Assessing Business-IT Allignment Maturity

2011 ◽  
pp. 99-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Luftman
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Business Functions ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
Relationship Of

Strategic alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT (Information Technology) and other functional organizations (e.g., finance, marketing, H/R, R&D, manufacturing). Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should, or could, be in harmony with IT. Alignment evolves into a relationship where the function of IT and other business functions adapt their strategies together. Achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. It requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. The strategic alignment maturity assessment provides organizations with a vehicle to evaluate these activities. Knowing the maturity of its strategic choices and alignment practices make it possible for a firm to see where it stands and how it can improve. This chapter discusses an approach for assessing the maturity of the business-IT alignment. Once maturity is understood, an organization can identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT.

scholarly journals IT Strategic Alignment Maturity levels in Kenya

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Mwangi Chege
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Business Alignment ◽  
Business Functions ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
Relationship Of

<p><em>Strategic alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT (Information Technology) and other functional organisations (e.g., finance, marketing, H/R, research, manufacturing). Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should, or could be in harmony with IT. Alignment evolves into a relationship where the function of IT and other business functions adapt their strategies together. Achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. It is a process that requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. Achieving and sustaining alignment demands focusing on maximizing the enablers and minimizing the inhibitors that impact alignment. Once the maturity of IT business alignment is understood, an organisation should be able to identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT.</em></p>

scholarly journals Assessing Business-IT Alignment Maturity

2001 ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry N. Luftman
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Business Alignment ◽  
Manufacturing Organizations ◽  
Business It Alignment ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
Relationship Of

Business and IT practitioners, researchers, and consultants have been asking for an effective tool to assess IT-business alignment. Until now, none was available. This chapter introduces the strategic alignment maturity assessment. This assessment tool is based on the authors’ research and consulting experience that identified the major enablers and inhibitors in the achievement of business-IT alignment and the methodology that leverages the most important enablers and inhibitors. Alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT (information technology) and other functional (e.g., finance, marketing, H/R, manufacturing) organizations. Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should/could be in harmony with IT. Alignment evolves to a relationship where IT and business adapt their strategies together. Achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. IT requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. Achieving and sustaining alignment demands focusing on maximizing the enablers and minimizing the inhibitors. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss an approach for assessing the maturity of the business-IT alignment. Once the maturity is understood, an organization can identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT.

scholarly journals he effect of information technology business alignment factors on performance of SMEs

2021 ◽  
pp. 833-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mechman Slim ◽  
Omar Siti Sarah ◽  
Kadhim Ghaffar Kadhim ◽  
Bashar Jamal Ali ◽  
Ahmed Mohammed Hammood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Business Alignment ◽  
It Managers ◽  
Alignment Model ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
Research Recommendations

Strategic IT-business alignment is being expanded by researchers and professionals owing to its beneficial effect on the performance of SMEs. Luftman (2000) [Luftman, J. (2000). Assessing business-IT alignment maturity. Communications of the Association of Information Systems, 4(14), 1–50.] created the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM), which integrates various alignment viewpoints to offer a cohesive perspective on IT-business alignment. While SAM was widely implemented for western IT studies by theoreticians and practitioners, its adoption is not evident in the Middle East with few available studies. The goal of this gap is to examine the effect of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in Iraq of three alignment styles (communication, governance and competency) listed in SAM. The findings of the current study verified the beneficial effect of all sorts of IT alignment centered on a survey of 228 owners, IT managers, but the latter has also shown a strong positive influence across various types of alignment. Theory and implementation implications are addressed, and more research recommendations are suggested.

Reviewing Business-IT Alignment Instruments Under SAM Dimensions

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Belfo ◽  
Rui Dinis Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Business It Alignment ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
It Executives ◽  
Validated Instrument

Business-IT alignment has been on the top of the concerns of IT executives for many years and how to assess it has been under research. Among many proposals, one of the best known and cited in the literature, showing some relevant empirical work, is the Luftman’s Strategic Alignment Maturity (SAM) categories assessment. Taking it as a framework, seven other proposals are examined using SAM categories as dimensions of business-IT alignment: communications, competency/value measurements, governance, partnership, technology scope and skills. Except for one proposal revealing a tactical level approach, this review shows that business-IT alignment assessment has been studied essentially at the strategic level. Among the examined dimensions across the several proposals, governance is the best covered one while the human resource skills dimension is considerably neglected. Having still room for improvements, either in the governance or the technology scope dimensions, the SAM assessment seems a well balanced instrument. The empirical work already found on SAM provides a good starting point to get an acceptable validated instrument. However, if in terms of content validity, SAM is one of the most promising instruments, there is still much work to do on what concerns its operationalization. Future research should strive for a rigorous, strong instrument on every component of construct validity, namely, the convergent, discriminant and nomological components.

scholarly journals IT Alignment in SMEs: Should it be with Strategy or Process?

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cataldo ◽  
Robert McQueen
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Process Approach ◽  
Dental Clinic ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Strategic Context ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Process Alignment

For many years researchers have been concerned about the alignment of Information Technology (IT) in businesses. Most of the published research has been focused on understanding the alignment of IT with strategy, but a more recent view is that IT alignment with processes would be better, especially for SMEs. This research presents the two different approaches to measuring IT alignment, then uses the case of a small dental clinic to contribute to understanding these two alternative approaches. The results showed that both strategic alignment and process alignment were important, but strategic guidelines set the framework for the use of IT in the processes. These results contradict the claims of researchers who defend the process approach. This work has implications for practitioners because it again highlights the importance of IT in a strategic context in SMEs. This research also contributes to the theory of IT alignment in SMEs, and we hope this will encourage other researchers to study which approach is best suited for this type of business.

scholarly journals Mengukur Tingkat Keselarasan Information Technology dan Bisnis (Studi Kasus Perusahaan Start-up Digital Wilayah Jawa)

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Gregorius Airlangga
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Maturity Model ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Functional Units ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
The Government ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Developing Strategies

Abstract. The alignment between information technology (IT) and business becomes a main issue for a digital start-up which adopts technology as a support for the business activities. As one of the growing business in Indonesia, this organization gets special attention from the government that it will be able to become the backbone of the nation's economy. This has led to a necessity of measuring the alignment level between IT and business at digital start-ups in order to describe the conditions for developing strategies to increase competitive benefits. According to that necessity, the research on the assessment of the alignment between IT and business is conducted by using the Luftman SAM (Strategic Alignment Maturity) model to 30 samples of IT start-up companies from various business fields in Java where the center of digital start-up exists in Indonesia. Based on the results of this study, it was found that the average digital start-up has a pretty good alignment level of 3.45. This shows that the strategic alignment between IT and business is starting to integrate in all functional units. Keywords: alignment maturity, Luftman, SAM, start-up.Abstrak. Keselarasan teknologi informasi (IT) dan bisnis telah menjadi masalah utama start-up digital yang memanfaatkan teknologi sebagai penunjang dalam kegiatan bisnis. Sebagai salah satu organisasi yang marak berkembang di Indonesia, organisasi ini mendapatkan perhatian khusus dari pemerintah untuk mampu menjadi tulang punggung perekonomian bangsa. Hal ini menyebabkan perlunya pengukuran tingkat keselarasan IT dan bisnis pada start-up digital agar dapat menggambarkan kondisi keselarasan yang terjadi sehingga mampu menyusun strategi untuk semakin meningkatkan keuntungan kompetitif. Berdasarkan kebutuhan ini peneliti melakukan penilaian keselarasan antara IT dan bisnis dengan menggunakan model Luftman SAM (Strategic Alignment Maturity) terhadap 30 sampel perusahaan start-up IT dari berbagai bidang bisnis yang berada di wilayah Jawa dimana pusat pertumbuhan start-up digital di Indonesia berada. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini didapatkan bahwa rata-rata start-up digital memiliki tingkat keselarasan yang cukup baik yakni sebesar 3,45. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa keselarasan strategis antara IT dan bisnis mulai terbentuk dan terintegrasi di seluruh unit fungsional. Kata Kunci: keselarasan IT dan bisnis, Luftman, SAM, start-up.

scholarly journals Strategic alignment maturity criteria as a catalyst for enhancing operational excellence in Jordanian industrial companies

2021 ◽  
pp. 1699-1706
Author(s):  
Adel AL-Hashem ◽  
Tareq Abu Orabi
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Communication Competency ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
It Architecture ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
Operational Excellence ◽  
Value Measurement ◽  
Purposive Sample

High convergence level of strategic alignment between business and information technology helps companies enhance operational excellence. This research aims to identify strategic alignment maturity criteria level and their impacts on operational excellence in Jordanian industrial companies. The population of the study consists of all managers at top and middle management and a purposive sample is used to answer questionnaire items. In this survey, 288 valid responses are collected for analysis using SPSS (20) and smart PLS "V. 3". The study reveals that there is a significantly positive impact of strategic alignment maturity criteria (communication, competency-value Measurement, governance, partnership, scope & architecture and skills) on operational excellence. The most maturity criteria have a mid-level of maturity except scope & architecture and competency-value measurement criteria which maintain a low level. Thus, the study concluded that the researched companies have to recognize the business value of information technology (IT) investment and harmonizing IT architecture with business structure.

IT Alignment and the Boundaries of the IT Function

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Valorinta
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
It Outsourcing ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
It Management ◽  
Boundary Management ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Business Functions ◽  
Governance Costs

This study applies the concept of organizational boundary to examine how outsourcing and the management of external and internal boundaries of the information technology (IT) function impact IT alignment. The article argues that by decreasing the governance costs for the less strategic IT transactions, IT outsourcing enables the IT function, and IT management particularly, to focus more on aligning the IT activities and plans with business strategies and priorities, and thereby improve IT alignment. This article also suggests that organizations may improve IT alignment by effectively transmitting knowledge and supporting collaboration between IT and business functions through boundary spanning activities and with boundary objects. The concept of organizational boundaries and boundary management has not been explicitly addressed by the existing research on IT alignment. This study also contributes to the IT outsourcing literature by linking outsourcing to improved IT alignment.

An Organizational Culture Perspective in Business-IT Alignment

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El-Mekawy ◽  
Ehsan Kaboudvand ◽  
Lazar Rusu
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Business It Alignment ◽  
Alignment Maturity ◽  
The Impact

Business-IT alignment (BITA) has gained attention during the last decade. As a result, a number of theoretical models that can be applied as supportive tools for assessing different components of BITA have been developed. However, most of these efforts have been produced in different countries and they ignore the factor that’s subjected to change due to cultural contexts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of organizational culture on achieving BITA and influences its maturity. The research method and process follows the design science research and is done in three phases. First, an in-depth literature survey followed by a survey was carried out to identify and classify limitations of BITA attributes (based on Luftman’s strategic alignment maturity (SAM)) model and then, hypothesize the potential impact of organizational culture element (based on the Smit et al. model) on BITA attributes. Second, an empirical study is carried out to test the hypotheses in order to identify the limited BITA attributes based on organizational culture context. These attributes are further classified for proposing an extended version to the SAM model. Finally, the extended-SAM model is evaluated in 6 Swedish large and medium organizations to test its practicality for comparing its assessment with the assessment of the original SAM model.

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