6. Do be afraid of unstable systems

Are your IT systems down again? 🙄

It pains me to tell you this; your problems are much worse. 😨

Let's get to the root cause. No, not the technical root cause. The organizational root cause.

Unstable systems are not the sickness; it is the symptoms.

Two of the main types of work in an IT department are business work and internal IT work.

Business work

Features that directly positively affect the business.

Business work is the reason we have an IT department.

Internal IT work

Investments in developer productivity, security, governance, cost management, coordination between departments, and systems stability.

The organizational root cause

IT neglects internal IT work and only focuses on business work. This neglect is often attributed to a skill gap by the developers. And, yes, that is sometimes the case.

However, in most businesses, it is not the IT department that chooses what the IT department works on; it is often business managers. And business managers will always prioritize tangible business work over long-term intangible IT work.

Whatever the root cause, the ramifications are severe.

Ramifications

• Unstable IT systems are a strong predictor of a slow IT department.
• A slow IT department is a strong predictor of inadequate cost management.
• Inadequate cost management is a strong predictor of insufficient coordination between departments.
• Insufficient coordination between departments is a strong predictor of unstable IT systems.

Unstable IT systems are just symptoms of a much deeper sickness.