Contemporary Demands on Business and IT Alignment

The call for Business and IT Alignment (BITA) is an everlasting and increasing concern for today's enterprises. BITA is no longer just a technical or local concern. Instead we need to embrace various dimensions in the concept of BITA, for instance strategic, structural, social and cultural. In addition to this, the development of concepts like Digital Innovation (DI), Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) has further challenged the success of BITA. As one approach to deal with the multi-dimensional BITA problem and to move the BITA positions forward, Enterprise Modeling (EM) has been acknowledged as a helpful practice. Particularly, EM provides the opportunity to facilitate the creation of integrated models that capture and represent different focal areas of an enterprise, and allows representing the numerous points of view of the key stakeholders. In order to consider the points of view of different stakeholders and create a shared understanding between them the participative character of EM sessions can play an important role. This chapter presents various challenges that EM practitioners face during participative EM sessions, and a number of recommendations that can help to overcome these challenges.

IT Investment Consistency and Other Factors Influencing the Success of IT Performance

IT Business Value (ITBV) research generally proposes that various “good” IT governance and management practices influence positively IT performance. Yet, this claim has proved hard to verify with empirical data. In this study we first identified and analyzed factors that are seen to influence IT deployment success, then hypothesized about the relationships among and between these factors and finally integrated the hypotheses into a research model. We then empirically evaluated the hypotheses and the entire research model. The consistency of IT investments as the response to the cyclical behavior of the economy is a novel factor introduced in this study to the ITBV research. Special attention was also placed on the perceived importance of IT to business, business-IT alignment and IT management. We used survey data of 212 responses collected from CxOs during an economic recession to test the hypotheses and the model for path coefficients and indirect effects. Empirical results confirmed that all research model factors influenced positively IT deployment success. Moreover, high values in the perceived importance of IT, business-IT alignment and the quality of IT management were discovered to be antecedents to the consistency of IT investments, and when that was achieved, the impact was positive on IT deployment success.

The Impact of IT Governance Compliance on Enhancing Organizational Performance in Abu Dhabi

Information Technology (IT) governance is known to play a vital role in the corporate governance in terms of the accountability of the organization's Board of Executives to determine that organization's IT promotes to attain the goals and objectives of the organization, through employing various specific methods, processes and procedures for communication and relationship. In addition, IT governance focuses on how IT is delivering value, controlling risks, managing resources and increase performance. The aim of this work is to analyse IT governance practices used in Abu Dhabi public sector. It employs a quantitative research approach to accomplish the goals of this study. The outcomes of this work refer to important findings such as that most known and recommended international standards and IT frameworks as well as non-IT frameworks are employed by the Abu Dhabi public sector. The known frameworks and standards include ISO 9001, ITILv3, ISO 27001, ISO 20000, PMBOK, BSC, and COBIT respectively, are used as per public entities' needs to enhance the performance of public sector organizations and to comply with local, federal and governmental regulations. This work recommends many plans and best practices that can be employed by both IT governance Board and IT practitioners to leverage IT assets and improve IT governance. Ultimately, the enforcement of such recommended measures in the organizations will result in decreasing overall operational cost as well as enhancing service quality, IT governance effectiveness and interoperability between government bodies.

Aligning Information Systems and Technology with Benefit Management and Balanced Scorecard

Investments in Information Systems and Technology (IS/IT) have not always generated the business value or the financial revenue that should be expected. Some authors argue that the result of those studies that related investments in IS/IT to increased organisational performance over the last thirty years were far from true. Others say that the amount spent on IS/IT and business success has no direct connection. The relationship between IS/IT and performance is widely discussed, but is little understood. Organizations today need to deliver more complex products and demanding services in a better, faster, and cheaper way. The challenges that companies address today require enterprise-wide solutions that call for an integrated approach and the effective management of organizational resources in order to achieve business objectives. Benefits Management (BM) approach proposes a continuous mapping of the benefits of IS/IT investments, implementing and monitoring intermediate results. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is an innovative approach that considers the financial and non-financial perspectives in determining the performance level of an organization. Not only does it represent a measurement tool, but it is also a multi-dimensional system of performance management which focusses on the alignment of all business initiatives with the strategy. In this paper, the authors propose a link between these two approaches to improve the management of business benefits and to ensure that actions taken along the investment life-cycle lead to foreseen benefits realization. The goal of this integration is to propose a framework that combines the “best of” the both methods. A key issue of this combination lies in the fact that all involved stakeholders must understand more clearly what is required, what is realistically expected, and what is possible to achieve from these investments.

Business/IT Alignment in Two-Sided Markets

Business/IT alignment can be considered a key challenge in IT governance and becomes especially important in IT-heavy and internet based business models. Recent discussions express the need for a bi-directional paradigm for internet based business models. IT governance frameworks support business/IT alignment but mostly follow a business-driven alignment paradigm. We identify characteristics of internet based business models and use the case of streaming to examine how the IT governance framework COBIT 5 can integrate these characteristics under consideration of a bi-directional business/IT alignment process. We reveal that requirements for streaming business models may not be fully covered by the framework. Based on a structural description of internet based business models and the COBIT 5 Goal Cascade, we explain these specific requirements and propose a possible integration of a bottom-up alignment. With this work we provide guidance in the challenge of business/IT alignment for internet based business models and show pathways for IT governance frameworks to better support a bi-directional alignment.

A Framework for Research on Information Technology Governance in SMEs

The need to effectively manage IT resources such that they enhance the business value of firms makes IT Governance (ITG) an important issue for both IS researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework for ITG in small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The authors first analyze the main theories applied in ITG research, and confront them with the specificities of SMEs. The authors then highlight the limits of those theories in SMEs context and discuss adaptations needed or alternative theories in such context. The resulting framework is then applied to generate a set of six research propositions on ITG in SMEs.

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been portrayed as one of the cornerstones of modern IT Governance, with increasing numbers of organisations formally recognising an EA function and adopting EA frameworks such as TOGAF (The Open Group Architectural Framework). Many claims have been made of the benefits of EA, yet little is known as to what organisations actually do or evidence of the benefits they accrue through EA. In this paper we report on the results of a small scale survey painting a snapshot of recent EA practice in large UK organisations across the private and public sectors. A key insight from the survey is that, in practice, EA appears to have a greater effect on business-IT alignment than on technological choices.

IT Governance Maturity Patterns in Portuguese Healthcare

The pervasive use of technology in organizations to address the increased services complexity has created a critical dependency on Information Technology (IT) that calls to a specific focus on IT Governance (ITG). However, determining the right ITG mechanisms remains a complex endeavor. This paper uses Design Science Research and proposes an exploratory research by analyzing ITG case studies to elicit possible ITG mechanisms patterns. Six interviews were performed in Portuguese healthcare services organizations to assess the ITG practices. Our goal is to build some theories (ITG mechanisms patterns), which we believe will guide healthcare services organizations about the advisable ITG mechanisms given their specific context. We also intend to elicit conclusions regarding the most relevant ITG mechanisms for Portuguese healthcare services organizations. Additionally, a comparison is made with the financial industry to identify improvement opportunities. We finish our work with limitations, contribution and future work.

A Business Case Process for IT-Enabled Investments

Many organisations perform an adequate job in order to build a sound justification for their decision-making on IT enabled investments. It is recognised that developing a detailed business case is an essential step in order to realise the value potential of IT enabled investments. However, many business cases are often disregarded after the investment approval. Such an attitude towards business case use might be risky. Moreover, several advantages attributed to business cases could only be achieved if they are used continuously throughout the investment life cycle. It is suggested that the latter approach would be more capable to enable benefit realisation and increase the investment success. According to some scholars, a rational transformation is therefore required in which the perspective on business cases shifts from document thinking to process thinking. This study presents an interesting part of the exploration of a process perspective on business cases. Prior research has been helpful to explore individual practices that could support a continuous business case approach and to develop a conceptual model for a business case process. As an important step to increase the validity of the conceptual model and business case practices, the present study investigates through what practices the business case process can be effective in order to enable well-founded investment decision-making and to ultimately increase investment success? Therefore, the article has a threefold aim: (1) to obtain a validated list of business case practices and definitions, (2) to understand the practices' perceived effectiveness / ease of implementation, and (3) to identify a minimum set of key business case practices. In order to achieve these objectives, a group of academic and practitioner experts participated in a Delphi study and validated in total 31 business case practices, of which the majority was perceived as highly effective to support the objectives of a business case process. The paper ends with an exploration of the practical application of business case process practices in the context of COBIT 5, as an instance of a widely used practitioner's framework.