The repository evangelist

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Let’s talk about the Repository Evangelist. (Repository being CMDB, CMS, ITAM, or take your pick.)

The repository evangelist believes, PASSIONATELY, that “Knowledge is Power”. By putting as much IT management data as possible into a single system, “Miraculous Things Will Happen”. They say things like,

“We need to Run IT Like a Business!”

“The CMDB is the single source of truth!”

The trouble with the statements like that is that they are true and yet misleadingly incomplete.

Yes, it is true that “business” domains such as ERP, CRM and supply chain management require large and sophisticated systems that aggregate much diverse data. And yes, it is true that IT process is often under-automated.

But, simply putting data into a database for its own sake is misguided. It is dangerous to envy business systems just because they are large scale and seemingly sophisticated. These systems were not built to scale just for the sake of scale, nor for hoarding data like some pack rat. There’s a name for engaging in something because someone you admire does it, without understanding why they do it. It’s called Cargo Cult Thinking (Wikipedia – Cargo Cult Science).

The point of any production system is to deliver business results. If business results can be supported just as effectively with data in a well-maintained spreadsheet, then do that! Production systems are expensive to acquire, implement and run.

And, we need to be clear on what we mean by business results. “Integrate data” is not a business result. Even “better enabled IT service management processes” are not really a result.  But, “reduced mean time to recovery” (MTTR) might be meaningful, especially in environments where outages cost real money.

The evangelist has passion. They KNOW that there has to be value somewhere in all that data. But sometimes an over-zealous supporter can cause you more harm than someone opposed to your program.

In order to have credibility, you need to be open about the capability of your systems. What specific business problems are you trying to solve? Fortunately, IT repositories do have many potential value propositions.

For example, if your intent is to reduce the risk of change by communicating planned changes to appropriate stakeholders, a repository containing servers, applications and support groups all correctly related may be essential.

Similarly, if you want to reduce Mean Time to Recovery, and know you have a problem with getting the right people on a conference bridge quickly, the repository again may be essential. But you should have some evidence that you are solving a real problem!

In the final analysis, there are only a few ways to truly add value:

Grow & protect revenue

  • Cut costs
  • Reduce risk

You need to be able to draw a clear line of sight from your data repository to one of those goals. How exactly are you reducing risk? Cutting cost?

One commonly overlooked value proposition for repositories is reducing the waste of re-capturing the same data over and over again. More than one CMDB has built a business case on the fact that the same people (often, application and infrastructure managers) were being surveyed over and over again. This re-surveying might be driven by:

  • Server consolidation efforts
  • Portfolio rationalization programs
  • Compliance initiatives
  • Technology refreshes
  • And many more

Complex IT organizations with many moving parts are managed along multiple dimensions, but one thing they all have in common is a thirst for up-to-date data! And, after you’ve gone chasing after the same data over and over again, doesn’t it start to seem like a waste?

So where does this leave your repository evangelist?

Your repository evangelist has the passion and motivation to do the right thing. Help them understand that there needs to be a clear line of sight from data to business value. For example, “Up-to-date data means”:

  • That we will spend less time identifying impacts and owners, which should reduce “Mean Time to Recovery.”
  • That we reduce the risk of a multi-million-dollar licensing “true-up”
  • Up-to-date consolidated data means that these three projects can each save $50,000 in discovery and analysis costs.

Help your evangelist frame the repository value proposition in these more concrete terms, and more people may start to believe in them!