Managing Complex Business-IT Problems

by Alexandre G. Rodrigues

To be effective, business-IT alignment must be practiced as a continuous activity, with the business model being continuously adjusted to reflect changing conditions such as IT developments and market changes. As the business model changes, IT must adapt accordingly. Within this continuous process, complex problems are faced, and identifying the right decisions is difficult. Then we need to make sure these decisions are implemented as planned and that the results are as expected. This is even more difficult. Unfortunately, we're all familiar with results that quickly deviate from expectations and planned, proactive decisions giving way to reactive, unplanned actions. Plans never seem to work when the problem we face is complex. Is this inevitable? Are plans only useful for an initial "go-ahead"? Or should we simply not plan when the problem is complex? I don't believe so.

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Managing Complex Business-IT Problems 13 December 2000