The Challenge of IT-Business Alignment

1. The Challenge of IT-Business Alignment

2. VWoA Case • What is the central issue addressed in the case. What precipitated the need to deal with the issue? • Create a flowchart of the IT prioritization process. Clearly identify the phases, the tasks, and the main players. • Address the options available to Matulovic. Which approach should he use and why? • Why did the supply flow project fall through the cracks? How could you modify your flowchart to handle such projects?

3. BTM Maturity Model

4. BTM Dimension 1: Governance & Organization: • the organization identifies the technological decisions to be made, assigns these decisions to the appropriate entities, and is able to act on these decisions effectively • Strategic & Tactical Governance: defines the types of decisions to be made, who will make them, and how they will be measured • Organization Design & Change Management: establishes the makeup of work groups and defines reporting roles • Communication Strategy & Management: fosters understanding and disseminates actionable information throughout the organization • Compliance & Risk Management: ensures that government and regulatory conditions are understood and risk-mitigation strategies are in place

5. BTM Dimension 2: Managing Technology Investments: • the organization makes IT investment decisions aligned to business needs based on what it owns, what it is working on, and who it has available • Portfolio & Program Management: inventories the status of all existing IT assets and projects with an emphasis on efficiency and reporting • Approval & Prioritization: determines the criteria for evaluating alternatives and establishing priorities • Project Analysis & Design: drives technology-enabled business improvements and leverages existing IT assets • Resource & Demand Management: categorizes and prioritizes technology requests to ensure alignment with business needs and capabilities

6. BTM Dimension 3: Strategy and Planning: • the organization identifies and implements a target set of applications to meet business needs while reducing overall complexity • Business-Driven IT Strategy: translates business strategy into business initiatives and principles • Strategic Planning & Budgeting: plans and budgets are linked to strategy and enterprise architecture • Strategic Sourcing &Vendor Management: relationships are created and managed with vendors suited to business needs • Consolidation & Standardization: identifies which assets to eliminate, consolidate, or enhance for improved performance

7. BTM Dimension 4: Strategic Enterprise Architecture: • the organization organizes and accesses appropriate information to assess current and future-state environments • Business Architecture: describes business strategies, models, capabilities, and processes in terms of existing business technology • Technology Architecture: defines applications and technical infrastructure required to meet business goals and objectives • Enterprise Architecture Standards: defines standard business technology applications, tools, and vendors • Application Portfolio Management: establishes and manages portfolios of applications to achieve target architectures and standards • Asset Rationalization: reduces complexity and cost by controlling the number of applications and systems

8. Val IT and CoBIThttp://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=COBIT6&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=25060 • Val IT is a governance framework • Relates to evaluation and selection of IT-enabled business investments • Based on the CObIT framework • Control Objectives for Information and related Technology • Val IT provides guidance to • Define relationship between IT and business • Manage IT Portfolio • Define key financial indicators, quantify intangible benefits and appraisal of downside risk