By Robert Stone, Managing Consultant
Business and IT alignment is unquestionably important. But there are systemic reasons why it is seldom easy or consistent. Alignment may occur for a period of time but the natural forces that push and pull on Business and IT cause drift. Business wants flexibility, low cost, low risk, lots of little projects now, and at the same time big projects soon. IT will often agree that it should be aligned with the business but the reality is that IT requires stability and mature processes, which often work against the business needs. The simplest project often lasts from 3 to 6 months, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and requires many people. IT is faced with maintaining and supporting the existing technology infrastructure with no downtime and risk to the business but also in quickly meeting the constant demands from all over the business for changes to existing systems or new systems.
In our client work, we’ve observed that the key to a tighter working relationship between the business and IT involves two practices. The first is a well-understood and easy to communicate program plan—for instance, a BI application portfolio that is sanctioned by the business, and drives the BI development pipeline. The second is a formal and regular requirements gathering process that allows IT and the business side to consistently and predictably engage one another in an ongoing conversation of problems and solutions.
Each of these is not only a predictor of business-IT alignment, it’s also a precursor to project success.
Robert Stone has been with Baseline Consulting over 9 years and is a Managing Consultant responsible for leading and managing large and small projects. He has over 25 years of IT experience with a diverse knowledge and skill base, and he's focused his skills on using technology to empower business users in many industries.
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