What is an IT4IT Capability Scan?

For IT architects already familiar with the IT4IT methodology¹, its intrinsic value likely needs no introduction. However, for those who aren’t familiar with the framework - or are in a C-Suite, managerial or finance role - IT4IT often seems overwhelming. With scope and potential so vast, it can be difficult to know where to begin.  

That’s where an IT4IT Capability Scan comes in.   

What makes an IT4IT Capability Scan the right place to start your IT transformation? 

An IT4IT Capability Scan lays the groundwork for your future IT4IT framework implementation, breaking down the initial steps into practical, manageable stages. By introducing IT4IT in an accessible and manageable format, a Capability Scan provides your organisation with a tailored and actionable roadmap to kick-start its IT transformation.   

To dive into the detail of exactly what happens during a DXC Technology ServiceNow IT4IT Capability Scan, read on. Or why not explore our breakdown of the 5 key reasons your organisation should utilise an IT4IT Capability Scan to start its IT4IT transformation? 

What happens during an IT4IT Capability Scan?  

Over approximately 3 to 6 months, a specialist team from DXC Technology ServiceNow works with key stakeholders across your organisation to dive into the detail of your as-is IT scenario. Below, we explain the IT4IT Capability Scan journey in detail, from process to outputs.  

Deliverables of an IT4IT Capability Scan from left to right

The process: Addressing the 4 central IT value streams  

For any business’ IT to perform as it needs to, 4 key value streams need to be addressed:  

1. Strategy to Portfolio (your Conceptual Service) 
2. Requirement to Deploy (your Logical Service) 
3. Request to Fulfill (your Orderable Service) 
4. Detect to Correct (your Realised Service) 

These streams need to be aligned, integrated and able to easily share data and information. Only then can your IT department make informed decisions about its own portfolio, based on accurate information from the services it’s operating. Yet organisations often find that each of these value streams are obstinately running in splendid isolation. Walled into their own silos, they’re failing to deliver coherent overall value.  

These critical value streams form the central axis of our IT4IT Capability Scan, the driving aim of which is to align, integrate and facilitate flow and feedback across them.   

An IT Management Capability View

The process: Investigating defined Capabilities across 6 key Dimensions  

In our IT4IT Capability Scan, we break these 4 key value streams down into 4 - 6 Capabilities respectively (20 in total). Each Capability describes the ability of your organisation to execute a certain task or activity.  

For example, “Manage Business Relationship” is a Capability that falls under the Strategy to Portfolio (Conceptual Service) value stream, whereas the “Manage Incidents & Problems” Capability falls under the Detect to Correct (Realised Service) value stream.  

To assess how your organisation is managing with each separate Capability, we look into 6 interrelated Dimensions within each one:  

1. People 
2. Processes 
3. Tools 
4. Data 
5. Controls 
6. Integration 

These Dimensions are designed to span the full range of your organisation’s operations: for your IT estate to deliver coherent overall value, the Data emerging from it need to be both useful and compliant. Your organisation’s People are active within its Processes, and need the right skills and competencies to be able to do their job well. Besides that, your People need to understand their role within the context of the value it contributes to your organisation as a whole. People are also supported by Tools to help them generate data to the desired data quality levels. Once your Data is produced within this wider context, it then needs to be integrated between your Capabilities, as only effectively integrated Data has the potential to become useful (steering) information.  

To dive into the detail on the 6 Dimensions for each relevant Capability, our team talks with 20-30 employees of varied profiles throughout your organisation (interviewing 1-2 subject matter experts per Capability). Working from a Repository of Standardised Questions, we tailor a subset relevant to your organisation’s as-is IT scenario to use in these in-depth, collaborative interviews. These conversations enable us to build up an accurate picture across all 6 Dimensions (to recap, that’s People, Processes, Tools, Data, Controls and Integration).    

We’re right down in the detail now, so let’s take a moment to zoom out and reorientate ourselves in terms of the Capability Scan’s overall framework. When you master all 6 Dimensions (from People to Integration), across all 20 defined Capabilities, in all 4 key value streams, your organisation will be in a position to gain and maintain full control over its entire IT estate. That’s optimal IT function, translated into tangible, manageable and monitorable chunks.  

Let’s continue!  

The process: Validating our insights  

In parallel to talking with a wide range of employees, our team clues up on your organisation’s strategic documentation. This enables us to ground any recommendations we make in your organisation’s unique strategic goals, as well as adding context to our research on the ground.  

To follow up on our conversations with your employees, we present a 3-slide Findings and Epics presentation back to each interviewee for review (typically within 1 - 2 working days of our conversation). Findings are, as you’d imagine, our assessment of the situation on the ground based on what each employee has shared with us. Epics are the bite-size, accessible and actionable IT objectives we’ve derived from each of those Findings.  

The Findings and Epics presentation allows your employees to see what we’ve learned from talking with them in a readable, and concise yet comprehensive, format. Likewise, it empowers them to point out any areas in which we’ve not yet accurately understood their take on your organisation’s as-is IT scenario.  

Following the employee review, we typically take 2 - 3 weeks to digest all the data we’ve gathered. Then, we move onto delivering your Capability Scan outputs.  

The output: Defining a clear path forward with a Heat Map and Value Map 

For each Capability, we score our validated Findings against the IT4IT Reference Architecture (again, across the 6 Dimensions: People, Processes, Tools, Data, Controls and Integration).  

The IT4IT Roadmap

This provides your organisation with an instant, colour-coded overview of where your IT scenario stands. In other words, this Heat Map is the first crucial step in breaking down the IT4IT methodology into comprehensible and actionable steps forward, where you can see exactly which areas to address first.  

Next, we use your Heat Map to generate an equally clear and actionable Value Map. Here, every Epic we’ve identified to improve each of your Capability scores is represented visually, ranked according to Urgency and Importance. 

Green denotes Epics your organisation is capable of implementing in its current state (red, the opposite). The larger the colour-coded bubble, the higher the predicted value of the Epic (based on DXC' approximately 3 - 6-month knowledge of your organisation). Finally, the circles around each bubble indicate the potential cost of each Epic. If the expected value and cost of the Epic align exactly, this circle will sit neatly on the colour-coded bubble's border. If the Epic will generate value that outweighs its costs, you’ll see its colour-coded bubble expanding beyond its associated circle. Conversely, if the cost of the Epic will outweigh the value it will bring to the table, that will be represented with a line that sits outside the edge of that Epic’s colour-coded  

From this Value Map, we draw up a concise and straightforward one-pager that summarises your immediate steps forward: the high-importance, high-urgency, high-value Epics that your organisation can and should implement in its current state.  

This baseline establishes the concrete, priority Epics to be included in your 2-year IT4IT Roadmap.  

The Value Map

The output: Mapping next steps with your IT4IT Roadmap 

In the IT sphere, much can change in a couple of years. As such, we plot your IT4IT Roadmap over a 2-year timeframe, in which you’ll first work on foundational objectives that will underpin future, agile progress in your longer-term IT transformation.  

We take the priority Epics outlined in your unique Value Map and plot them onto your 2-year IT4IT Roadmap. Then, we plan in any additional Epics that need to be achieved first, in order to make those priority Epics a reality. The result is a clear, accessible IT4IT Roadmap, divided into concrete quarterly Epics (a maximum of 3 Epics per Capability across the 2-year runtime).  

The Roadmap is an impactful representation of the accessible, manageable objectives that will form the start of your IT4IT journey. In addition, we tie each Epic back to your organisation’s on-paper strategic direction, ensuring they’re aligned with its overarching goals. The Roadmap, therefore, provides direct insight into the immediate value that implementing IT4IT will drive for your organisation, as well as the IT4IT framework’s longer-term strategic value.   

As a result, your IT4IT Capability Scan Roadmap is an instrumental tool in gaining crucial decision-maker buy-in for your organisation's wider IT4IT implementation.  

Example IT4IT Roadmap

The output: Clarifying strategic alignment with a Themes Overview and Theme Map  

Alongside creating your Heat Map and Value Map, our team also draws up a Themes Overview and Theme Map to outline precisely how each Epic plotted on your IT4IT Roadmap aligns with your organisation’s pre-existing strategic goals.   

Here, the idea is to make each Epic (and the investment and/or mindset shift entailed) as consumable as possible for both decision-makers and employees within your organisation. Like the Value Map, the Theme Map’s Importance/Urgency axes and colour coding define a clear way ahead.  

With each Epic directly and tangibly tied to your organisation’s overarching internal objectives, key stakeholder buy-in will be far easier to achieve.  

So, there you have it. The IT4IT Capability Scan, outlined end to end, coherently mapping your organisation’s first steps towards IT transformation.  

The Theme Map

Is an IT4IT Capability Scan right for my organisation?  

When facing the need for a full-scale IT transformation, it’s natural for decision-makers to feel overwhelmed by the prospect. The IT4IT Capability Scan is a low-risk, low-commitment start to revolutionising your IT organisation with IT4IT.  

What’s more, it delivers a range of practical, concise outputs to support you in starting your IT4IT journey immediately following the IT4IT Capability Scan: your Heat Map, Value Map, Theme Map and, of course, your IT4IT Roadmap.   

At DXC Technology ServiceNow, we pride ourselves on going further than the standard, detached consultant’s assessment, that senior decision-makers all too often scan and shelve as too abstract to action. We translate our IT4IT Capability Scan analysis into practical, achievable and bite-size steps forward, while also supporting your organisation’s decision-makers to master the employee-centric change management that’s vital to any successful IT transformation.  

With DXC Technology ServiceNow, your IT’s in safe hands.  

Experience an IT4IT Capability Scan in action 

Want to experience a DXC Technology ServiceNow IT4IT Capability Scan in action? Request a tailored demo here! 

[1] IT4IT is a registered trademark of The Open Group