so on. Perhaps the most damaging concern is when Shadow IT groups treat data as a political asset within an organization. I.e. converting data “customers” from IT to make a case for increasing headcount, budget, etc.
So how does IT protect themselves from Shadow IT? First, IT needs to accept that they cannot prevent them from forming. Upon acceptance, it can start shifting its perspective and treating it as an enabler. Give it a more positive, welcoming name, such as a Federated Innovation Centers or FICs. (I’ve tested this term with a few clients and they love it.) Encourage creativity and fresh approaches without imposing the baggage from failed attempts using legacy tools. Assist and support when FICs fall, dust them off and help them learn from their mistakes. Learn from their successes.
Accepting and welcoming the existence of FICs (good parenting) is the first step to having a constructive partnership between IT and business departments. FICs are born because they can move at a quicker pace with more flexibility than IT. However, IT also has a desire to innovate and assist in addressing the needs of the business. There is an alignment on this common objective.
Here are some guidelines that can help business and IT achieve their aligned objectives:
FICs:
· Prototype rapidly on well-thought out business cases
· Create MVP solutions
· Keep IT informed on their successes as well as failures
IT:
· Make available (do not impose) support & guidance on infrastructure / architecture
· Socialize successful MVPs to measure potential value to other departments
· Automate/scale successful MVPs
It’s simple. Assume everyone is aligned to the same goals of the company. Assume everyone wants to help each other and work with each other. Assume improved communications and transparency will only help you work with each other more effectively.
