Summary and implications

The growing number of current and emerging best practice frameworks, guidelines and/or standards covering some aspects of IT governance imply that there is still no one best way for all organizations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their IT assets.

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There are a growing number of continuous improvement frameworks and models that apply to IT governance and one or more of its major components;

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All of them focus on helping either individuals and/or organizations improve their effectiveness, competences and maturity levels in one or more areas of IT governance;

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Most of the current practices do not provide the details of ‘how to do’ IT governance from a strategic top-down and pragmatic bottom-up perspective;

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An organization should leverage, adopt and tailor those models, frameworks and/or standards that address those issues, opportunities, pain points and threats most critical

Delivering value add services to internal and external customers, Enable

• Maintain internal control over strategy and engineering (design) in most IT

Figure 2.20 Case study – leading business services/manufacturing company

2.6.2 Key take aways

The selection of a particular framework or combination of frameworks is largely dependent on the strategic objectives, available resources of an organization and their desired outcomes. All of the frameworks require the management of change, cultural transformation, education and training.

The integrated IT governance framework model provides a comprehensive framework, based on a minimum set of required components that should provide an appropriate baseline to develop a roadmap to steer a more effective journey towards a higher level of IT maturity for an organization. However, each organization must tailor its approach to address its environment, current level of maturity, pain points and/or opportunities and other factors.

“IT alignment and planning is a journey, not a destination. It takes many small things to make it a success and not one big thing.”

Selig & Waterhouse, 2006

■ 3.1 WHAT IS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER?

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Identifies the principles for effectively aligning IT to the business;

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Illustrates business and IT strategy and plan development frameworks;

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Provides a high level process flow of business/IT planning through execution;

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Describes the enablers and inhibitors of business/IT alignment;

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Discusses investment portfolio management and consistent criteria for analysis, selection, prioritization and funding of IT initiatives;

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Describes the business and IT engagement and relationship model to establish and sustain solid relationships, communications, trust and collaboration.

■ 3.2 OVERVIEW

According to Craig Symons at Forrester Research, “aligning IT strategy with business strategy has been one of the top issues confronting IT and business executives for more than 20 years. Why is alignment so elusive, and when can enterprises ever expect to attain it?” He goes on to state, “IT and business alignment begins and ends with good IT governance. Alignment of IT strategy and business strategy is the byproduct of strong IT governance structures and processes that have matured to the point of being part of an organization’s culture. IT governance is about optimizing investments in information technology, and optimization implies that these investments are aligned with overall business unit strategies. More importantly, strategy alignment must be monitored and measured, and management must be held accountable for results.” (Symons, 2005)

Enterprise engineering has recently emerged as a new discipline to address the intensified complexity and dynamics of the evolving enterprise by designing, aligning, and governing its development. Enterprise designers employ various approaches, frameworks, and methodologies to design and align various components in the enterprise, including the business and IT components of an enterprise (De Vries, 2013).

As business and technology have become increasingly intertwined, the strategic alignment of the two has emerged as a major corporate issue. Cooperation and collaboration are becoming increasingly important in the modern business environment. The resulting emergence of new forms of relationships is challenging managers to understand fundamental dynamics of cooperation in order to evaluate and restructure their relationships.

Alignment focuses on activities that business and IT executives at an organization should do to work jointly to meet the business goals and to make the organization more effective.

“CIO’s 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.” (Clemons, Rowe and Redi, 1992).

Successful business/IT alignment means developing and sustaining a mutually symbiotic relationship between business and IT – a relationship that benefits both parties. This requires that IT executives be recognized as essential to the development of credible business strategies and operations, and business executives be considered equally essential to the development of credible IT strategies and operations.

Key questions to address in improving business/IT alignment include:

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How can organizations align their businesses more effectively?

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How can organizations assess and measure alignment?

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How can organizations improve their alignment?

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How can organizations achieve higher levels of alignment maturity?

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Do your processes and related measurements recognize and take into account the

strong co-dependencies between the business and IT people, processes and technology?

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What information is critical to support the strategic business plan initiatives and objectives?

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What changes in business direction (and priorities) are planned or anticipated for the plan period?

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What are the current/projected major business/functional opportunities, issues, risks, threats and constraints?

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What strategic or tactical value does IT provide to your business or function?

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How can IT add more strategic value to the business (e.g. revenue growth, cost reduction/containment/avoidance, reduce speed to market, business process transformation, business/competitive intelligence, etc.)?

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Is IT developing and maintaining superior and constructive relationships with customers, vendors and others? How can they be improved?

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How effectively is IT communicating its progress and problems to its constituents? Is a relationship and engagement model used?

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What governance processes and controls have been instituted in IT?

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Does the board/operating committee/senior business leadership review and approve the IT strategy, priorities and funding?

Forrester Research developed a template for helping organizations assess the level of business/IT alignment maturity. Figure 3.1 represents the alignment maturity assessment template that can be used by organizations to assess where they are today and as a baseline to develop a plan for achieving a higher level of alignment maturity in the future.

Level Phase Description

5 Optimized

Process

3 Repeatable Processes

There is awareness of alignment issues across the enterprise. Alignment activities are under development, which include processes, structures, and educational activities. Some strategy alignment takes place in some business units but not across the entire enterprise. Some attempts are made to measure and quantify the benefits.

2 Initial There is evidence that the organization recognizes the need to align IT and business strategy. However, there are no standard processes. There are fragmented attempts, often on a case-by-case basis within individual business

Processes units.

1 Ad hoc There is a complete lack of any effort to align IT and business strategy. IT functions in a purely support role.

Figure 3.1 Business/IT Alignment Maturity Assessment Template (source: Jeff Hammond,

“Development Landscape,” Forrester Research, 2013)

In document Van.haren.publishing.implementing.effective.it.Governance.and.IT.management.9401800081 (Page 141-152)