Forrester has introduced two major innovations this year for technology leaders and practitioners: High Performance IT, and the IT Reference Capability Map. Now, I am pleased to announce we have brought them together in a unique assessment tool, Forrester’s High-Performance IT Capability Assessment.
Forrester’s High Performance IT & IT Capability Reference Map Are Linked
As a recap, High Performance IT proposes four distinct styles: Enabling, Amplifying, Co-creating, and Transforming.
This is not a maturity model. Organizations may move through any of these styles, in various combinations, in response to the particular circumstances they find themselves in.
Turning to the Forrester IT Capability Reference Map: (click below for close-up)
This is a structured framework for assessing the modern digital/IT organization , similar to other representations in the industry, but with certain key updates.
So how do they interact?
In general, High Performance IT styles will find themselves either enabled or constrained by IT capabilities and the IT portfolio. High performance implies a responsive, resilient IT organization, and this is achieved through investing in the IT capabilities, which in turn curate and channel the direct investments in the IT portfolio. (Throw out the IT capabilities and you have ungoverned, shadow IT, which has been shown time and again to result in sprawl, outages, and breaches.)
The IT capabilities can be aligned to styles. While a capability such as security is required in all styles, it is still reasonable to ask:
- For a given style, would I need to enhance a given capability? (Capability adapts to the needs of the style.)
- Or, would I alter my expectations based on the limitations of the current capability? (Style adapts to the capability current state.)
Forrester analysts thought through this problem and derived a preliminary view: (click below for close-up)
For example, we see that the co-creating style requires the “Application & product delivery” capabilities to step up. That makes sense, because co-creating is the style where you cultivate the ability to sense and respond by creating novel digital solutions. Conversely, we probably want the co-creating style to accept existing security protocols and only seek to change them in exception circumstances. So “Security management” does NOT contain a C. We see that security is particularly challenged when organizations transform (T), and as an ongoing pattern of required investment to enable and sustain existing investments (E).
Introducing Our High Performance IT Capability Assessment
This got pretty complicated, so we quantified weights for all of these cross references, built an algorithm over many iterations, and created probably the most advanced tool I have ever published. The High Performance IT Capability Assessment allows you to rank your perceptions of your capabilities’ maturity, and then look at the implications across the board and then by IT style. A capability you rank low overall might not be a problem or constraint for you in Enabling, but rises to the top when you find you are in a Co-creating mode. (click below for close-up)
For example, in the above we can see the user is interested in co-creating (perhaps a result of their taking the High Performance IT Readiness Assessment) and now they see their top weaknesses for that style are Product Delivery, Engineering, and Stakeholder Relations. Every recommendation we offer, as above, has a clear rationale.
You might disagree with Forrester’s reasoning. We hope you don’t accept it as dogma. But if it sparks useful debate and analysis in your organization, leading to insights you might not otherwise have had, then we have added some value.
I think this is one of the most nuanced capability assessment tools I’ve ever seen (speaking with great humility as the lead author). It’s non-linear, and stringently avoids the one-size-fits-all “maturity” anti-pattern of too many other such tools. I hope you enjoy it!
Much credit to Fred Giron, Bobby Cameron, Ted Schadler, Carlos Casanova, David Mooter, and many others for helping out!
