TABLE OF CONTENTS The Institute of Value Management states that a root principle of value management is a focus on objectives and targets before seeking solutions . This is about alignment . The goal of IT and business alignment is to focus the limited IT resources on maximizing the delivery of value from IT product and service delivery by focusing on the priority business needs. Alignment can be effected at different levels from the strategic (e.g. aligning specific programmes of projects on the long-term priority needs of senior management) to the tactical (e.g. aligning specific projects on the short-term priority needs of specific business units). Balance is typically required. Excessive focus at the strategic level may compromise customer satisfaction at the business middle-management level while excessive focus at the tactical level may compromise customer satisfaction at the business senior management level. Note also that the strategic and tactical can overlap and can extend beyond the boundaries of the business, as when synergy benefits are identified across business units, suppliers or business partners.
IT/business alignment can be viewed as a four-dimensional model, the first three of which are illustrated in Figure 3.2. The fourth dimension is time (which I will come to presently).
The business executive team will typically be most concerned with strategic alignment issues (perhaps thinking two to three years forward), the management team will typically be concerned with aligning the portfolio with their immediate (one year forward?) business unit priorities, while the operational teams...
