Comments on: Yes we can, yes we must: the ongoing case for IT/Business alignment

By: La lucha contra una inquietante política: las organizaciones de TI ricas contra las pobres « Gestión de Valor Inversiones IT

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:51:57 +0000

[...] hora de que hable. No es que no lo he hecho antes, aquí y aquí. Pero a veces tengo que sacudir la cabeza. He leído algunos artículos relacionados con TI en la [...]

By: Countering a disturbing bandwagon: rich vs. poor IT organizations

Countering a disturbing bandwagon: rich vs. poor IT organizations — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 05:55:50 +0000

[...] time for me to speak up. Not that I haven’t before, here and here. But sometimes I just have to shake my head. I read certain IT-related articles on the web, or [...]

By: jfbauer

jfbauer — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:22:05 +0000

Chris,

Interesting perspective, but when HR is viewed as a compliance role, I indeed hear people commenting on “the business” and HR. Any barrier to the pure goal achievement and execution by “the business” has the potential to be fill the “the business and ” connotation. If IT provides any slowdown to that pure goal achievement, however ill informed, also runs the risk of filling in the .

Governance is critical, beyond an alignment generator. Without it, “the business” looks back over the year and struggles to understand why IT allowed “the business” to over spend on what turned out to be whimsical priorities given a lack of true business priority matched against shared resources and competing priorities applied frivolously.

“IT, you know I was going down the wrong road. Why didn’t you stop me?”

By: Chris Curran

Chris Curran — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:21:42 +0000

Peter, Nice job summarizing (among other things) and interesting set of Twitter conversations on "the business" and IT. This distinction is so silly - do we talk about "the business" and HR? - but a reality because of the mystery that IT represents to many in other functions. Just ask someone with a business degree about their single "programming" class - if they even require it anymore. As we discussed a few weeks ago, the Weill/Ross book IT Savvy does a great job of discussing the business/IT alignment issues from a "business" or dare I say, neutral perspective. I agree that prioritization is a top, if not the top, aligning capability that if done right, drives alignment explicitly. It is, however, something that few companies do consistently well. It usually takes a large investment to drive a detailed prioritization discussion of the functionality, waves and phases. The medium and smaller investments often go where the wheel squeaks the loudest. On the flip side, I think that governance is often misused as an alignment generator. Instead, a core work process like prioritization is a much better way. A complete system would also include aligned processes like enterprise architecture planning, and multi-year roadmapping. Thanks again for an on-point and practical (as always) article. -Chris CIO Dashboard PS. As I was getting ready to "Submit" I saw the latest Tweet from Matt Watson, CIO/CTO of VinSolutions. Check it out - he's the first listed: CIO Twitter Dashboard

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:17:24 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by PeterKretzman: New CTO/CIO Perspectives post: “Yes we can, yes we must: the ongoing case for IT/Business alignment” http://bit.ly/a95Q93 #cio…

By: Matthew Schmitt

Matthew Schmitt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:58:04 +0000

Definitely speaks to how a good IT department has “a finger in every slice of the pie” so to speak. Building a solid strategy that truly aligns with the business, driving those initiatives is fundamental to IT success (I wrote about that topic here: http://bit.ly/dhZtkQ).

Well written, keep it up. I’ll be back for more!

Matthew Schmitt
http://matthew-schmitt.com
http://twitter.com/matt_schmitt/

By: Sally McKenzie

Sally McKenzie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:52:29 +0000

Peter, this is great, thanks for a terrific discussion of the issues. Speaking from “the business side” I think that one of the key things we can and must do is be willing to learn more about IT. The problem I frequently see goes beyond the language barriers; business folks are intimidated or are simply embarrassed to say to their IT partner: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, please explain it”. The lack of back and forth learning is what leads to the perceived arrogance you mention, and worse, the inability for anybody to call “BS!” on someone in IT if needed. Thanks again for the good food for thought.