Getting the Business and IT Aligned, Part 2: A Coordinated Endeavor

by Tushar K. Hazra

In my previous Advisor in this series ("Getting the Business and IT Aligned, Part 1: Myths, Mysteries, and Realities," November 29, 2006), I shared a number of myths, mysteries, and realities for business-IT alignment in the fields of enterprise integration and business process transformation. I believe that business-IT alignment initiatives are not "one off" initiatives that happen in isolation, detached from other enterprise-level initiatives. In fact, most business-IT alignments require a well-concerted effort to interact and interface with or intervene in other strategic initiatives. In this article, I present an approach that has worked for many companies in defining "who, what, when, and how" to manage the alignment initiatives while pursuing different enterprise initiatives.