Making IT Matter
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 08:52PM One of the things that really bugs me about CIOs and their organizational strategy (or lack there of) is a lack of clarity of what really matters to them and their business customers. Go ahead and ask your CIO what his/her strategy or strategic vision of the IT organization is, and what you will get is a mish-mash of vision, mission, metrics, frameworks, services, etc. All you will get is words, maybe a few visual fragments, but no "Big Picture". Thats right, all of us love to talk about the "Big Picture" but when we are asked to draw it, we run out of ink. What this really demonstrates is a lack of imagination, rigor, and leadership.
In the recent times, the COBIT framework has assisted the CIO in understanding what functions may be missing or lacking and improving the organization of those functions. They make the case to their CFO for spending money on expensive consulting firms and having them produce an "IT Report Card", which initially gets a lot of attention and inspires a few initiatives, but later lies in some obscure corner and collects cobwebs. Before hitting the panic button, a CIO ought to be looking at 2 key aspects- 1. What are the strategic pillars of my organization?, 2. What are the strategic goals and associated performance measures of my organization? A good understanding of these two questions and an understanding of the linkages between the them can go a long way in carving an effective IT Strategy.
To illustrate my point, I have created an "IT Strategy Map" that CIOs can adopt or use as a starting point to build what I call the fascinating "view from the top floor".
1.The map can be used in some of the following ways – i.
- Help identify and define metrics to evaluate performance against the strategy ii.
- Evaluate and re-align organizational goals and objectives iii.
- Communicate the “big picture” to the organization staff members iv.
- Validate that all the organizational functions (as captured in the map) are helping the organization converge towards the goal of “increasing/sustaining long term business value” v.
- Understand/rationalize the “strategic fit” of new IT initiatives/projects vis-à-vis the organizational strategy vi.
- Facilitate discussions with C-level execs
Email me if you would like a soft (MS Visio) copy of this map.
Reader Comments (1)
Your map is interesting for it funnels different important forces and assets towards the right goal of any company: creating value. I intend to re-use your model to illustrate the logic behind a master plan of IT initiatives which will be presented to my client in the coming weeks.
To get the full attention decision makers, confirming one's own understanding of their company current strategy, culture and context is a prerequisite before trying to introduce any new proposal. By definition future actions will be built on the realities of their present situation. To make IT better means to understand the forces at play today, the unused potentials, all the needs and all the opportunities which stand in its future. Your map reflects these points clearly as well as the links between them. It can be an ideal support to introduce the details of any new logic to make IT "better" indeed.