Nigel Anthony Blacks; Simon Bowles; Jacob Maymann

IT Optimisation Body of Knowledge (ITOBOK) Nigel Anthony Blacks; Simon Bowles; Jacob Maymann 1st edition

Information Technology is becoming harder to control.

Every year, organisations introduce new applications, cloud services, platforms, suppliers, data sources, and technologies. Individually, these decisions are often justified. Collectively, they create increasing complexity, rising costs, growing dependency, and reduced organisational agility.

Most organisations respond with transformation programmes, cost-reduction initiatives, or technology modernisation projects. While these efforts often deliver short-term improvements, the same challenges inevitably return because the underlying system that creates them remains unchanged.

ITOBOK introduces a different perspective.

The IT Optimisation Body of Knowledge is a practical framework for understanding, governing, and continuously optimising the technology operating model. It reframes optimisation from a series of isolated initiatives into a continuous discipline embedded within strategy, governance, architecture, portfolio management, operating models, sourcing, and financial decision-making.

Drawing on decades of experience across complex global organisations, ITOBOK explains why complexity naturally accumulates, why optimisation efforts often fail to deliver lasting results, and how organisations can establish continuous control over the decisions that shape their IT landscape.

Rather than focusing on technology alone, ITOBOK provides a structured approach for aligning business value, cost, complexity, risk, and investment decisions across the entire technology environment. It demonstrates how optimisation can become a permanent organisational capability that continuously improves efficiency, resilience, and adaptability as the IT landscape evolves.

IT optimisation is not a transformation programme or a one-time exercise. It is the continuous control of decisions shaping cost, complexity, risk, and business value over time.

ITOBOK introduces a new discipline for technology leaders: a practical framework for maintaining continuous control in an increasingly complex technology world.