When starting your ITAM journey don’t attempt to “boil the ocean”.
TIP #64 - November 2020: Why is an ITAM plan so important, and what should be incorporated in it? Read more about it here.
It’s important to define your initial scope and set realistic limits. Unless you have bottomless funds for ITAM and an army of colleagues helping you, you will struggle if you try to do everything possible from day one.
So, when should you discuss the subject of ITAM Scoping? The answer is: quite early, during your first steps towards ITAM maturity, when drafting your ITAM strategic plan. Softline Solutions’ best practice defines the strategic ITAM Plan as follows:
“The ITAM Strategic Plan is a high-level timeline of the major ITAM activities necessary to accomplish the mission statement. It is just as important to what is not included or what is later. It conveys to the rest of the organisation that ITAM is not quick and easy, but a long-term commitment. ITAM is not “once and done” or a special project wrapped around tool selection.”
As you can see in this quote, this plan is at the core of your endeavours. When we look at the elements of the strategic plan, the first element that pops up is the is the Scoping plan. Other elements of the ITAM Strategic Plan are:
- ITAM Objectives for the next year;
- Statement of Applicability, expressed in terms of processes, organisation, technology and publishers;
- Justification of the ITAM Strategic Plan (e.g. business case);
- Assignment to create an ITAM Improvement Plan (e.g. project brief).
All these elements build on the Scoping plan. The sooner you have a clear view on your IT assets, the better your ITAM strategy will be, and the greater the chance of success!
In part 2, we discuss a model that will help with drafting your Scoping plan and the role IT Asset Discovery can play.