IT departments dealing with 'unrealistic expectations' in project assignments

Just half of IT departments managed to complete all of the projects that they were assigned during last year, a new report by MuleSoft claims.

Based on a survey of 951 IT decision makers, MuleSoft’s Connectivity Benchmark Report 2017 says there is a widening IT delivery gap that is to blame for these results.

According to the report, IT departments are faced with "unrealistic expectations" of what can be achieved with the resources that they have available. One of the ways to fix the issue is by pursuing an API strategy. It would allow for faster innovation and less pressure on IT.

The delivery gap is making its mark, though. More than half (59 percent) of ITDMs believe business revenues will suffer in the next six months unless something is changed. More than two thirds (69 percent) believes there is a disparity between what businesses think can be achieved with digital initiatives, and what’s realistic.

Nine in ten (90 percent) have either implemented, or are planning to implement, an API strategy this year, and 40 percent said they generate between 25 percent and 75 percent of their revenues through APIs.

"Speed is one of the most important characteristics determining an organization’s success today. However, if IT departments cannot complete projects in a timely manner, IT will still be the handbrake on the business and put revenue at risk. The problem is that while there’s a rapidly growing demand for digital innovation, IT resources are having to do more with less. This has created an IT delivery gap, where what the business needs and what IT can deliver simply don’t match up," said Ross Mason, founder and vice president of product strategy, MuleSoft.

"The reality is that the centralized IT model is no longer working. IT teams can’t keep running faster on the project hamster wheel. IT needs to move away from trying to deliver all projects itself and towards an approach that frees up mission-critical data and empowers the wider business to build some of their own projects."

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