Who Are They & What Do They Do?
The IT Planning and Service Delivery (ITPSD) team is the powerhouse behind two critical, interconnected functions—service delivery and strategic portfolio planning. On one side, the team drives the tools and processes that empower HBS IT to deliver seamless, high-impact services to the broader HBS community. On the other, they lead the charge in planning and governance, guiding portfolio management to ensure the organization is investing in the right mix of initiatives that align with and advance its strategic goals. Together, these functions create a strong foundation for innovation, efficiency, and long-term success.
To put it simply, the work this team does ensures that the organization’s work runs smoothly by rationalizing and prioritizing the work that IT does. They are the behind-the-scenes enablers that empower HBS IT to operate with precision and agility, and assist teams across HBS IT to make informed decisions, streamline processes, and leverage the right tools and practices for optimal efficiency. By optimizing IT’s internal operations, they create a ripple effect that enhances the entire HBS community’s experience.
Prioritization isn’t just a buzzword for the ITPSD team, it’s a way of life. Balancing competing demands is a constant challenge, as IT works hard to meet the needs of its partners while acknowledging that not everything can be done at once. That’s where this team steps in, skillfully managing requests from across the HBS community and making the tough but strategic decisions that keep work moving forward. It’s no easy task—each team has different priorities, technology evolves at lightning speed (creating gaps and technical debt), and sometimes exceptions must be made. But through thoughtful governance and a clear-eyed approach to prioritization, the ITPSD team ensures that IT resources are allocated where they matter most, driving impact while maintaining agility.
How Do They Stand Out?
ITPSD plays a crucial role in ensuring that IT services align with institutional goals, delivering value beyond the purely technical aspects of IT. Unlike technical teams that focus on systems, infrastructure, and development, ITPSD takes a strategic and service-oriented approach to IT management. This team interacts with essentially every aspect of the IT organization and greatly influences how all of IT operates and does so effectively because they have a view of all of IT’s work and how it’s done. The team is responsible for processes that collectively manage an average of 533,000 work hours annually and 100 in-flight projects at any given time. They manage resource allocation for IT, not a simple feat as there are so many competing priorities with varying levels of demand and capacity. A vast majority of time and resources are required for operational work, about 80 percent, while demand is high for project work.
This influences organizational strategy as they can provide insight into what is being done, what IT can do, and what limitations may exist. This provides IT leadership with the information necessary to shape strategy and give insight into how the organization represents itself now and in the future. Staying atop priorities today is surely important, but so is working into the future, and the ITPSD team is constantly ideating on what IT needs today in order to evolve to meet the needs of tomorrow. This builds new frameworks and aids the organization to remain competitive.
There’s much for this team to be proud of. They’ve completed multiple projects that have foundationally changed HBS IT and allowed it to mature, including the standing up of practice management, which brings consistency across all of IT’s practices. They’ve influenced movement away from IT’s disparate teams being siloed, encouraging cross-functional teams to work together, as well as IT with other organizations across HBS.
HBS IT has a strong partnership with HBS Operations that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Operations needed a quick solution in how to manage personal protective equipment (PPE). This need led to HBS Operations exploring using ServiceNow to manage its work orders and has grown into an infrastructure that literally runs the entire HBS campus, from creating data reports on daily functions down to requests for fixing broken lights and dishwashers. In the last three years, over half a million requests have been made on the platform, and it’s expected that use will only increase. This was greatly due to the partnership and trust between IT and Operations, as well as excitement to explore a new opportunity. Their work with Technology Support Services (TSS) has also proven fruitful to solve pain points within TSS, curating solutions for them effectively and intentionally. They wish to do similar work with other teams across IT.
Though the ITPSD team works under two functions, the team moves as one. On Mondays, they share with each other priorities for the week so that all are aware but will also be accountable for deliverables they owe each other. Each member of the team adds immense value to the organization and has improved how the team works. They monitor the practices they’ve put in place, ensuring that methods and roadmaps are strong and delivering what they’re meant to. Their ingenuity and dedication to HBS IT will surely prove fruitful to the growth of the organization.