Surprisingly, the development of the IT strategy is still seen as a process that sits outside of the “business”, resulting in the frustrating and constant misalignment between Business and IT.
The misalignment has a lot to do with the strategy formulation process - where the enterprise strategy is developed and signed-off first.
As far as possible the IT strategy development process needs to be integrated with the enterprise strategy development process, as shown on the diagram below, so that the technology vision of the business is shared and agreed to by all functional executives.
The result is a business road map that takes into account the limitations as well as the enabling capacity of technology. This two-way development process facilitates an IT Strategy that is tightly aligned to the business.
The IT strategy developed through this process will be business-centric and more importantly, it will speak the business language that other executives understand.
So when faced with a challenge where IT and “business” are not pulling towards the same direction, examine your strategy formulation process and consider changing to a mindset that says “IT is business”.
Tumi Mphahlele is Managing Director: Busara Strategic Projects, a division of Busara Leadership Partners, www.busaraleadershippartners.co.za
