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blog-img 13 Dec

IT Diagnosis: A Fundamental Sub-Pillar for Businesses

Digital transformation has changed the role of the IT sector within companies, making the area have different demands and directly influencing many companies' results. If before it fulfilled a merely operational role, the sector has become strategic for the core business. In this scenario, elaborating a good IT diagnosis allows a deeper look at the degree of maturity that information technology presents within the organization.

With this diagnosis in hand, it is easier to implement good IT governance, in addition to facilitating the evaluation of internal practices and the development of continuous improvement actions, focusing on the requirements of the market in which the company operates.

In this post, we will understand what IT diagnosis is and how it works, the maturity levels the sector can reach, and the relationship with agile methodologies. Check out!

What is the Diagnosis of IT?

We can define the IT diagnosis as a complete assessment of the IT area or even the use of a certain technology within the company. In this, we can include the infrastructure, devices, and processes adopted.

The objective of an IT diagnosis is to make an adequate targeting of technological choices and implementations according to the demands and budget of the business. The diagnosis also makes it possible to optimize the operation of suitable solutions and data security. In short, we can say that IT diagnostics deliver real visibility into the maturity of a company's IT infrastructure.

As information technology is not always part of the core business, the company's managers always evaluate the need for investment in IT when the sector does not deliver its maximum. In this scenario, IT diagnosis becomes essential for investment assessments and avoiding future losses

What are the IT Maturity Levels?

We already know that the main objective of IT diagnosis is to assess the maturity level of a company's infrastructure. But for insights to be drawn from this diagnosis, it is necessary to know these levels. This is what we will do in this topic, presenting the 4 levels of IT maturity. Check out!

Level 1

Level 1, called Artisanal IT, occurs when the company does not even have a structured IT area within the company. The artisan's name comes from the processes being executed without any standard or definition based on feeling.

The result is that these IT sectors do not always deliver effective results, as they are not prepared to prioritize demands, making the process misaligned with the real needs of the business.

Level 2

Maturity level 2, called Efficient IT, already has more standardized and defined processes; that is, there is already the possibility of combining information technology with business. Here, we already have the basis for the IT sector to present itself as a pillar for implementing digital transformation in the company, allying itself with the business areas, strengthening ties, and developing a partnership.

Level 3

Called Effective IT, Maturity Level 3 shows that the IT sector is already ready to identify what is best for the business, analyze it in a macro way, and do what is necessary to achieve the objectives. Here, IT already positions itself as a service provider for the company and not just an operational sector.

The main characteristic at this moment is the ability that the sector gains to know precisely when to prioritize certain services and projects based on solid performance indicators, which measure the results delivered. It is at this stage that a governance model for IT is established.

Level 4

The most advanced level of maturity, known as Strategic IT, is where the industry has reached its peak. We can say that strategic IT is the one in which technology is used so that the business gains a market differential, becoming more competitive with IT solutions. This stage is only reached when the sector's management favors proactivity within the company, actively participating in strategic planning.

You must be thinking: but if agile methodologies are widely used in software development processes, how do they contribute to IT diagnosis? Contrary to many people, agile culture can be adapted to other environments.

What happens is that many managers focus only on internal optimizations, building rigid infrastructure projects, and missing the opportunity to make them more agile. To implement agile in these projects, it is necessary to understand how this association is made.

Iterative and Incremental Delivery

Agile methods are one arm of a family of "iterative and incremental delivery" approaches. In this model, the project is divided into parts made available according to their priority, allowing the expansion and improvement of processes over time.

This work is delivered continuously, providing the IT team with a sequence of feedback. As with software projects, infrastructure projects can also be delivered in parts that must be delivered in phases.

Even if, in many cases, the infrastructure must be in operation for a certain solution to be activated, in others, it is possible to build it in parts so that there is better risk management of the project, reducing complexity and gaining agility.

Creation of New Infrastructure Environments

In many companies, when there is a need to create new infrastructure environments, this work is passed on to the operations team with the insertion of all environments in a single request — development, quality assurance, production, and failover.

It is common for these operations teams to prefer to receive this complete request in a single delivery, as this provides them with greater efficiency in processing equipment orders and preparing the cloud computing environment in a single time.

However, just because a process is good for the operations team does not mean it will be good for the business in general. So, adherence to agile methodologies can deliver more benefits to the project as a whole, with the construction of environments in continuous improvement phases.

As we have seen, a good IT diagnosis prepares the company to evolve its IT infrastructure until it reaches a level of strategic maturity. The sector becomes incorporated into the business as a partner for growth. With an agile culture, this infrastructure development can be done incrementally and continuously, allowing for eventual changes in direction.

So, how is the maturity of your company's IT infrastructure? Tell us in the comments!