Process 2: Align Responsibilities

Figure 4 illustrates the activities involved in aligning responsibilities.

Figure 4. Activities for aligning responsibilities

Activities:Align Responsibilities

Review the upcoming IT demand changes to determine what responsibilities need to be added, deleted, or adjusted. This may be a change in volume that would drive reassignments, or it may be a change in what kind of work is done.

The primary activities involved in aligning responsibilities are:

• Map responsibilities.
• Look for conflicts.
• Look for gaps.

Table 12. Activities and Considerations for Aligning Responsibilities

Activities

Considerations

Map responsibilities

Key questions:

• Who is responsible for each piece of work that needs to be done?
• Who owns each accountability?

Inputs:

• Organization chart
• List of responsibilities
• MOF accountabilities list

Outputs:

• Mapping of responsibilities to current IT organization

Best practice:

• Color-code responsibilities by accountability area and add to an organization chart. This makes it easy to see conflicts and gaps.
• Often just asking the question of who owns a responsibility uncovers conflicts and gaps.

Look for conflicts

Key questions:

• Where are there similar or overlapping responsibilities owned by different organization units?
• Where is there confusion over who owns responsibilities?

Inputs:

• Mapping of responsibilities to current IT organization

Outputs:

• List of potential conflicts to be investigated

Best practice:

• Avoid giving a single organization unit ownership of multiple accountabilities; it could cause a conflict.
• Avoid giving multiple organization units ownership of the same accountability; it could cause a conflict.

Look for gaps

Key questions:

• Which responsibilities are not owned?
• Are there any accountabilities not owned?

Inputs:

• Mapping of responsibilities to current IT organization

Outputs:

• List of potential gaps to be investigated

Best practices:

• Make sure the question of ownership can be answered quickly, or a gap may be created.

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