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What is IT Alignment?
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A lot more people think they are doing it than
really are.

Properly done, it is the Holy Grail of CIOs.

The CIO wants this to be the “Vision” that
s/he broadcasts to IT and the rest of the
company. (Vision = focus, it channels the IT
organization’s creative energy all in one direction,
aimed at one goal…the goal of IT Alignment)



IT Alignment is the deployment of IT
resources to achieve the optimum strategic
business impact
Everyone has an IT portfolio that they claim
is supporting the business—but that is, in
many companies, the exact opposite of good IT
Alignment
Notice: This is counter-intuitive for a lot of
service oriented IT people.

IT Alignment is the deployment of IT
resources to achieve the optimum
strategic business impact

Business impact (vs. technology proficient)

Strategic (vs. tactical or operational)

Optimum use of IT resources (vs. pretty
good) (usually means lots of redeployment).



There is a night and day difference between
the job description and responsibilities of a
very good IT Director and a good CIO.
IT Director: Responsible for delivering
operational excellence in IT services
CIO: Responsible for helping to develop and
then enabling the business (vs. technology)
strategy of the company

Step 1: Written strategic business goals

Step 2: Identification of business initiatives
throughout the company that support strategic goals

Step 3: Brainstorm to identify the hidden
opportunities for IT to enable 1 & 2 above


Step 4: Prioritize ideas from step 3 according to
business impact (usually means: redeploy IT
resources)
Step 5: System for post project audits and reporting
The size of the cross
section is the measure
of your alignment
User needs and
requests for IT
support
Your current
IT portfolio
-------------------
Some sort of
creative process for
identifying
hidden/optimum IT
opportunities
IT Projects
that
optimally
enable
strategic
business
objectives


IT Alignment is the deployment of IT
resources to achieve the optimum
strategic business impact
Your CIO (and CEO) needs senior people
on his/her team who understand the
subtleties of IT Alignment vs. operational
excellence and can help him/her achieve
good IT Alignment