4. AGILE TECHNOLOGY. Architecture and infrastructure can hinder alignment efforts. Layered architectures, services and capacity on demand are reducing the cycle time of delivery and therefore expanding the supply of IT.
5. BOUNDARY-LESS IT. IT is too often a delivery bottleneck. CIOs can create virtual capacity by enabling the business's self-sufficiency and leveraging strategic sourcing. Gartner's IS Lite organization concept calls for creating a boundary-less IT organization where the work of IT is shared with strategic partners and the business (see "Building a Management Team for IS Lite", cio.com.au/index.php?id=709671507).
6. LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS. The glue that holds together the strategy, governance, technology and organizational components of alignment is leadership. Alignment surveys indicate that while the leadership cadre at the CIO level is sufficient, there is a gap at the levels below. CIOs need to expand IT's leadership capabilities by changing their leadership development approach from "survival of the fittest" to "development of the fittest".
Over the next three issues, I will unpack these concepts by reviewing theory, discussing success stories and providing suggestions for further study. I invite you to be part of the discussion by sharing your alignment stories - both good and bad. Together, CIOs can learn how to improve alignment by saying yes without regrets.
Reader Q&A
Q: Saying no is a way of letting people who don't know IT's capabilities what is possible and what isn't, and what is a good use of money and what isn't. Whenever the sales VP asks me for something, it's his way of testing the importance of his idea. He knows I will work with him if it's a good idea. But not everything is a good idea or is a better idea than what we're already working on.
A: It sounds like you have a great relationship with your sales executive - congratulations! Without strong relationships, the word "no" causes people to dig in on their positions. That's a difficult reaction to overcome if you hope to get to a solution that works for both parties. People react to (and learn from) questions better than statements. The goal of IT-business alignment is to set up mechanisms so that business executives are able to evaluate the merits and implications of their IT-enabled ideas without having IT play the heavy.
Q: If business-IT alignment has improved over the past five years, as you say, then why were there so many sob stories at the breakfast you attended? Alignment is one of those problems that never goes away, unlike technical issues. Alignment can never be "fixed". It requires continual work and communication on the part of IT executives and every member of the IT department.
A: Alignment has improved, but you are right that requires continual work and communication. The CIOs in that breakfast meeting weren't lamenting this state of affairs; they were discussing alignment with the goal of learning from each other and developing a sense of how to reach the alignment grail.
Q: In addition to the six points you're writing about, I'd like to see you address executive committees - aka the IT management committee, IT-business oversight committee or what have you. What are the best ways to set up this kind of group, who has to be on it (the must-attendees versus the nice-to-haves) and what does it need to accomplish?
A: Management committees are essential to effective governance. Real-world strategy requires that an effective senior-level IT council exists. Please see research by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross of MIT's Centre for Information Systems Research, including "A Matrixed Approach to Designing IT Governance" in Sloan Management Review and their book titled IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, as well as their CIO magazine article titled "Recipe for Good Governance".
Susan Cramm is founder and president of Valuedance, a California-based executive coaching firm
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