strategic alignment

What are the strategies to quickly align business with IT? How can a CIO use these strategies in his or her role as a business partner to entice forces in various business and functional units to unite?

No business will ever reach the goal of “business and IT alignment”. Should this discourage you from pursuing business and IT alignment? NO! It is a worthy goal to pursue. Indeed, it is a critical one to pursue. You might never reach alignment but you can take steps to get ever closer. This requires a process. Often, we ignore the fact that business and IT alignment is a process. This process does not have a starting point nor does it have an end. It is a series of “learn and do” cycles that incrementally get towards alignment. Let me explain.

This article was originally published in 1999. However, it is on the money even today. Authors Jerry Luftman and Tom Brier walk through the issue of business and IT Alignment with specific examples and advice on how to achieve this goal. A must read!

One of the toughest questions to answer is: is my business is alignment with IT?
Prof. Luftman tries to answer this question in this paper originally published in 2000.

The disconnect between business and IT is often lamented. A lot is spoken and written about this chasm. Ostensibly, a lot is done to bridge it. Yet, most would agree the chasm still exists.

Alignment is an issue but are you focused on the right strategy to fix it?

 Business-IT alignment From a Value-Based Perspective covers the basics of it alignment, value modeling as a tool and provides an overview of VITAL - Value-based IT Alignment.

  Value-based IT Alignment (VITAL) overview and discussion on basic underlying principles and components of this it value based framework.

Enterprise Architecture in its business/organizational context, focusing on business and IT strategy.