More and more IT executives are asking whether business and IT alignment must be a strategic initiative across the enterprise or whether it can be treated on a case-by-case basis for individual organizations.
According to Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Dr. Tushar Hazra, "Aligning IT strategies with business goals can be a combination of strategic and tactical initiatives. Strategic initiatives are top-down, where the senior leadership of a company formulates a set of principles that is incorporated in the culture of the entire enterprise and is adopted by the individual business function areas and the associated IT organizations. On the other hand, tactical alignment is bottom-up, where visionary leaders at the organizational levels of a company practice and implement the alignments and gather lessons learned, which then get shared across the entire enterprise. Subsequently, the lessons learned drive the principles for the entire enterprise.
"In either case, it starts with a set of ground rules. Practitioners at all levels of the organization must participate actively in setting these ground rules. The formulation and adoption of these ground rules may vary from one organization to another; however, the general practice of employing these ground rules impacts most enterprises in a very similar manner. If these ground rules are set right from the beginning and practitioners follow them accordingly, it will result in delivering business value for companies. For many companies, the process of setting the relevant ground rules at an appropriate level of operations determines whether they must be considered as a part of strategic or tactical objectives. It also depends on the level of resource utilization, organizational readiness or awareness, and the ability of a company to utilize the right set of technology and tools."
Dr. Hazra proposes the following seven steps in setting the right ground rules:
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Recognize the expectations of business sponsors. This can help in obtaining the buy-in and in most cases setting the right requirements for the organization or the enterprise. In some cases, an opportunity may exist to modify or improve the expectations and establish a clear big picture that can be extended across the enterprise.
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Identify the true (not derived) cost benefits. Finding out how it directly relates to financial objectives of the organization can clarify the foundation of the ground rules and why they can be an integral part of the company goals. It will also support the business sponsors in their decision-making process.
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Review how the business values will be measured, managed, and monitored. This can justify the ways of improving performance, productivity, and qualities of service or solution delivery. The set of measures can be made flexible to accommodate future changes in business requirements, expectations of business sponsors, or overall business objectives.
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Define the roles and responsibilities of each member of the organization's teams. This allows you to attribute the appropriate accountability, responsibility, and ownership while optimizing the level of resource utilization across the enterprise. For many companies, the distribution of roles and responsibilities determines the need for organizational awareness or education and training programs.
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Capture requirements for compliance to industry and government regulations, policies, and procedures. This can make the company more agile in dealing with most mandates and legal restrictions as well as security or privacy considerations.
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Agree upon periodic milestone reviews, inspections, and deliverables. This will facilitate a roadmap to build consensus-driven partnership between business and IT organizations. It also aids practitioners and executives in measuring the progress of the ongoing alignment initiative or initiatives.
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Build and manage ground rules with incremental improvements from "lessons learned." This provides a more consistent way of managing relationships between business and IT organizations. It allows both organizations to establish confidence in each other's level of commitment.
Hazra concludes, "I submit that these steps do not have equal importance for every company. Practitioners may have to adjust the significance of each step according to their business objectives or goals. However, it is essential that these steps be considered in formulating the general practice of ground rules."
To request the Cutter Consortium Business-IT Strategies Advisor in which these comments were made, or to schedule an interview with Dr. Tushar Hazra, contact .
More information about Tushar Hazra is available at www.cutter.com/meet-our-experts/hazrat.html.
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