Business - IT Alignment: It starts with the strategy

Business - IT Alignment Series

In the last post, I described Business - IT alignment as the extent to which an organization’s IT function is organized, structured, governed, equipped, etc. to drive the realization of its business objectives.

Achieving and sustaining Business - IT alignment is a process. This process starts with strategy articulation - this could be one or all of corporate, business or functional strategy. Strategy articulation is a top-down meets bottoms-up exercise. This implies that strategy articulation is driven by business leadership, while involving those who do the work i.e. the staff of the organization. The implication of this is that strategy articulation should consider every part of the business, and ideally, everyone in the organization should have the opportunity to contribute directly or indirectly.

Having a strategy articulated in such a holistic manner ensures that there is proper validation of the organizational vision, aspirations are defined, objectives for the strategy cycle are agreed, and implications for the various functional areas or capability requirements for the organization are established. With these in place, it becomes easier to answer the questions: “what do these mean for IT? What can IT do to be an effective enabler?”

Answering the questions above properly should effectively result in a technology strategy. In order to document a technology strategy that is based on a corporate/ business/ functional strategy, the following steps should be followed:

• Analyze the business baseline, business imperatives, applications, technology, IT capabilities and operating model.

• Also take external factors e.g. industry dynamics, the competition’s use of technology, trends, etc. into account.

• Identify IT imperatives and opportunities to add value to the business

• Define target technology capability model, architecture and supporting operating model elements

• Define projects and initiatives, including investments required and a spend plan

• Develop projects and initiatives into an IT roadmap

It is important to note that the process of documenting a technology strategy above is just the start of the process of achieving and sustaining Business - IT alignment. Business priorities change and the ongoing alignment of IT with the business should be tested on a regular basis as IT engages with the business. Business - IT alignment should also be validated during annual planning sessions, mid-term reviews, etc.

This is the second post in our blog series on Business - IT Alignment. Join us next week for the next post in the series where we continue the discussion on Business - IT Alignment.

Are you considering documenting a technology strategy in order to get started on your organization’s Business - IT Alignment journey? Contact us to discuss or schedule a free consultation.

If you are wondering about how well your business and IT are aligned, consider taking Virtro's free, high-level Business - IT Alignment Assessment.

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