IT Modernization - Revision history

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 == What is IT Modernization? ==
 '''IT Modernization''' or [[Information Technology (IT)]] Modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing, or consolidating legacy IT Capability to align it more closely with current business needs. All aspects of an organization's IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Organization are assessed, evaluated, remodeled, and modified as needed. The goal of an IT Modernization Project is to:
-* Align IT Capability with Business Needs
+* Align [[IT Capability]] with Business Needs
 * Reduce the cost of IT Operations
 * Introduce new technologies into the organization

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 == What is IT Modernization? ==
-'''IT Modernization''' or Information Technology Modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing, or consolidating legacy IT Capability to align it more closely with current business needs. All aspects of an organization's IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Organization are assessed, evaluated, remodeled, and modified as needed. The goal of an IT Modernization Project is to:
+'''IT Modernization''' or [[Information Technology (IT)]] Modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing, or consolidating legacy IT Capability to align it more closely with current business needs. All aspects of an organization's IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Organization are assessed, evaluated, remodeled, and modified as needed. The goal of an IT Modernization Project is to:
 * Align IT Capability with Business Needs
 * Reduce the cost of IT Operations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == What is IT Modernization? ==
-'''IT Modernization''' or Information Technology Modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing, or consolidation of legacy IT Capability to align it more closely with current business needs. All aspects of an organization's IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Organization are assessed, evaluated, remodeled, and modified as needed. The goal of an IT Modernization Project is to:
+'''IT Modernization''' or Information Technology Modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing, or consolidating legacy IT Capability to align it more closely with current business needs. All aspects of an organization's IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Organization are assessed, evaluated, remodeled, and modified as needed. The goal of an IT Modernization Project is to:
 * Align IT Capability with Business Needs
 * Reduce the cost of IT Operations
@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 * Refresh IT skills
-While the IT modernization definition varies across businesses, industries, and personas, it ultimately is the leveraging of technology to meet changing and expanding business goals. It means the alignment of IT and business to compete in the current day digital economy. It means digitalization and improvement in the customer experience to elevate service levels and create market differentiation.
+While the IT modernization definition varies across businesses, industries, and personas, it ultimately is leveraging technology to meet changing and expanding business goals. It means the alignment of IT and business to compete in the current digital economy. It means digitalization and improvement in the customer experience to elevate service levels and create market differentiation.

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−	The conventional IT environment typically includes some legacy business agility – and even some components for innovation. The modernized IT environment is the destination for the company seeking to implement a digital transformation. Its technologies, tools, and approaches not only add value to the business but also empower innovation to meet the many demands of stakeholders and to help the company thrive in an increasingly competitive and resource-challenged environment. IT modernization is a holistic process that touches on every aspect of the IT environment. But that can be an enormous and intimidating prospect, therefore breaking it down into three manageable components that every company should consider: application, infrastructure, and workplace modernization.	+	The conventional IT environment typically includes some legacy business agility – and even some components for innovation. The modernized IT environment is the destination for the company seeking to implement a [[Digital Transformation (DX)\|digital transformation]]. Its technologies, tools, and approaches not only add value to the business but also empower innovation to meet the many demands of stakeholders and to help the company thrive in an increasingly competitive and resource-challenged environment. IT modernization is a holistic process that touches on every aspect of the IT environment. But that can be an enormous and intimidating prospect, therefore breaking it down into three manageable components that every company should consider: application, infrastructure, and workplace modernization.

	*Application Modernization: For your applications to perform faster, scale higher, and operate with greater flexibility than before, you should consider modernizing them with a cloud-first, mobile-first approach. You want agile, micro-engineered, liquid applications that are quickly assembled, delivered as-a-service, highly reliable, and easy to maintain and update. It’s likely that business applications in the legacy environment were fit for purpose when adopted but their value drops as business requirements move to the digital age. companies tend to move their applications onto updated on-premises systems or lift-and-shift them to the cloud using infrastructure-as-a-service – both of which constitute more conventional IT options. This helps to the extent that the new platform is more scalable and less risky. But it’s also like moving the same old car into a fancier garage – nothing essential has changed, so the gains are modest. Platform-as-a-service can in some cases cut application delivery time-to-market in half and generate a five-year ROI of around 466%, giving IT teams even more ability to innovate, experiment, and create differentiated value and competitive advantage. DevOps and agile are two practices that contribute to these gains. Gartner says they are proving as disruptive to IT as lean was to manufacturing in the 1980s.		*Application Modernization: For your applications to perform faster, scale higher, and operate with greater flexibility than before, you should consider modernizing them with a cloud-first, mobile-first approach. You want agile, micro-engineered, liquid applications that are quickly assembled, delivered as-a-service, highly reliable, and easy to maintain and update. It’s likely that business applications in the legacy environment were fit for purpose when adopted but their value drops as business requirements move to the digital age. companies tend to move their applications onto updated on-premises systems or lift-and-shift them to the cloud using infrastructure-as-a-service – both of which constitute more conventional IT options. This helps to the extent that the new platform is more scalable and less risky. But it’s also like moving the same old car into a fancier garage – nothing essential has changed, so the gains are modest. Platform-as-a-service can in some cases cut application delivery time-to-market in half and generate a five-year ROI of around 466%, giving IT teams even more ability to innovate, experiment, and create differentiated value and competitive advantage. DevOps and agile are two practices that contribute to these gains. Gartner says they are proving as disruptive to IT as lean was to manufacturing in the 1980s.

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 ==See Also==
 *[[Application Modernization]]
 *[[IT Cost Optimization]]
 *[[Business IT Alignment]]
 *[[IT Transformation]]
 *[[IT Strategy (Information Technology Strategy)|IT Strategy]]
 *[[IT Governance]]

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
-===IT Modernization Process==
+==IT Modernization Process==
 IT modernization begins with assessing where your organization is in terms of legacy systems and innovation. That process helps you identify needs and outline a roadmap for what you want your IT modernization project to achieve.
 *Assessment & Roadmap: This phase incorporates analysis of current and future business processes and capabilities to assess the extent to which the IT portfolio meets those needs. Based on this analysis, create a roadmap of application dispositions. You may decide to decommission, retire, remediate, re-platform, consolidate or enhance applications. Such actions can help optimize the portfolio to align with the organization's constraints, dependencies, priorities, and budget profile. Developing a modernization roadmap is critical, as it presents a comprehensive view of the organization's technology strategies in the right sequence. Ideally, your roadmap should include multiple dimensions, including the application modernization technical approach, governance and lifecycle management functions, and methods for closing any technology gaps. It should highlight enterprise-level information requirements, cross-enterprise and business partners’ integration needs, and enterprise-level security and operational support measures. Ultimately, the assessment and roadmap will provide both a timeline for the expected modernization to occur and the estimated costs. This is especially important for helping to make sure that cost and time estimates are based on a genuine assessment of the existing architecture rather than just guessing. By assessing the current infrastructure and drawing out a roadmap for an IT modernization project, one is more likely to have a realistic estimate of the scope of work and a more successful project overall. Steps to Implement in this phase include:

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	Compared with incrementalism, the end-to-end path toward a modern IT landscape can be riskier, and potentially more expensive. In most cases, however, avoiding duplicate work leads to lower costs. It may pave the way for the seamless adoption of microservices, two-speed IT, and other emerging approaches for managing and enhancing IT architecture. And, ultimately, end-to-end modernization may ensure that companies have the right [[IT Capability\|IT capabilities]] for decades rather than just the next few years.		Compared with incrementalism, the end-to-end path toward a modern IT landscape can be riskier, and potentially more expensive. In most cases, however, avoiding duplicate work leads to lower costs. It may pave the way for the seamless adoption of microservices, two-speed IT, and other emerging approaches for managing and enhancing IT architecture. And, ultimately, end-to-end modernization may ensure that companies have the right [[IT Capability\|IT capabilities]] for decades rather than just the next few years.
		+
		+
		+	===IT Modernization Process==
		+	IT modernization begins with assessing where your organization is in terms of legacy systems and innovation. That process helps you identify needs and outline a roadmap for what you want your IT modernization project to achieve.
		+	*Assessment & Roadmap: This phase incorporates analysis of current and future business processes and capabilities to assess the extent to which the IT portfolio meets those needs. Based on this analysis, create a roadmap of application dispositions. You may decide to decommission, retire, remediate, re-platform, consolidate or enhance applications. Such actions can help optimize the portfolio to align with the organization's constraints, dependencies, priorities, and budget profile. Developing a modernization roadmap is critical, as it presents a comprehensive view of the organization's technology strategies in the right sequence. Ideally, your roadmap should include multiple dimensions, including the application modernization technical approach, governance and lifecycle management functions, and methods for closing any technology gaps. It should highlight enterprise-level information requirements, cross-enterprise and business partners’ integration needs, and enterprise-level security and operational support measures. Ultimately, the assessment and roadmap will provide both a timeline for the expected modernization to occur and the estimated costs. This is especially important for helping to make sure that cost and time estimates are based on a genuine assessment of the existing architecture rather than just guessing. By assessing the current infrastructure and drawing out a roadmap for an IT modernization project, one is more likely to have a realistic estimate of the scope of work and a more successful project overall. Steps to Implement in this phase include:
		+	**Conduct an assessment: Analyze the organization's current state of IT. Understand your IT inventory (i.e., apps and legacy systems) from the top leadership in your agency to the bottom.
		+	**Understand the project scope and complexity: Consider to what extent you want to modernize your IT systems. You may want a hybrid approach where you still maintain some legacy systems rather than a massive overhaul to entirely new systems. Finalize what you want the future state of your IT architecture to look like.
		+	**Analyze alternatives: Conduct a risk analysis of each of your project alternatives. Once you identify a project with the lowest risk and highest
		+	payoff, select your preferred alternative (outcome) for your modernization project.
		+	**Outline a roadmap: Consider the lifecycle costs and time constraints for your preferred alternative and plan accordingly. Break the path to
		+	your preferred option into manageable chunks or waves.
		+	*Modernization Readiness: The second phase of IT modernization includes preparations to establish the technology architecture and project management goals. In this stage, leadership focuses on how to plan, communicate, organize and staff the modernization project. At the beginning of this stage, organizations need to identify if they are working with a pre-existing framework or not. If your company does not have a common architecture stack, you should define it here. Organizations that do have an existing architecture framework should be evaluated for capabilities required for the modernized system. Once a framework is in place, you can make your high-level roadmap (from phase 1) and extend it to include the detailed steps needed to track and deliver the project at a more micro level. These steps include developing a staffing and communication plan. After a modernization team is established, you can start developing mechanisms to drive alignment and proper decision-making for all stakeholders involved in the modernization effort. Many IT programs fail because of poorly defined and inadequately managed requirements throughout the program lifecycle. So, getting key stakeholders to agree on desired outcomes and the approaches to meet those outcomes at the beginning of the initiative is crucial. Steps to Implement in this phase include:
		+	**Plan the project: Have a strategy for how the project manager, project leadership, key stakeholders, and executive board are going to communicate. Define expectations early to avoid miscommunication on requirements later in the project.
		+	**Communicate throughout the project: Know who your key stakeholders are and involve them. Constant communication is key to understanding alignment and decision-making at every step of the effort.
		+	**Organize and staff the project: A strong project manager and governance team leading the modernization effort is the single most important ingredient to success. Create a strong modernization management team by thoughtfully filling each of the leadership roles to make the subsequent modernization steps smoother.
		+	*Modernization Execution: Now that you’ve detailed the necessary steps to track and deliver your organization’s modernization project, it’s time for the execution stage. During the execution phase, organizations are primarily focused on designing, building, and configuring the new IT environment and applications, all while keeping cybersecurity top of mind. You’ll want to ensure any configuration efforts align with government standards and policies that minimize risk and reduce your organization’s overall attack surface or the paths and methods that hackers can use to exploit vulnerabilities. Integrating security is critical for the modernization program. The overall strategy for modernization execution will vary based on the agency and can include different approaches for installing hardware and software. Steps to Implement in this phase would include:
		+	**Define your strategy for modernization execution: Each strategy has unique business cases, business drivers, strengths, and weaknesses, so evaluate carefully.
		+	**Align the strategy with the organization's SDLC process: Doing so will help to ensure your system meets agency standards for development and maintenance.
		+	**Make cybersecurity a priority: Review the architecture of applications early on in the process to identify and address potential security vulnerabilities.
		+	**Execute a solid testing strategy: Use test cases for your systems that define the steps and preconditions needed to determine if that system functions correctly before it’s placed in an operational environment.

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 ==See Also==
-[[Application Modernization]]<br />
+*[[Application Modernization]]
-[[Application Modernization Services]]<br />
+*[[Application Modernization Services]]
-[[IT Cost Optimization]]<br />
+*[[IT Cost Optimization]]
-[[Business IT Alignment]]<br />
+*[[Business IT Alignment]]
-[[IT Transformation]]<br />
+*[[IT Transformation]]
-[[IT Strategic Plan (Information Technology Strategic Plan)]]<br />
+*[[IT Strategic Plan (Information Technology Strategic Plan)|IT Strategic Plan]]
-[[IT Strategic Planning]]<br />
+*[[IT Strategic Planning]]
-[[IT Strategy (Information Technology Strategy)]]<br />
+*[[IT Strategy (Information Technology Strategy)|IT Strategy]]
-[[IT Governance]]<br />
+*[[IT Governance]]
-[[Enterprise Architecture Life Cycle (EALC)]]<br />
+*[[Enterprise Architecture Life Cycle (EALC)]]
-[[Enterprise Architecture]]<br />
+*[[Enterprise Architecture]]
-[[IT Operating Model]]<br />
+*[[IT Operating Model]]
-[[IT Operations (Information Technology Operations)]]<br />
+*[[IT Operations (Information Technology Operations)|IT Operations]]
+*[[IT Governance]]
 == References ==
 <references/>