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Four IT Alingment Patterns

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Executive Summary:

The “IT alignment trap” occurs when IT spending is highly aligned with business strategic objectives, but IT is not effective in achieving those goals. IT and business priorities must be tightly linked. This means IT spending must be matched to growth strategies for the organization as a whole. Effective management of IT initiatives occurs when there is shared ownership and governance of IT projects. To avoid the “IT alignment trap”, IT needs to be both highly aligned with overall business strategic objectives and highly effective at helping achieve those goals.

Current Situation:

The authors of the article identified four IT alignment patterns from the businesses they surveyed. Those patterns are summarized in the diagram below:

“Alignment Trap”
-High IT alignment to Business Objectives.
-Low efficacy in completing IT projects. “IT Enabled Growth”
-High IT alignment to Business Objectives.
-High efficacy in completing IT projects.
“Maintenance Zone”
-Low IT alignment to Business Objectives.
-Low efficacy in completing IT projects. “Well Oiled IT”
-Low IT alignment to Business Objectives.
-High efficacy in completing IT projects.

IT faces several challenges as they try to align business goals with IT. In larger firms with several business units, IT may be highly aligned with the goals of each individual business unit, yet not with the overall company goals. Creating many individual solutions for separate business units in isolation from the

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