Tech Republic.com is a great resource for all subjects IT and technical trends. But there’s a lot there too that touches business management best practices. We found an interesting post in their IT Leadership blog that explains the value of IT SOPS for CIOs and IT management.
“The best run organizations are those which have mastered the mundane.”
He talks about why in IT SOPs are essential as well as the benefits. But what got my attention was this:
“It never ceases to amaze [me] how organizations can take a desire to implement best practices and SOPs and completely miss the boat on what they are doing and why they are doing it. The SOPs ARE NOT the end product, nor are they designed to be so rigid as to make conducting business painful.”
He goes on to say:
“I have witnessed the logistical operations of UPS and Fed Ex, and I can tell you that these organizations have truly mastered the mundane. Their cargo-handling capability is literally a science and they have achieved mastery not just by creating SOPs and sticking to them, but by constantly re-examining their processes to make them more efficient, effective, and consistent.”
Mr. Ramon echoes our thoughts but does it from an IT perspective, in particular when implementing a strategic management process and quality improvement methodology such as ITIL and COBIT :
“Looking strictly at IT, it is important to remember that your organization is unique and that plopping in a best practice without considering the individual quirks of your environment is usually a bad idea.”
Ramon goes on to say that “Mastering the mundane” is accomplished by writing policies and procedures that “insure a quality output on a consistent basis.” You gain flexibility and agility by “constantly examining your procedures to insure that your operations are purring like a kitten.”
Good advice, no matter what department you’re living in.