Business/IT Alignment Overview

Article
04/27/2008

Q: What do businesses want from IT?

A: Services that are reliable, compliant, and cost-effective, and that continuously adapt to ever-changing needs.

If you want to strengthen the alignment between your IT department and the larger organization, start with this list of questions. Your answers will determine which areas of this document can help you the most.

Do you have an IT strategy in place? Is it aligned to organizational objectives?
Is the strategy communicated? Does everyone have a clear understanding of the strategy?
Is the strategy measured, and are opportunities for improvement identified?
Are there service level agreements (SLAs) in place for the key business services?
Is there a process for identifying and approving new project concepts?
Is there a published portfolio of projects? Is it clearly communicated and understood by IT and the business representatives?
Is there a clear connection between the strategy and IT’s portfolio of projects and services?
Is IT service demand measured and analyzed?
Are new business requests accepted, organized, managed, and acted upon?

Roles

The primary Team SMF accountability that applies to the Business/IT Alignment SMF is the Service Accountability. Roles within the Management Accountability are also involved. The role types within each accountability and their primary responsibilities and roles within this SMF are displayed in the following tables.

Service Accountability

Table 1 lists the role types associated with the Support Accountability, as well as the responsibilities and roles for each role type.

Table 1. Service Accountability and Its Attendant Role Types

Role Type	Responsibilities	Role in this SMF
Supplier Manager	Tracks external vendors who provide supporting services and products	Ensures effective vendor relationships
Portfolio Manager	Keeps a set of service offerings up to date and aligned to business needs Maintains the overall service catalog	Ensures available services are accurately reflected in the service catalog
Account Manager	Serves as a link between users or customers and the IT organization Meets with the customer, discusses current issues, and makes sure that expectations are aligned	Ensures effective customer and user relationships Drives relationship with the business
Service Level Manager	Accountable for Business/IT Alignment Acts as main interface between the business and the IT service delivery organization Handles all issues and development in Service Level Management, including development and agreement of SLAs, OLAs, and UCs Represents the business, but works with and within the IT organization	Ensures effective IT service delivery within specified SLAs

Management Accountability

Table 2 lists the role types associated with the Management Accountability, as well as the responsibilities and roles for each role type.

Table 2. Management Accountability and Its Attendant Role Types

Role Type

Responsibilities

Role in this SMF

IT Executive Officer

Sponsors IT initiatives
Approves structures and overall IT processes
Owns metrics and benchmarking, board and executive relationships

Sponsorship

IT Manager

Manages processes
Identifies and engages appropriate participants in decision process
Manages risk and IT business value realization dependencies
Owns business/IT relationship

Oversees business/IT alignment processes

IT Policy Manager

Sees that management decisions are informed by policy and that policy is effectively used across IT

Provides policy input to decision process

Change Manager

Manages the activities of the change management process for the IT organization

Ensures process of determining IT service portfolio follows appropriate level of change control

Goals of Business/IT Alignment

The goals of the Business/IT Alignment SMF are to ensure that:

IT strategy is aligned to an organization’s broader goals and objectives.
Delivered IT services are effective and efficient in meeting the organization’s needs.
IT offerings and services are aligned to the business goals.

The achievement of these goals should result in several specific, measurable outcomes, which are detailed in the table below.

Table 3. Outcomes and Measures of the Business/IT Alignment SMF Goals

Outcomes

Measures

The business considers IT as a strategic asset.

The business continues to invest in enhancements or new services.

The business consults with IT as part of strategic decisions, acquisitions, or new directions.

IT has a strategic plan.

The business and IT publish and measure an annual IT service strategy. The strategy articulates the linkages between IT goals and the business goals and outlines measurements, budget, risks, and a plan for execution.

IT has an understanding of its capabilities and resources.

IT has a predictable model for estimating resource consumption and the adoption of new technologies.

IT measures business demand of services offered and uses this information for planning purposes.

IT has a set of defined services and projects that support the strategic plan.

IT has a published service portfolio that identifies all projects.

IT has a published service catalog that identifies and describes all services offered to the organization.

Key Terms

The following table contains definitions of key terms found in this guide.

Table 4. Key Terms

Business relationship management

The ongoing process that ensures that the organization and IT remain in sync with respect to common goals and strategies

Demand management

The process of aligning an organization’s supply of IT resources to meet service demands forecasted by the business

IT service strategy

The plan that aligns an organization’s objectives, policies, and procedures into a cohesive approach to deliver services that support business strategy

Operating level agreement (OLA)

An internal agreement between one or more IT teams that supports the requirements set forth in the service level agreements (SLAs)

Service catalog

A comprehensive list of services, including priorities of the business and corresponding SLAs

Service level agreement (SLA)

A written agreement documenting required levels of service. The SLA is agreed upon by the IT service provider and the business, or by the IT service provider and a third-party provider. SLAs should list the metrics and measures that define success for both IT and the organization

Service Level Management

The process of defining and managing performance through monitoring, reporting, and reviewing the required, agreed-upon level of service

Service portfolio

An internal repository that defines IT services and categorizes them as currently in service, in queue to be developed, or in queue to be decommissioned. All services support a specific business process or function

Underpinning contract (UC)

A legally binding contract in place of or in addition to an SLA. This type of contract is with a third-party service provider responsible for building service deliverables for the SLA

This accelerator is part of a larger series of tools and guidance from Solution Accelerators.