3 Big Questions
Question 1 What tech does our organisation run?
Your journey starts with inventory - you need to know what you have got.
It is after all, part of the fundamental engine that runs your organisation. Getting a grip on IT Inventory, is only a precursor to understanding ETD, but it has value in itself, revealing where there is waste and duplication.
Seeing a full application report for the first time can be a chastening experience.
Of course, you are expecting to see the big fish items that you hear about every day. However chances are, it turns out that report put in front of you features hundreds, may be thousands of items and you have no idea why they are there.
Many are small and not important overall, but it is not lost on you, that each one is a hungry mouth that must be fed, watered and looked after - a drain on corporate resources.
If you are not sure how to go about this step, or the people that work for you say they are unsure, start with the Inventory Shopping List.
Shopping List - What to Show in an ETD Report
No need to get too fancy:
- Every application should have a unique id, description, business purpose(s), owner.
- In addition, it should have a criticality rating, provider\manufacturer, manufacturers product name, version, support status, end of life date.
- Where a product or service performs multiple tasks, list each as a separate application.
- Include other columns for Risk classifications ( region, location, cyber, business recovery etc) if these are pertinent.
- Assigning ownership is as important as the items themselves. Do not be surprised if many are left blank, so no one is responsible. For this reason the report has columns for business functions and business owners to complete.
- Do not allow blank cells or TBC type entries. If necessary default orphan ownership to senior executives. This is important - do not tolerate evasion or indifference.
- Do not allow IT to be made the default owner when there is doubt about ownership. Some IT4IT applications are likely to exist but they are exclusive to IT Operations. Everything else belongs elsewhere.
- Be able to run the report at regular intervals and on demand. Bear in mind that ETD is date driven, so what is current today may be End of Life two weeks from now, be sure that the reporting date is set correctly when generating the report.
