How to Beat Infrastructure Instability. Align Your People, Processes and Technology in 11 Steps
Are you struggling with infrastructure and stability? Growing IT complexity, a widening skills gap and limited budgets are real challenges. I know how it feels. The stress, the worry and the escalation calls can keep you up at night – and then hit you again the next day.
To regain your balance, first take a deep breath. Then consider these 11 ways to help you better align the people, processes and technology around your IT infrastructure:
1. Reduce complexity. In a recent survey of 800 CIOs, more than three out of four say increased IT complexity could make it impossible to manage digital performance. If you’re unable to handle your current level of complexity, make sure you’re building from a solid foundation.
2. Delegate. Assign members of your team to key activities. It sounds simple, but many entry-level IT professionals worry that they can only follow the SOP. If you hire smart people, give them room to maneuver. Creative problem solving will make you and your team more effective.
3. Simplify and streamline. With too much on your agenda, you could end up spending a large part of your day simply switching from one complex task to another. If you’re a manager and leader, try to reduce the number of low impact projects and the impact of switching costs.
4. Prioritize. Focus your resources to solve the problems that give you the most ROI. First, score projects on key criteria. Then pick the top ones and map them against your resources. If you lack capacity and can’t hire personnel, don’t be afraid to put something on backlog.
5. Trust. Lack of trust shows up as micromanaging and turns into delay. But trusting those you hire to solve complex problems can be like putting wind in their sails. If you doubt and second-guess your team, you’re slowing things down. Build trust and see your capabilities expand.
6. Tolerate imperfection. Don't let perfection obstruct progress. Not every bug needs to be fixed before a release – or fixed with great elegance. Don't do sloppy work, but waiting for perfection will cause delays and frustration every time. Hold back on engineering for an A++ and settle for the A.
7. Share knowledge. Make sure that your team has a way to share knowledge. What a shame to work on solving a problem only to lose out because the solution wasn't documented and shared. Documenting upfront takes extra time, but saves in the long run.
8. Have that tough talk. Putting off difficult conversations is like carrying around baggage that grows heavier each day. If you know something isn't going to work, outline what you have done and your concerns. Overcome your fear, talk things over, adjust and move forward.
9. Ask for help. There comes a time when you need to ask your management or trade favors with other teams for help with a problem. Try asking vendors, too. They will charge you, but sometimes contracting with an external expert is more effective than bartering internally.
10. Anticipate. Think through solutions and have a plan of action in place before a crisis occurs. This is key, because frameworks, training, knowledge, great technology – they can all fail. If you haven’t prepared, accidents and failure are more likely to cascade into catastrophe.
11. Automate. With today’s tools, there is no excuse for not automating a significant amount of your work. Many companies (including the one I work for, NTT) have sophisticated platforms that allow companies to automate their operations. You’ll be amazed at the ROI on time and money saved.
Note: This list is not necessarily sequential. Pick one, take action and see if that leads to another. Then, once you have stabilized your infrastructure and stood up again, you will gain something really valuable: perspective and time to think. That combination will help you become more strategic and reach whatever your next goal may be.
For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, see the longer article I wrote for Network World titled, “11 Ways to Stabilize Your Infrastructure.”