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Bridging the IT/Business Divide: Aligning Goals to Achieve Performance
Ensuring IT alignment with the business has
traditionally been viewed as the
CIO's job.
However, successful IT/business alignment entails more than executive level
communication and
strategy
translation.
CIOs who achieve alignment typically do so by establishing a
set of well-planned process improvement programs that systematically address
obstacles and go beyond executive level conversation to permeate the entire
IT organization and its
culture.1
One commonly used methodology is the
"IT/Business Alignment Cycle", which introduces a simple framework that the
IT organization can adopt to manage a broad range of activities. The
four phases of the cycle are: plan, model, manage, and
measure.
Following this cycle fosters organization-wide
shared expectations between business and IT managers, and defines a common
framework for a broad range of activities that together serve to align IT
and business objectives. The cycle also identifies best practices and common
processes within and between IT functional groups to make IT/business
alignment sustainable and scalable. This framework functions best when
integrated and automated with software applications and monitoring tools.
By
committing to the cycle and integrating and
automating activities using software solutions,
CIOs can align their whole
organization to make
systematic
improvements that overcome obstacles.
The Four
Phases of IT/Business Alignment and Integration
The main purpose
of IT / business alignment and integration is to build a stronger,
more innovative and competitive enterprise. This is a two-way
street. The business side must define business goals and priorities
to help IT make alignment happen.
1. Plan.
Translate
business objectives
into measurable IT services. The plan phase helps clarify business
needs and close the gap between what
business architects
and
managers need and expect and what IT delivers. It also helps
allocate IT resources effectively to maximize
business value.
2. Design.
Design IT infrastructure to optimize
business value.
This phase identifies resources needed to deliver IT services at
committed levels. Map IT assets, processes, and resources back to IT
services, then prioritize and plan resources that support those
critical services. Design an adaptive IT structure. When
business needs change, IT
services and resources should be modified and adapted appropriately.
3. Implement.
The implementation phase enables the IT staff to deliver promised
levels of service. The
IT leader must establish a method for effective management of
the IT infrastructure and all changes. In addition, a method for
prioritizing service requests based on business impact, a
disciplined
change management
process to minimize the
risk
of negatively affecting service level commitments, and an IT event
management system to monitor and manage components that support
business critical services are to be established. Finally,
operational metrics that enable service delivery at promised levels,
as well as the means for measuring and tracking the progress of
service level commitments using these metrics must be in place.
4.
Fine-tune.
This phase improves cross-organization visibility into operations
and service level commitments. Verify commitments, collect user
feedback,
and improve operations The bottom line in measuring the success of
alignment is the degree to which IT is working on the things about
which business managers care.
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