Improving IT alignment with the business continues to be a major priority. Often, there is an assumption that IT and the business are aligned if the initiatives in the IT plan are reviewed and approved by business management. Look beyond project priorities to align IT approaches to various business practices with those of its business partners.

Assess Enterprise Personality

Enterprises vary greatly in their approach to practices such as location of decision-making (decentralized vs. centralized) and process-orientation (casual vs. formal). When IT operates differently from the business, IT and the business are out of alignment, even if the IT priority list has full management support.

Info-Tech has found that enterprises can be characterized by their practices on seven attributes of corporate culture:

• Centralized: Enterprises can be decentralized with regard to major decision-making, or strongly centralized with high consistency throughout.
• Process-driven: Some enterprises are very casual about processes, while others are...