Today I read yet another article on aligning business and IT. It seems every 3rd person in the industry(and their dog) has a guaranteed, no fail recipe for making the to work together....
Uh-huh..... riiiiiiiiight.
It's complicated.... It will always be complicated.... Why? People, people, oh yeah, and people.
Each person in any given situation is a complicated mess of mental ability/inability, emotional stability/instability, baggage, ego, etc. There is no formula for that. Information silos, rogue spreadsheets, "job security by compartmentalization" myths.... They are everywhere.
Billy Bob's parents were alcoholics. When they argued, things got loud and ugly fast. He naturally developed a distaste for confrontation. Now, when opposed, he defers to Jimbo (his boss). Jimbo had an older sibling that throughout Jimbo's formative years, regularly pointed out every one of Jimbo's faults. Over the course of time, Jimbo became obsessed with being thought of as a superman. No weakness, he can do it all. Even if he can't, he has to keep up the perception that he can. Sitting at the top of this chain is Chris. Chris is in the habit of lying to himself about his effectiveness and ability to manage his team. He knows he has a smart crew. Deep down he realizes that they are the key to keeping everything working smoothly. Yet, through consistently over-simplifying things, especially when managing up, he has actually convinced himself that he gets it.
Ok, see what I'm getting at? Now, we haven't even touched on their attitudes towards authority and each other. What kind of pressures are they dealing with outside of work. How does it affect them in the office? Basically, take everything above, understanding that it is probably %50 of what is really going on, realize that it changes based on each of these person's individual circumstances, and then roll it up into a big ball of goo....
Now.... We're just looking at the IT department. Imagine a similar scenario as above for every department in the company. Throw all these big balls of goo into one pile and THAT is what you have to wade through to begin aligning business and IT. Oh yeah, wait. We haven't even hashed out the business strategies. Do that first with each departmental ball of goo, prioritize them and then get back to me when those are ready to be thrown in with IT.....
Ummm, is the business growing? Are there decisions that to be made quickly for capitalizing on opportunities? Better hurry up.... Those opportunities open and close regularly. This will act to change your priorities without warning. Suddenly, the only thing that changes on the firing range is the speed at which the targets move.
Ok, I'm getting tired just thinking about it. So what's the answer? Formalizing procedures? Putting processes down on paper? It's a good exercise, but in the end you are wading through the mess we've already looked at, but just with a piece of paper to prove you did it. If your business is subjected to forces of change that exist outside your company then those pieces of paper are just something else you have to change when the target moves...
Think about.... The only method for aligning business and IT is ROI. Measure the dollar cost of each project. Compare the cost of each option to each other. What gives you the greatest value for your money? Put a dollar value on everything. At this point you have facts on which to base your decision about your projects.
Yes, there will be variances as you get into projects. There will be unforeseen circumstances that throw projections off. That is not a reason to forgo the exercise of ROI. I mean, really.... When is having more information on which to base decisions ever a bad thing?
Ok. I'll step off my soapbox. Just take a moment and think about it. If you have a better solution, let me know. And remember, convoluted does not equal better......