Orchestrating the IT infrastructure to meet the needs of the business is central to delivering on the promise of IT Process Automation (ITPA). Doing so requires a keen understanding of business, a flexible IT management mentality, and the ability to identify and evaluate critical IT processes maturity. Unlike the systems that our teams support, however, organizations and IT managers don't always adhere to a standard systematic architecture when aligning people and processes to meet the needs of the business. It's fair to say that many organizations have a few IT processes with a relatively high degree of process maturity but rarely does an organization have a high degree of process maturity across all IT processes. Some may be very well documented and even tried, tested, and stood the weight of time, but there are many more that could contribute to IT efficiency that are left untouched. Beyond those few IT processes that are mature, these untouched processes exist because they've been developed ad-hoc or on the fly out of a reaction to an emerging need. There is certainly a line between what an IT associate should be expected to execute based upon their own core competencies and what needs to be a well-documented IT process. This article examines the processes that will help your organization improve your IT processes, and automate your returns by turning efficient processes into automated solutions. Topics: Availability, Performance, and Problem Management Change and Configuration Management Data Quality Six Sigma IT Service Management (ITSM)/ IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Application Lifecycle Management