Summary: Since the advent of Henry Ford’s Model T and the creation of complex assembly lines, organizational designs have focused on breaking apart complex processes into individual tasks – the result of which manifests itself as silo or stove pipe based organizational charts where the right hand has little knowledge of what the left hand is doing. As technically focused IT shops transition into service organizations, we have to splice back together what has been artificially separated. In reality, what is occurring when an organization defines IT Services and Process, is that two new virtual horizontal organizational structures are being established on top of the traditional domain-based silos. The end result of this is the establishment of a matrix organization where individuals within now have multiple lines of accountability and are constantly faced with the requirement to prioritize their time. Without a doubt, a critical role to process implementation is the creation and empowerment of a single, accountable process owner whose management activities and scope of governance span across the great divide between organizational silos. The process owner plays the important role of champion, visionary, protector and advocate – without whom the process has absolutely no chance of survival.
