IT/OT cooperation models
What happens when you apply DevOps & Teams Topologies to IT/OT ?
The day OT systems got connected to IT systems, cooperation was needed. But what is cooperation? How do you describe it?
Enter Team Topologies, a way to think and talk about teams and how they interact introduced by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.
So let’s see what happens when we apply these concepts when it comes to the infamous IT/OT convergence… meet our IT/OT cooperation patterns!
(Any similarity to https://web.devopstopologies.com/ is completely non accidental, check it out too! Images based on work at devopstopologies.com and adapted by us - licensed under CC BY-SA.)
#Pattern 1: IT and OT silo’s
The starting point for most organizations: IT and OT don’t see each other as partners . That means suboptimal results: OT can’t leverage IT technologies, processes and scale. While IT delivers half baked manufacturing applications.
Forget any real innovation to happen here when it comes to digitizing manufacturing.
Score : LOW
#Pattern 2: Create a central Industry 4.0 team
Your company decided they need to jump on the Industry x.0 bandwagon (or whatever name you fancy). Why not create a new team, between IT and OT? That sounds easier than trying to change the existing ones.
The team will have some initial successes, but its continued existence creates a new barrier to cooperation. They will always have to arm wrestle with both the IT and OT organization because they need both. It will become a new silo, keeping IT and OT even more apart as it tries to defend its existence.
Score : MEDIUM→LOW
#Pattern 3: Outsourced innovation
When you want to kickstart things it pays off to bring in outside expertise. Create a requirements document, start the RFQ, select a vendor and ready… right?
While you’ll see some short term results, you are not growing your organization’s digital maturity this way. When they leave (or start increasing their prices), you will fail.
The external team will also suffer from the same problems you had, as this is not bringing IT or OT closer together. Furthermore, they will also need to seek cooperation with both IT and OT experts.
Score : LOW
#Pattern 4 : Create a 4.0 team in OT and/or IT: We don’t need them…
OT: “Why can’t we manage our own solutions? We support 24/7 business critical systems (PLC/SCADA etc). Adding a level 3 application on top shouldn’t be too hard.”
IT: “Why can’t we add new software to our portfolio? We manage ERP, Supply chain and have time tested processes implemented. How hard can it be?”
When cooperation is hard to achieve it is tempting to do it on your own. No more time to waste on getting to an agreement, let’s do something!
We score this way of working as mixed:
This is not as effective as real cooperation. You still have each silo working on their own strategy. But both sides will learn the limits of this model the hard way.
There are situations and companies where cooperation is nearly impossible. In that case it is better to make progress and learn. This should be done while working out how IT and OT will cooperate in the future.
With some luck both teams will start to know and understand each other, forming a basis for future cooperation.
Score : MEDIUM
#Pattern 5: Facilitation
A small group of people will be sent out to facilitate cooperation in the other organization (your “liaisons”. As a first step towards cooperation it makes sense to build up trust and common understanding.
It does not create a new silo and as such isn’t creating more distance over time.
However, this is no replacement for a common approach to digitalization and has problems scaling up.
Score : MEDIUM
#Pattern 6 : Temporary central project team
Based on Pattern 2, but with an expiration date. The goal of this team is to explore what collaboration means within a limited amount of time (1-2 years) and be staffed accordingly.
This pattern will work if there is a desire from both silo’s to cooperate in the future, but they’re just not certain what that looks like.
Score : MEDIUM (Short term only)
#Pattern 7: IT/OT cooperation
Opening the barriers of each domain and allowing one to influence the other. This type of cooperation can be found in organizations that have evolved in terms of digital maturity and mutual understanding. To make this work we need 3 ingredients:
OT and IT leadership who are on speaking terms and don’t feel threatened by one entering the other’s turf.
Decentralized Governance & Empowered teams: If leadership wants to control every key decision they will become the bottleneck. To resolve this you’ll need to give more responsibility to the teams than before.
A culture where the focus is on the (internal) customer, not one’s department.
Score : HIGH
#Pattern 8: IT/OT Convergence
A lot of people talk about convergence. But true convergence means that there is no difference in how you operate IT and OT.
While that sounds nice on paper it will probably only make sense in some niche cases and powerpoint slides.
If you have found such an organization let us know!
Score : SCI-FI
Don’t stop reading yet !
After publishing our patterns, we wrote two new articles on how to achieve IT/OT Cooperation in your organization. Make sure to read them too !
In summary:
We know that your reality is more complex than these small circles, but they enable conversation about what it means to ‘cooperate’. Check out our newly published IT/OT Book Library if you like to read more about Team Topologies, Way of Work and DevOps:
The IT/OT Book Library: what should I read?
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