IT Infrastructure Development starts with establishing a Technology Foundation that sets the focus for the selection and use of technologies and products. From this focus technical decisions can be made as to the particular approaches to be used to solve a particular problem whether business or technical.Within the context of an IT infrastructure development, it is important to identify the various themes such as Enterprise Application Integration, eCommerce, Electronic Service Delivery, etc. These themes will help to define the cornerstone of the IT infrastructure. Most organisations are pursuing more than one theme.
Undertaking an IT infrastructure pilot is considered optional and involves the piloting of specific technological components. While piloting in the past has been common practice, it is important to ensure that we are simply not “reinventing the wheel”. There should be clear circumstances to justify a pilot and these should be based on risk minimization such as piloting new technology. In most cases what needs to be piloted has already been undertaken by other organisations and the results and outcomes are public domain.