A US conference this week highlighted how a framework programme developed by NUI Maynooth and Intel Ireland was doing its bit to reduce the number of IT projects that end in disaster and cost millions.
The IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) came out of the Innovation Value Institute, the research body set up by the two parties, and encourages organisations to assess their IT maturity to help make better decisions about their ability to undertake complex IT projects.
Although there are about 30 IT frameworks in existence, IT-CMF has been adopted by 250 chief information officers and IT executives from more than 20 countries since it was set up three years ago.
The Boston Consulting Group was also involved and is part of a learning consortium for IT-CMF that now includes Microsoft, Axa, Chevron and BP. At the conference, BT explained how it used the framework to achieve £50 million in savings with a successful virtualisation project.
Martin Curley, a professor at Maynooth and global director of IT innovation at Intel, said the IT- CMF was different from other frameworks because of its broad business focus.
“We have tried to build an integrated body of knowledge that hasn’t existed before and present it as practical tools that can be used in the core processes that a chief information officer needs to manage,” he said.
The need for a framework like IT-CMF is more important as organisations become increasingly dependent on IT, according to Mr Curley. “It’s moving from the backroom to the boardroom. Even on a government level, the ability to exploit IT will be a do-or-die differentiator.”
The other driver for adoption is the sheer pace of change that exposes organisations to greater risk. “There is a continuously growing gap between the acceleration of technology and the rate of improvement in the practice of IT,” he said.
To implement the IT-CMF, an organisation must establish where they are in relation to five levels of IT maturity which range from ad- hoc fire-fighting in the initial phase, through to level five where organisations have the infrastructure in place to optimise critical processes.
At the mature stages, IT management is no longer about keeping the lights on, it becomes strategic and innovative.
With its roots in NUI Maynooth, there may be some reflected glory for Ireland if IT-CMF continues to gain traction. “It came out of an institution based in Ireland, so yes, it does build brand Ireland and it might help us restore some of our credibility,” said Mr Curley.
“There is also an opportunity to incubate new consultancies that work with the framework.”
Does it mean that we will never see the likes of PPARS again – the infamous HSE payroll solution that didn’t work and cost a whopping €150 million? “Even if you solve the technology you might get caught out by the business risk,” he said. “I’m afraid there will still be disasters and projects that go wrong.”
