Seven rules of business alignment

Alan Inglis at Cutter Consortium recently gave seven points that were important to an operating model for business alignment. They are:

• Alignment among all parties involved in business change is the issue: the business consists of multiple parties that need to be aligned; IT is just one of these parties.

• The starting point for alignment is communication.

• Enterprise architecture is a vehicle for facilitating alignment. It provides an information base that shows us where we are and allows us to assess potential futures.

• Enterprise architecture as an approach has a part to play in business strategy, business change, and its traditional home in IT.

• Enterprise architecture provides tools to understand, plan, and govern change, but for effective delivery, it must be integrated with program management.

• The information, stakeholders, and processes used to manage alignment through enterprise architecture are different but related for business strategy, business change, and IT. The change management organization must draw on people from across the organization at all levels.

• While alignment must be driven from "the business," the business side may not always be best equipped to do this. If this is the case, it may need support in the form of "business architecture as a service."

Alignment of IT Strategy and Business Strategy Doomed to Fail?

Mark Blowers mentions in his latest post at the Report Buyer blog that the latest report shows that attempts to align IT strategy with am abstract business strategy are doomed for failure. Mark believes that to successfully adopt enterprise architecture across the board, the whole organization, both technology and business areas, must work together to ensure that the architecture stays in line with the strategic business objectives of the organization and reflects the IT services that are available at the current moment and the future.

Do you agree with Mark’s ideals on EA?