“It'll turn into shadow IT”

Enterprise Architect · Integration and automation

An Enterprise Architect who worries about shadow IT has usually seen it happen: business teams build something useful, and IT inherits something nobody can support. Don't promise it won't happen. Make governance the starting point: ask what went wrong last time, and what controls would let them say yes.

What the buyer says

Give business teams an automation tool and you get shadow IT. Nobody can support what they build.

How to handle it

Listen

Hear "nobody can support what they build". The concern isn't business teams automating. It's what happens when the person who built it leaves, or something breaks.

Acknowledge

Agree that tools built outside IT's view can become a support and security problem, and that architecture teams are right to be careful.

Explore

Ask about the last time business teams built their own tools: what they built, what went wrong and who ended up fixing it. Ask what controls they'd need to be comfortable: who can build, who approves, how it's monitored and what happens when someone leaves.

Respond

Show how the controls they named would work with your product, specifically. Position it as a way to bring existing shadow automation into view, rather than create more of it.

Say this
“That's a real risk. Tools nobody can support end up as IT's problem.”

Say this
“What happened the last time a business team built its own tool?”

Say this
“What would you need to see to be comfortable letting them build?”

Variations

Head of IT Governance: “Low-code means no control. We've been burned before.”
CIO: “I'm not having business teams building things my team has to support.”

Questions people ask

How do you respond when IT worries that automation tools will create shadow IT?

Agree that unsupported tools become IT's problem. Ask what went wrong the last time business teams built their own tools, and what controls would make them comfortable, then show specifically how those controls work with your product.

What is shadow IT?

Shadow IT means software, automations or tools that business teams set up without IT's knowledge or approval. It often solves a real need, but it can create support, security and data-protection risks.