The 3 Ratios of IT Service Complexity

Where does your organisation sit on the IT complexity scale?  

It’s one of the first questions that a lot of IT consultants seek out in the discovery phase of a project because it can be pivotal in mapping the most effective path for your project and your organisation. The basis for any effective initial discovery is good information and evidence, and knowing what information and evidence is needed in order to make informed strategic decisions is a hurdle that all organisations must overcome in order to get their project off the ground. 

But, before we look at measuring the complexity of your IT services, it’s important to understand what this term ‘complexity’ actually means in terms of the IT within your organisation.  

What do we mean when we talk about complexity? 

When we talk about complexity, we are really talking about how difficult a service is to manage, change and make decisions for.  

How complex an organisations IT services are can depend on several factors. We find complexity tends to manifest itself in: 

• Having multiple technology types that require deep technical understanding from multiple subject matter experts to manage, change, maintain and make strategic decisions. 
• The scale of the organisation that IT is supporting in terms of the number of employees, business services, devices, geographical locations, or mission-critical services needed from IT by the organisation. 
• The amount of core IT and non-core IT processes that need to be fulfilled by IT. Meaning, how much help IT get from their wider organisation in managing personnel, facilities, suppliers, procurement, etc that sometimes IT has to pick up. 

A small number of any of these factors can create a highly complex environment. But, the majority of organisations that we talk to are juggling many (if not all) of these factors at the same time without the resources to cope. So how do you go about assessing the complexity of an IT service?  

Understanding where your organisation’s IT services sit on the complexity scale is an important element of any project planning phase. To work this out, we can analyse 3 ratios: 

IT Services Provided vs. Organisation Size vs. Organisation Services Delivered vs. Technology Component Volume  

By looking at the ratio of services provided by IT compared to the number of users, departments, and services offered within the organisation against the amount of technology being used, you can start to get a feel for the pressure that your IT department could be under to deliver IT services. The higher each of these values is, the more complex IT service delivery tends to be and the greater the demand on IT typically is. 

Organisation Size vs. Technology Heterogeneity vs. Technology Component Volume 

How standardised the technology stack is in the organisation compared to the scale of the organisation and the amount of technology needing to be supported can be measured by comparing the heterogeneity of equipment in the environment, such as makes and models of equipment, the numbers of different operating systems and range of applications that need to be managed by IT. The wider the variety of technologies required to be maintained, configured, and supported across a huge range of technology components, the more varied the skillsets in the IT team are needed and the more under pressure those skillsets tend to be. 

Applications Managed vs. Application Complexity vs. Technology Dependencies vs. Data Integrations 

At a central, business system level, complexity can also be measured through ratios by comparing the number of applications managed by IT, the complexity of the applications themselves (modules installed, number of business processes supported, etc) compared to the number of dependent technologies on the hosting, running and operating of that application and the number of integrations between various applications and data sources in the environment. Just measuring this can give a strong indication of the complexity of your application's estate, making it hard to change or transform. One factor that we also must consider here is how many end users there are and how many different departments use the same application. This factor can exponentially increase the complexity to change, due to the various demands and complexities required to be accommodated, unless governed and requirements managed very carefully. 

These ratios are an important step when it comes to analysing your IT service's complexity, but these ratios should not be considered in silo. It can also be beneficial to consider how these also compare to the number of services expected to be offered directly from IT, the number of third parties that need to be managed to provide services, and the number of people in the IT service also are strong indicators in the complexity of an IT service. Wider factors such as tech savviness of end users, organisation culture, and openness to change should also be factors that are considered at the point of change to ensure success. Mapping these characteristics across services and departments could give strong indicators of where change could vary in difficulty. 

By having a clear understanding of where your organisation sits on the complexity scale, you can then work on mapping out a path to reducing this complexity.  

The good news is that there is always a path to reducing complexity, it's just finding that optimum path and ensuring that output, aims, and objectives aren't dented in the process. CoPerceptuo can help you on this path to creating a less complex environment. 

CoPerceptuo is a new application that guides customers in entering, contextualising, and generating operational insight from data that customers didn’t even know they had. Their mission is to drive ICT service value and enhance outcomes for consumers - without costly IT consultancy fees. For more information visit CoPerceptuo.com or email contact@coperceptuo.com.