Aligning IT and Business Strategies - Study Notes

+W Series by OxfordCambridge.Org Topic: Aligning IT and Business Strategies
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Study Notes www.SlideShare.net/OxfordCambridge/ Page 1 of 67
Study Notes v.1.0
+W Series – Technology Skills For Women.1
Aligning IT and Business Strategies
(FoundationLevel)
1
Men too are allowed to read this publication, if they wish to do so, as the language style and the document
format are universal J.

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1. About “+W Series - Technology Skills for Women”
Study Notes in the field of technology are put together under this category for the following
reasons:
• To encourage girls and ladies, who wish to do so, to stand up and look over the
fence into technology related topics.
• With no apprehension or fear.
• And perhaps, considering embracing a career move into a technological path.
• Or simply to broaden their general knowledge; after all IT is already in most aspects
of everyday life.
• No matter the ground for a decision, their skills, their professional strengths and their
contribution can only be something positive for any technological fields.
Please enjoy!
“Education is not about the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire!”
(William Butler Yeats, Irish poet)

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2. Table of Contents
1. About “+W Series - Technology Skills for Women” .................................................................. 2
3. Foreword ................................................................................................................................................ 6
4. Document Structure ............................................................................................................................ 7
5. Introduction to Business Strategy ................................................................................................. 8
5.1. A Case for Bridging the Gap.....................................................................................................................8
5.1.1. New technologies must reduce costs...............................................................................................8
5.1.2. Bridging knowledge gaps and differences between IT and business...............................................8
5.2. The Reasons for the Disconnection.........................................................................................................8
5.3. IT-Business Alignment Insight .................................................................................................................9
5.4. Benefits of IT-Business Alignment.........................................................................................................10
5.5. Potential Drawbacks..............................................................................................................................10
5.6. Continuous IT-Business Alignment........................................................................................................11
6. Relating IT to Business Strategy .................................................................................................. 12
6.1. Core mission and vision can greatly influence IT...................................................................................12
6.2. Leverage IT as a competitive advantage ...............................................................................................12
6.3. Considering Overcoming Alignment Gaps.............................................................................................12
6.3.1. Identifying what guides the decisions businesses make................................................................12
6.3.2. Understanding the Value Chain to gain from it.............................................................................13
6.3.3. Assimilating effective collaboration techniques............................................................................13
6.4. IT with a Purpose, a Business with Tools...............................................................................................13
6.4.1. Considering planning with enterprise architecture .......................................................................13
6.4.2. IT without purpose is useless, business without tools is powerless ...............................................14
6.5. Understanding the Organisation’s Mission, Vision, and Values............................................................14
6.5.1. About mission statements and vision statements.........................................................................14
6.5.2. IT issues should be about accomplishing a mission.......................................................................15
6.5.3. Shared vision helps IT in its critical role within this bigger picture ................................................15
6.6. Organisational Goals and Initiatives......................................................................................................16
6.6.1. Shorter term goals focus on measurable improvements...............................................................16
6.6.2. Business and IT can benefit with open lines of communications...................................................16
6.6.3. IT proactively seeks understanding of what is driving the organisation........................................17
6.6.4. IT should analyse and understand corporate objectives ...............................................................17
6.7. Environmental Analysis and Needs Assessment ...................................................................................17
6.7.1. Environmental analysis and needs assessments are required.......................................................17
6.7.2. IT needs to understand the objectives the organisation focuses on meeting................................18
6.8. Competitive Advantages and Product Differentiation ..........................................................................19
6.8.1. IT professionals should also take into account external factors....................................................19
6.8.2. Understand the technical hurdles business faces..........................................................................19
6.8.3. Identify the organisation’s areas of strength ................................................................................20
6.9. Financial Considerations and Organisational Buy-in .............................................................................20
6.9.1. Unlimited money and time are rare in business ............................................................................20
6.10. Growth & Scalability..........................................................................................................................20

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7. Introduction to the Value Chain ................................................................................................... 22
7.1. Value Chain: the primary driver for many businesses...........................................................................22
7.1.1. Understanding the primary driver for businesses’ decisions .........................................................22
7.1.2. Value chains comprise sets of performed activities.......................................................................22
7.1.3. Value chains in today's global and digitized economy ..................................................................22
7.2. Defining the Value Chain.......................................................................................................................23
7.2.1. Michael Porter’s Model .................................................................................................................23
7.2.2. Overlapping primary activities ......................................................................................................23
7.2.3. Support activities...........................................................................................................................24
7.2.4. Margin...........................................................................................................................................24
7.3. Applying the Value Chain ......................................................................................................................25
7.3.1. Understand our company’s internal structure...............................................................................25
7.3.2. Different value chains are created by each company....................................................................25
7.3.3. Customer do value creation...........................................................................................................25
7.3.4. Value creation with smart products ..............................................................................................26
7.3.5. Value chains and Industry 4.0........................................................................................................26
7.3.6. Value chains and Cloud Computing technology ............................................................................27
7.3.7. IT and business professionals within the Porter’s value chain.......................................................28
8. Understanding Communication Strategies .............................................................................. 30
8.1. Communication skills are key to success in aligning strategies.............................................................30
8.1.1. Reasons for effective collaboration strategies ..............................................................................30
8.1.2. Be prepared to understand others and be understood by others..................................................30
8.2. The Standard Communications Model..................................................................................................31
8.2.1. A need for standard communication model ..................................................................................31
8.2.2. Communication Model overview...................................................................................................33
8.2.3. Communication is a two-way process ...........................................................................................34
8.2.4. Communication breakdowns.........................................................................................................35
8.2.5. The Communication Model in our work environment...................................................................37
8.3. Collaboration Methods .........................................................................................................................41
8.3.1. IT and business working together to attain a consensus...............................................................41
8.3.2. Brainstorming sessions..................................................................................................................41
8.4. Educated Empathy ................................................................................................................................42
8.4.1. Essential concepts for bridging IT-business gap ............................................................................42
8.4.2. IT professionals educated empathy...............................................................................................43
8.4.3. Empower business colleagues for business tools...........................................................................43
8.4.4. IT professionals to challenge themselves ......................................................................................44
8.4.5. Business professionals to challenge themselves, too ....................................................................44
8.4.6. Business professionals to help IT provide the required help..........................................................45
8.5. Resolving Conflicts.................................................................................................................................45
8.5.1. Need of establishing trust and respect..........................................................................................45
8.5.2. IT and Business look to leverage technological strengths .............................................................45
8.5.3. Some level of disagreement is inevitable, but …............................................................................46
8.5.4. Techniques to break deadlocks when conflicts occur ....................................................................47
8.6. Methods for Sharing Information..........................................................................................................51

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8.6.1. About methods selection...............................................................................................................51
8.6.2. The 3 communication methods to utilize.......................................................................................51
8.7. A recap on Understanding Communication Strategies .........................................................................53
9. Getting Ready for the Enterprise Architecture ....................................................................... 55
9.1. Turning shared IT-business goals into tangible success ........................................................................55
9.1.1. There is no “one broad tool” for all organisational needs.............................................................55
9.1.2. How to be equipped to better help our business colleagues .........................................................55
9.2. Exploring Enterprise Architecture .........................................................................................................56
9.2.1. About IT legacy systems ................................................................................................................56
9.2.2. Cohesive set of documentation for enterprise architecture ..........................................................56
9.3. The Benefits of Enterprise Architecture................................................................................................62
9.3.1. Different view of enterprise architecture within our organisation................................................62
9.3.2. Maintaining Alignment of IT & Business Strategies ......................................................................65

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3. Foreword
In many organisations, business and IT are at odd with one another, instead of establishing a
cooperating ground to remove the divide between themselves. For that reason, IT professionals
and managers need to better understand the strategic goals of respective organisations.
Therefore, it’s crucial to learn describing and scrutinizing an organisation' Value Chain, in order
to understand the impact, the Value Chain can have on the decisions the organisation is
making.
Also, IT professionals and managers ought to understand that effective collaboration strategies,
between IT and business, will lead bridging the knowledge gaps and differences in their
backgrounds.
Furthermore, IT professionals and managers need to discover how an enterprise architecture
approach to an organisation's planning will result in better alignment between IT and business
strategies.

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4. Document Structure
Introduction to Business Strategy
Relating IT to Business Strategy
Introduction to the Value Chain
Understanding Communication Strategies
Getting Ready for the Enterprise Architecture

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5. Introduction to Business Strategy
5.1. A Case for Bridging the Gap
5.1.1. New technologies must reduce costs
We must understand that IT has long become a critical part of almost every department. As a result,
businesses have high expectations of their technical investment. New technologies must now
reduce costs, increase security, enhance productivity, or improve workflows and communications.
Nonetheless, despite the important role IT strategy plays, it often ends up as an afterthought. Bolted
on to the business strategy, rather than forming an integral part of it. This is often the case because
IT is viewed as a separate entity, where technology drives investments, instead of the business’
own aims and objectives. Such a divided approach, by both the business as a whole and by IT, is
counterproductive, and usually it only serves to increase the disconnect between the two.
5.1.2. Bridging knowledge gaps and differences between IT and business
Indeed, studies have shown that organisational environments where IT and business objectives
were properly aligned with each other, and others where they haven't been aligned yet.
In each instance, the recommendations of these studies are for IT and business professionals to
bridge this divide. This is a good reason enough, for us IT professionals, to understand the strategic
goals of organisations, the value chain, and the impact it can have on the decisions our
organisations make.
Because effective collaboration strategies that we can use to ensure our perspective is able to
bridge knowledge gaps and differences between IT and business, while looking forward using an
enterprise architecture approach.
5.2. The Reasons for the Disconnection
There are few ways in which IT and Business disconnect and these are the most common reasons:
• IT departments do not have a perfect understanding of what is vital to the business.
• Leadership fails to understand the value of IT.

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• Leadership is not willing to stop using outdated technology.
• IT decisions are made away from business decisions.
5.3. IT-Business Alignment Insight
Aligning IT and business strategies implicates more than just combining the two entities into a single
strategy document. With this model, every aspect of the IT strategy will need to support the goals of
the business.
For that matter, every IT-related investment, activity, service or project should create or optimise
business value. Moreover, to further improve alignment, IT should be looking to achieve business-
related metrics instead of IT related metrics.
Nevertheless, alignment is not the sole responsibility of IT. Therefore, leadership teams need to
have knowledge and capacity of their IT resources. This aspect must not be neglected, for
organisations to become and stay competitive.
Thus, organisations must also understand how technology can play a key role in the effectiveness
or their business, and how this same technology can impact their competitiveness as well as the
speed of response to market change.
It’s safe to say the key to an aligned IT-Business strategy is mutual leadership and accountability.
This means IT must equally increase accountability for their results and hold the business
accountable for IT.

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5.4. Benefits of IT-Business Alignment
Developing an IT-Business alignment model can help improve the organisation’s performance,
which in turn leads to more efficient processes, faster response times and more efficient supply
chains. This is because all aspects of a business, not only, are working towards common goals but
are aware of what other areas of the business are doing:
• Everyone is working towards a common goal.
• IT supports the business strategy, adds value, and drives success.
• It’s easier to control and manage risk and compliance issues.
• Meeting the IT demands consistently and efficiently.
• Increasing the agility of the business and allowing it to react to changes.
• It creates greater integrations and collaboration between departments.
5.5. Potential Drawbacks
It’s important that we remember that alignment is not a one-off, box ticking activity, but rather
something which requires regular reviews, assessments, and adjustments.
Even businesses who achieve alignment can experience disconnect with time, as needs and
priorities change, and other departments react. They will develop their own strategies which work for
them, which will have little thought to how they must adjust IT to support these developments.
However, if this continues, pain-points and organisational friction will arise, and the cause of this is
situation is rarely identified. The result remains staggering as the business strategy has developed,
but IT has stagnated.

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5.6. Continuous IT-Business Alignment
The organisation’s leadership team should review IT strategy alongside business strategy each
quarter. This will help determine how technology is helping growth or, perhaps, hindering it.
Although aligning the IT and business strategy takes time and cooperation, it is an exercise worth
completing. When IT is working to support business goals it leads to happier, more productive
teams, smarter investments, and greater return.

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6. Relating IT to Business Strategy
6.1. Core mission and vision can greatly influence IT
We, IT professionals, should always keep in mind how business strategy can impact IT decision
making, at different levels. We should understand how a company's core mission and vision can
influence what IT values and gives us the clearest understand of the business's reason for being.
Moreover, we consider how organisational goals and initiatives rooted in the business' fundamental
mission can have an active impact on the business' IT decision-making process.
Thus, when we consider - the business's internal environmental factors, and conduct effective
needs assessment, we can relate potential solutions to underlying business’ needs.
6.2. Leverage IT as a competitive advantage
Therefore, when considering how we can leverage IT as a competitive advantage in some
instances, or to differentiate our product offering in other instances, we will proactively use our IT
technical capabilities to influence and advance our organisation's strategic goals.
Also, by planning with future of the business in mind and in sight, we can ensure our IT solutions will
scale and stand the test of time, to meet the business's needs today and into the future.
6.3. Considering Overcoming Alignment Gaps
In order to understand the need for IT and Business strategies to be aligned, we need to explore the
splits between IT and the organisation at large and investigate how the challenges can be
overcome.
6.3.1. Identifying what guides the decisions businesses make
To start, it’s worth looking into business strategy and identifying what guides the decisions
businesses make.

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This will help us to identifying the key drivers to business strategy, and how can these key drivers
impact IT, and furthermore, how IT will be able to help to guide strategic objectives. In doing so, we
need to look at areas such as:
• strategic planning,
• market analysis,
• the impact of competitors,
• and much more.
6.3.2. Understanding the Value Chain to gain from it
Also, we ought to ensure we understand the Value Chain to gain a better insight of what businesses
do and prioritize.
This gives IT professionals the opportunity to gain a good understanding of what drives business
decisions, and that should help IT position its needs and capabilities to maximize integration with
the business.
6.3.3. Assimilating effective collaboration techniques
Moreover, we IT professionals need to assimilate effective collaboration techniques that can support
both business and IT professionals to better understand each other's needs, while learning how to
best work together for the benefit of a common mission.
6.4. IT with a Purpose, a Business with Tools
6.4.1. Considering planning with enterprise architecture
As IT professionals, we need to consider planning with enterprise architecture, in order to have a
comprehensive framework in place that will help IT and Business integrating with one another.

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This will allow us to take into consideration all the different points of view that together give us all
the best sense of the business's needs and priorities.
6.4.2. IT without purpose is useless, business without tools is powerless
If an organisation works the way it should, then all its departments will be working toward the same
goals. IT without purpose is useless, and a business without tools is powerless.
6.5. Understanding the Organisation’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Like everyone in the organisation, IT professionals needs to understand their organisation's mission,
vision, and value statements.
6.5.1. About mission statements and vision statements
A mission statement will outline the purpose and core values of our organisation, and generally
relates to the organisation’s reason for being and what drives it forward.
A vision statement differs from a mission statement in that it focuses more on “what should be”
rather than on “what is”. It's an expression of where the organisation wants to go, and what impact it
wants to have on its community, on the environment or on the world so to speak.
As with a mission statement, good vision statements shouldn’t be long in words. If we consider a
local food bank's vision statement, it should be perhaps “a hunger-free city”.
There's an internal component to the vision, concentrating on our organisation’s operational focus
and presence, as well as an external component, focusing on the organisation's purpose moving
forward.
A mission should be easy enough to understand and goes out of its way to stage the enterprise's
core components and priorities. Thus, if we work in organisations lacking a clear mission or vision, it
will be difficult to understand what drives our organisation sat a deeper level.

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6.5.2. IT issues should be about accomplishing a mission
IT issues should become less about just meeting a deadline or reaching below a certain cost, or
meeting a certain list of requirements, but rather about accomplishing a mission.
Therefore, it's important for both business and IT professionals to actively share their vision, in order
to allow both sets of professionals to view the bigger picture.
6.5.3. Shared vision helps IT in its critical role within this bigger picture
Furthermore, this shared vision will help IT professionals see the critical role that their IT department
has to play within this bigger picture. So, when everyone’s concentration becomes focus on what
really matters, both IT and business sides can act in a more proactive manner.
Thus, IT professionals will become successful in generating effective and long-lasting solutions for
their organisation, and to a certain extend for the benefits of everyone in the organisation.

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6.6. Organisational Goals and Initiatives
While organisational mission and vision statements can provide key insight into what drives a
business over the long run, more useful information can often sparkle from shorter term priorities.
6.6.1. Shorter term goals focus on measurable improvements
It’s understood that shorter term goals usually focus on measurable improvements that should be
achieved within a set amount of time.
An illustration of that could be
• the increasing of profit margin or productivity,
• the decreasing of cost or defect rates,
• the improvement of product quality or the developing of a new product or service,
• cultivating and nurturing of a new market.
6.6.2. Business and IT can benefit with open lines of communications
Such goals and initiatives could already have been set by the leadership of the company and been
well understood throughout the organisation.
As such, both business side and IT side of an organisation can benefit by maintaining open and
honest lines of communications between IT business colleagues. Because, when business leaders
announce new initiatives without consulting with their technical experts, including IT, they may set
goals that are difficult or expensive to meet.
Therefore, these initiatives may be proven to be either worthwhile, or they may proactively limit their
ambitions unnecessarily by not understanding how a limited solution might scale to meet a broader
set of needs.

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6.6.3. IT proactively seeks understanding of what is driving the organisation
Nevertheless, it's incumbent on IT professionals to proactively seek an understanding of what's
driving the organisation both in the long and short terms.
If a cost-cutting initiative is underway, IT proposals that don't result in lower cost are unlikely to be
well received by the business.
When the business is seeking to grow rapidly, creating a solution that meets today's needs and not
the ones for the future will result in a failure further down the line.
If our company doesn't involve IT professionals in key decisions, we ought to find out why, and use
our communication channels we may have to improve this situation for the best.
6.6.4. IT should analyse and understand corporate objectives
Nowadays, there's almost no corporate initiative that can be undertaken that wouldn’t impact or
wouldn't be impacted by technical and IT considerations.
For that reason, as IT professionals, we shouldn’t only seek to meet the corporate needs as they
have been outlined, but to seek to analyse and understand why these objectives are being sought.
This process will leave us better equipped to create solutions that drive at the heart of the
underlying problems or opportunities, rather than simply check a box or meet an incomplete list of IT
requirements.
6.7. Environmental Analysis and Needs Assessment
Organisational goals and initiatives require additional analysis to understand how best to address
them.
6.7.1. Environmental analysis and needs assessments are required
This is where environmental analysis and needs assessment can come into action. It's not enough
to simply say we wish to cut costs, improve quality, or increase efficiency. Thus, to accomplish
these goals, we must understand where issues with cost, quality and efficiency might take place.
For instance, would a memory leak causing our internal processing program to run less efficiently
than it should require regular reboots? We might tend to think, too often, that environmental analysis

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focuses purely on the external; in order to better understand the broader market and the positioning
of our competitors.
However, cross-industries’ experiences show that effective analysis always begins with a full
understanding of internal factors within an organisation.
6.7.2. IT needs to understand the objectives the organisation focuses on meeting
We IT professional need to understand what drives the organisation, what objectives does the
organisation focus on meeting in the short and long terms, and most importantly to understand the
reasons. Proactive IT leadership requires that these elements be investigated.
That means, we need to trigger an analysis process aiming at answering these questions,
identifying underlying needs, and specifying solutions based on the outcomes of this analysis of
data, along with conversations with others, and also testing hypotheses to see what IT solutions
work best.

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6.8. Competitive Advantages and Product Differentiation
6.8.1. IT professionals should also take into account external factors
While internal analysis is a critical place to start, IT professionals should take into account external
factors in parallel.
When IT solutions are directed at customers or outside users, they directly impact the organisation's
ability to serve customers or outside users.
The reason is that as we must take our competitors into account and determine how we can best
position ourselves or produce for success.
6.8.2. Understand the technical hurdles business faces
Even a straightforward business decision can have a significant number of impacts on the business'
IT environment.
Therefore, understanding the technical hurdles, the business faces, will help support the decisions
the business makes, and ensure that we IT professionals make technical promises we can fulfil.

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6.8.3. Identify the organisation’s areas of strength
Just as importantly, identifying the organisation’s areas of strength can help differentiate more
effectively from the competition. Indeed, examining the external market can lead us to both:
• better understand where IT deficiencies might keep our organisation from competing more
effectively,
• and show us where our unique strengths will allow us to be in a strong position vis a vis
with customers.
6.9. Financial Considerations and Organisational Buy-in
6.9.1. Unlimited money and time are rare in business
6.9.1.1. Organisational constraints are facts of the business life:
In an ideal world resources would be unlimited, and every ideal solution would be implementable.
However, we live in a real world where organisational constraints are simply facts of the business
life.
Thus, unlimited money and time are equally rare, and there is typically a relationship between these
two core elements. Consequently, the quicker an organisation needs a solution, the more it will cost.
6.9.1.2. Balancing costs and implementation time:
On the other hand, keeping costs down might be possible, but only if a solution is implemented over
a greater period of time.
Hence, understanding both the businesses needs and priorities, and also its capabilities will allow IT
professionals and business leaders to work together, to choose the best solutions. Offering a 10
000 currency units solution to a 1 000 currency units problem is not the best approach, even if the
money is available.
Choosing the best solution isn't simply a matter of what system infrastructure might give us the
greatest speed, the most reliable uptime, or the greatest safeguard against future changes.
Therefore, picking up the best solution is about considering various types of priorities, along with the
business's preferences, within financial ability, and the urgency of the need, as well as what
business advantages we can attain for different types of solutions proposals.
As IT professionals or “Business Information Technologists”, we will ensure that we have a good
understanding of what factors drive business decisions, technical, strategic, cultural, and financial
empowers IT to better meet the business's needs.
6.10. Growth & Scalability
We, IT professionals, need to think carefully about how our solutions might need to function not only
in an ideal or virtual world, but also in the real business environment. Hence, we should visualize for
the future how well will our solutions scale as the business grows.
Furthermore, how long will the given solution remain reliable in order to continue to meet the
business's needs.

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Although every solution doesn’t need to be built to last for centuries, it's best to assume that our
proposed solution will cope with the workload it is supposed to handle over a longer period of time,
even in less optimal conditions than that at the beginning of the solution’s life-cycle.
We need to consider contingencies which will occur towards the end of the proposed solution’s
lifecycle, to attain and long-term success.

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7. Introduction to the Value Chain
7.1. Value Chain: the primary driver for many businesses
7.1.1. Understanding the primary driver for businesses’ decisions
IT professionals need to keep a close eye on the value chain and understand how this value chain
impacts Information Technology's place within our respective organisations. For that reason, in this
section, we should understand what the primary driver for most businesses’ decisions: the value
chain.
7.1.2. Value chains comprise sets of performed activities
A value chain comprises a set of performed activities that create a product or service that's more
valuable than the sum of its parts on their own.
For that, when we take raw materials, refine them through a set of processes, and then distribute
them to our customers or end-users, value chains give opportunities to our organisation to profit and
moreover, to exist as profitable organisation.
7.1.3. Value chains in today's global and digitized economy
Value chains can be either physical or digital in nature, though in today's global and digitized
economy, we often find a mix of physical and digital value chains.
Therefore, as IT professionals, supporting the business, we need to comprehend not only the
traditional physical supply chain concept and its underlying framework, but how the value chain
concept applies to digital products and services.
We also need to explore how linking and using the components in the value chain together can lead
to strategies that should better be aligned with business objectives.

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7.2. Defining the Value Chain
7.2.1. Michael Porter’s Model
In the 1970s, Michael Porter was one of the firsts to convert these principles of business production
and market dynamics into a standardized framework. When business leaders take a broad view of
the entire value chain, they are better able to determine what allows the business to do its job, what
might be wasteful, and what portions of work are more critically valuable.
7.2.2. Overlapping primary activities
Porter’s model begins with five primary activities:
Inbound logistics, which includes securing the raw materials necessary for our business to do
its job; for example, securing fruits supply and sugar or flour ahead of making jam or patisserie.
Operations includes all of the refining processes undertaken to create something valuable out
of the raw materials (fruits, sugar, flour). Every item involved in producing the jam falls into this
category.
Outbound logistics comprise of steps necessary to distribute the finish product to customers
who will value it. This ensemble of steps could include anything from the grouping of jam boxes
and loading on pallets used to transport the jam to distribution warehouses where they will be
stored, and the vehicles with which we deliver those boxes of jam.
Marketing and sales guarantee that the products have somewhere to go by building the market
for jam. This could include account managers, who deal directly with groceries stores and others
who might be interested in selling the jars of jam, as well as team members in charge of making
sure that the jam are more desirable through attractive box art, competitive pricing, unique
designs and so on so forth.

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Service can be the very critical category amongst all the categories seen above for reason of
more critical endeavours. Service includes all the activities required to support the product and
ensure that it continues to deliver its value throughout its lifespan, after it's in the hands of
customers.
Although the five primary activities normally occur in a linear mode: sometimes overlapping between
outbound logistics, marketing, and service.
7.2.3. Support activities
Four categories of support activities are involved from start to finish.
The first category is infrastructure, covering factory buildings, necessary utilities, and possibly
industrial machineries.
Human resource management includes all necessities for ensuring that we have the right
individuals in place to drive the business forward, and to manage and coordinate other
requirements of employing people. This will include administering benefits and ensuring
employees’ safety.
Technology may include heavy industrial equipment, information technology services (needed
to operate machines, and the empowerment of sales staff, allow management to perform their
duties and tasks, etc.).
Lastly, the fourth of these categories is procurement. It incorporates all relationships with
external suppliers including suppliers of raw materials and the delivery and/or shipping company
our organisation engaged with to take our products to the market.
7.2.4. Margin
7.2.4.1. Business drive is toward a profit:
At the end of the value chain, with the five primary activities running rather sequentially, and with the
support activities running constantly in the background, we arrive at the margin that is our
organisation’s raison d’être. No matter what business and industry they are in, for our organisations
the drive is always toward profit.
This profit acts as a resource giving subsequently a force that allows our organisation to reinvest in
the business and pursue its goals, may that be might be expanding into new markets or increasing
monetary returns to shareholders.
7.2.4.2. Scale up value chain or rise profitability margins:
For that reason, the determination to expand profit is an essential driving force for every commercial
enterprise.
In order to achieve this, an organisation might either scale up its value chain, by producing more of
its products and/or services, or it might rise its profitability margin of each unit that it produces.
7.2.4.3. Or a mix of both ways:
In practice, skilful business leadership will insistently look for both ways to grow the business and to
increase profit margin by multiple means. That could be by decreasing expenses or by finding
methods to generate more value.

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Whatever the case, we must anticipate this value chain-centred philosophy to guide business
decisions, always, and that is applicable to both digital services and physical products.
7.3. Applying the Value Chain
7.3.1. Understand our company’s internal structure
We need to remember that Porter’s value chain concept suggests that a company’s competitive
advantage cannot be looked at in general - as it’s also necessary to understand the company’s
internal structure, i.e., how individual business elements contribute to delivering the product or
service at a lower price or at a higher quality.
One of the possible types of the value chain approach is to systematize intra-corporate activities
and to find the source(s) of competitive advantage.
7.3.2. Different value chains are created by each company
Not only are the value chains of companies, in different industries, differ themselves, but also
different value chains are created by each company operating in the same industry. This structure
depends on the company’s strategy, the way it implements its strategy and corporate traditions too.
The value that a chain generates is the amount that the product or/and service is worth for the end-
consumer. This price must go far beyond cost, which is the basis for every company to survive.
Understanding and serving the value-based approach, for instance customers’ needs, is the
foundation of any corporate strategy.
7.3.3. Customer do value creation
The physical value chain includes the processes Porter classifies as primary functions in customer
value creation, while the virtual value chain embraces the entire company, and refers to the
information captured during the stages of physical value creation.
In this way, companies can monitor the whole process of value creation, and perform value-adding
activities more efficiently and more effectively.

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7.3.4. Value creation with smart products
It’s claimed that providing information about the product, the production process and more, can also
be considered as value-adding services.
This approach corresponds with the aims of applying IoT tools (Internet of Things) and Industry 4.0
technologies in production and other processes, while linking information-based services to
products (referred to sometimes smart products).
7.3.5. Value chains and Industry 4.0
As mentioned above, the value chain concept is equally important when applied to digital services
and physical goods. Let’s use Industry 4.0 to comprehend the application of Porter’s value chain.
Industry 4.0, the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” is the ongoing transformation of traditional
manufacturing and industrial practices combined with the latest smart technologies.
This transformation focuses on the use of large-scale machine-to-machine communication (M2M)
and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments to provide increased automation, improved
communication, and self-monitoring, as well as smart machines can analyse and diagnose issues
without the need for human intervention.
The tools of Industry 4.0 in the corporate value chain are shown in the graphic next below. It can be
seen that the effects of most of the technologies span over functional boundaries and affect the
entire value creating process.

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7.3.6. Value chains and Cloud Computing technology
Another illustration of applying technologies in production could be the value chains for Cloud
Computing technology companies.
Based on the firmly established developments in Cloud Computing technologies in recent years,
commercial computing resource services (e.g. Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and
more) or Software-As-a-Service offerings (SaaS), e.g. Salesforce.com, came into existence and are
thriving.
Although this model is theoretically based on Porter's value chain theory, the proposed Cloud value
chain model is upgraded to fit the diversity of business service scenarios in the Cloud Computing
markets.

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7.3.7. IT and business professionals within the Porter’s value chain
As IT professionals, we need to challenge ourselves to find ways to share the technical problems
and opportunities we see in a way that our business colleagues can openly relate to.
7.3.7.1. Avoiding overloading business colleagues with technical details:
If we overload them with technical details, our business colleagues would understandably lack the
knowledge to comprehend. Therefore, they are likely to agree with us based on trust or luck, and
this is a position we shouldn’t find ourselves in, as true IT professionals.
Instead, we should convert our technical jargons into terms that our business colleagues will
understand.
7.3.7.2. Showing how technology impacts the value chain instead:
Moreover, we should show our business colleagues how the value chain is impacted by the
technology.

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As a result, we will earn their support and build trust over time for future decisions, or when making
a challenging decision that impacts the short term, and this will lead to better long-term results.
7.3.7.3. Business professionals making efforts when speaking with IT:
Likewise, business professionals need to make their own effort when speaking with their IT
colleagues.
They should focus on increasing their understanding of technical concepts and challenges when
being discussed, with us, their IT counterparts.
In order achieve this, business professionals should do their best to meet IT professional halfway,
by developing a strong conceptual, if not technical, understanding of what's being discussed.
This will allow them to ask more discerning questions and potentially identify areas of risk or
opportunities that their IT colleagues may have overlooked.
7.3.7.4. Humility and educated empathy approach:
Most importantly, both business and IT professionals are to approach these discussions with
humility and educated empathy for the perspectives of others.
IT focus may not understand what customers want and why, and sales staff may not understand
whether new features customers are requesting are easy or hard to implement.
Regardless of our background, be it business or be it Information Systems, she needs to focus on
improving our understanding of the value chain, in order for us to always do right by our customers,
our colleagues, and more importantly by our organisation.

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8. Understanding Communication Strategies
8.1. Communication skills are key to success in aligning strategies
8.1.1. Reasons for effective collaboration strategies
This is where we focus on effective collaboration strategies, so that we will be better prepared to
understand the needs, concerns, and desires of our colleagues, and be able to better present our
own needs, concerns, and desires to others.
8.1.2. Be prepared to understand others and be understood by others
In order for business and IT strategies to align, everyone involved must be properly prepared to
understand others and be understood by others. For that reason, communication skills are key to
success in aligning strategies.
That is said, we are going to proceed in the following order:
• First look at the standard communications model, in order to see how messages often get
lost in translation between technical and non-technical professionals.
• Next, we'll look at the soft skills that we should be aware of as effective communicators.

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• Then, we'll look at techniques for collaboration and methods for resolving conflicts, both of
which can help us come to a consensus in developing a plan for success with our
colleagues.
• And finally, we'll look at the landscape of methods for sharing information, and how
choosing the right set of information can help us adapt our strategies most effectively to
an ever-changing environment.
8.2. The Standard Communications Model
8.2.1. A need for standard communication model
In our professional environment, situations where a simple misinterpretation results in a widespread
difficulty can occur easily.
These situations cannot be accounted for cases of ill trust on any side of the argument. They are
somewhat the result of asymmetric communication resulting in asymmetric information.
Therefore, understanding how we, on both the IT and business sides, communicate at present with
the others from procedural point of view can help improve the way we communicate with others for
the future collaboration.
In turn, this will help ensure that we are understood by others and can best understand others as
well.
There is already a standard communication model to guide us achieving our goal, improving
communication between us and others.

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8.2.2. Communication Model overview
Adler and Towne describe communication as a process between at least two people that begins
when one person wants to communicate with another.
8.2.2.1. Encoding the message – by Sender:
Communication originates as mental images within a person who desires to convey those images to
another. Mental images can include ideas, thoughts, pictures, and emotions. The person who wants
to communicate is called the sender.
To transfer an image to another person, the sender first must transpose or translate the images into
symbols that receivers can understand. Symbols often are words, of the spoken language, but can
be pictures, sounds, or sense information (e.g. touch or smell).
Only through symbols can the mental images of a sender have meaning for others. The process of
translating images into symbols is called encoding.
8.2.2.2. Transmit or communicate the message – to Receiver:
Once a message has been encoded, the next level in the communication process is to transmit or
communicate the message to a receiver.
This can be done in many ways: during face-to-face verbal interaction, over the telephone, through
printed materials (letters, newspapers, etc.), or through visual media (SMS, email, television,
photographs).
Verbal, written, and visual media are three examples of possible communication channels used to
transmit messages between senders and receivers.

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Other transmission channels include touch, gestures, clothing, and physical distances between
sender and receiver.
8.2.2.3. Decoding the message – Receiver:
When a message is received by another person, a decoding process occurs.
Just as a sender must encode messages in preparation for transmission through communication
channels, receivers must sense and interpret the symbols and then decode the information back
into images, emotions, and thoughts that make sense to them.
When messages are decoded exactly as the sender has intended, the images of the sender and the
images of the receiver match, and effective communication occurs.
8.2.3. Communication is a two-way process
8.2.3.1. Human communication - a two-way process:
Discussing communication in terms of sender-receiver implies one-way communication. However,
human communication often is a two-way process in which each party shares sending and receiving
responsibilities. Such two-way communication follows a transactional and interactive model.
This transactional model of communication refers to the exchange of messages or information
between the sender and the receiver where each take turns to send or receive messages.
The sender encodes a message and transmits it though appropriate channel to the receiver in the
presence of noise.
8.2.3.2. Clear-cut beginning and end to communication:
This model assumes that there is a clear-cut beginning and an end to communication, with an
exchange or interaction between people, based on the basic premises of ‘exchange’ or ‘give and
take’:
• The sender and receiver act as both encoder and decoder and the sources of the
message.

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• The message is the information to be communicated.
• Feedback, that is, when the decoder forms a second message after receiving the first
message.
• Field experience is the experience and knowledge which affect the message formation
and interpretation. Such knowledge and experience are often shaped by cultural,
psychological, professional, social, and situational setting in which the message is
formed and is interpreted.
• Interactive communication also considers the concept of noise and barriers to
communication like language, network problems, improper channel selection which
affects the communication model.
• Internet, social media, interactive marketing. ATMs, online shopping, chat room are
examples of interactive communication model.
8.2.4. Communication breakdowns
8.2.4.1. If only the world was ideal:
IT and business professionals were to have the same experiences, all messages would be
encoded, transmitted, and decoded alike. Symbols would have the same meanings for everyone,
and all communication would be received as the senders intended.
8.2.4.2. But humans differ in their personal histories:
However, we humans differ in our personal histories, ways in which we experience things, and
emotional responses, leading to differences in the ways in which communications are encoded,
transmitted, received, and understood; since different people attach different meanings to the
words, pictures, sounds, and gestures used during communication.
8.2.4.3. Difficulty with the encoding and decoding:
Difficulty with the encoding and decoding is not the only factor that affects the effectiveness of
communication between people. Adler and Towne, again, use the concept of noise to describe
physical and psychological forces that can disrupt communication.

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8.2.4.4. Physical noise:
Physical noise refers to noticeable distractions in the environment that make it difficult to hear or
pay attention. An illustration is, when our offices’ environment is excessively hot or excessively cold,
or when we are in a noisy open-space office, we may tend to focus more concern on the situation
than on the message.
Physical noise can obstruct communication at any point in the process, whether that is in the
sender, in the message, in the channel, or in the receiver.
8.2.4.5. Psychological noise:
Psychological noise refers to mechanisms within individuals that restrict a sender’s or receiver’s
ability to express and/or understand messages clearly. An example is, senders with limited IT or
business vocabularies may have difficulty translating images into symbols that can be understood
easily by receivers.
Receivers with inflated self-concepts may filter messages that disagree with their self-perceptions
and put energy into defending themselves rather than into understanding the messages.
Psychological noise most often results in defensiveness that blocks the flow of communication
between sender and receiver.
8.2.4.6. Communication increases:
As the quantity of people taking part in a communication increases, the potential for errors in
encoding and decoding increases, along with the potential for physical and psychological noise.

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8.2.5. The Communication Model in our work environment
8.2.5.1. Being constructing in our messages:
In our work environment, within IT or business, we ought to take particular care when constructing
our messages to best suit our understanding of the recipient's knowledge level and the context in
which they might receive our messages.
8.2.5.2. Sending highly technical or business-centred documents impact:
Sending a highly technical or business-centred document to a colleague lacking technical or
business proficiency is likely to leave confused and wondering.
Also, if we take the time to go through concepts at a foundation level, our messages' recipients are
likely to have already the necessary understanding, we would be wasting both our time and our
recipients’ time.
8.2.5.3. The transmission method’s impact on communication:
The transmission method we choose can also have an impact on the IT-oriented or business-
oriented message.
Conveying the exact same message face to face via an email or via a quick text message (Skype,
Teams or iMessage) can carry very different connotations. This is due because of the noise factors
that are inherent in transmission.
Distance is perhaps the most important of these noise factors. When we speak with IT colleagues or
a business colleagues at close proximity, it's possible to read their body language, respond
instantaneously to what we each hear, and more easily ensure that what has been said is what has
been understood.
8.2.5.4. The process degrades at each new layer of obstruction:
The process degrades as each new layer of obstruction is placed between the sender and the
receiver of the message.
A video conference with a business colleague isn't the same as an in-person discussion; this is due
to the delay and difference in environment involved, though it still results in less noise than a phone
call or written message might.
On the other hand, a written document or email might allow the sender to better collect their
thoughts, and more precisely share them back with the receiver.
This will improve their odds of understanding, the lack of immediate feedback and the ability to
listen for tone, and watch for body language degrades the receiver's ability to understand the
message in other ways.

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8.2.5.5. Emojis in professional communications:
This is a key reason why emojis have become so popular and are increasingly acceptable even in
many informal, but professional communications between IT and business.
Emojis enhance our written words with a sense of emotional resonance that we lose when body
language and vocal tone are removed from the equation.
8.2.5.6. Technical limitations impact communication:
Technical limitations can also degrade the comprehensibility of our messages.
For instance, a bad connection could result in dropped words during a Skype phone call or
Microsoft Teams video conference.
Electronic messages may be constrained to certain limits, the way a tweet is limited to 280
characters or so.
This illustrates the types of parameters that can sometimes help senders to further refine their
messages, but often times strip away context and leave room for interpretation.

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8.2.5.7. Cultural differences impact communication:
Cultural differences between IT and business colleagues can be another source of noise in
communication.
Individuals may use words with different meanings, or use slang, or phrases that are unfamiliar to
the receiver of a message.
Furthermore, some IT or business colleagues may be more or less direct in expressing themselves
due to cultural background. Or they may do so in ways that aren't completely familiar to colleagues
standing opposite to them.
For instance, when meeting face to face, it may be that conversation participants from some
cultures may be more likely to answer yes to any request, with the meaning truly being that they
understand the request, not that they have agreed to it, for they feel like saying no directly would be
rude.
8.2.5.8. Taking time to consider the message received:
Even when we take great care to choose precisely the words we wish to frame our message with,
and then we transmit the message to our business colleague receiver in a manner relatively low of
noise factors, it will still be up to the business colleague listener to comprehend and respond to what
we have just said.
The message's recipient, i.e. our business colleague, must take time to consider what we
communicated to them, whether it be in a conversation through a written message or any other
communication format. This is where they must try to decipher our meaning, based on what we
have just said.

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8.2.5.9. Acknowledging receiving the message:
Following this decoding process, two more steps may take place.
First, the business colleague receiver may acknowledge that she/he has received our message.
This could be as simple as email read receipt, or as simple as nodding her/his head to indicate that
she/he is listening to us when speaking face-to-face. Such an acknowledgement only indicates that
the message has been received and is not itself necessarily a reply.
The required reply is left for the final stage of the process made of feedback and response, where
the business colleague listener may begin a new communication cycle by encoding and transmitting
a message back to us. A solid noise reduction activity can take place at this point and can often be
somewhat helpful.
8.2.5.10. Rephrase message content with own words:
Taking the time to rephrase what we have heard in our own words and share that back with our IT
colleague sender with whom we are conversing will help to confirm a mutual understanding on both
IT and business sides.
Phrases like so “you mean”, or “what I'm hearing is”, or “if I understand you correctly”, can start off
an opportunity for such a confirmation to take place.
Here, the original messenger will take the opportunity to confirm or correct any misunderstandings.
8.2.5.11. Importance of understanding the process flow:
This may seem like a really overstressed way to look at communications, but understanding how
this process flows in each conversation, and with each IT or business correspondence we send or

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receive is important, because it can show us to be aware of where and how misunderstandings
happen, and therefore make us better equipped to proactively prevent these misunderstandings.
8.3. Collaboration Methods
8.3.1. IT and business working together to attain a consensus
8.3.1.1. Take a first good step for consensus:
The ability for sharing knowledge stands at the centre of aligning business and IT strategies. Taking
the right steps to better understand our organisation's underlying mission and vision, and moreover
what strategic goals the organisation is trying to, are considered a first good step.
8.3.1.2. Move beyond the consensus first good step:
Nevertheless, progressing further beyond the first good step requires us to work with others. On one
hand to better understand the full picture, and on the other hand to arrive as a consensus for how to
move forward.
8.3.2. Brainstorming sessions
8.3.2.1. A starting point for technical and nontechnical professionals:
In terms of approach, brainstorming sessions can be a great starting point to work together for
technical and nontechnical professionals, for IT professionals and business professionals.
Technically minded participants need to know what their non-technically minded colleagues need or
wish. And furthermore, they need to understand that the non-technical participants lack the
important knowledge and context to know how these requirements can practically be met.

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8.3.2.2. Generate ideas, validate, and prioritize them:
Therefore, gathering together to address and establish issues or to leverage opportunities that's
been agreed upon, can allow teams of IT and business professionals to quickly gain both a sense of
goal for potential initiatives, and theirs limits too.
It's important we set some initial expectations for our brainstorming sessions. Our goal, at that
stage, should be to generate ideas that help us in one of several specific ways, that will be linked to
core business goals.
To illustrate that point, let’s say we add a new feature to our existing product for the following
reasons. That is to help us address a new arising market, or address our existing market in an
improved way, or save time or cut costs, or improve quality or customer satisfaction.
Therefore, each idea will have be validated against an underlying business and decide which to
pursue and prioritize.
8.4. Educated Empathy
8.4.1. Essential concepts for bridging IT-business gap
Earlier in this Study Notes, we went through the concept of educated empathy. We also covered the
importance of mutual understanding and clear communications between IT professionals and
business personnel.

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These concepts are rather essential for us to succeed, when willing to bridge the gap between the
business and technical or IT entities of our organisation.
8.4.2. IT professionals educated empathy
8.4.2.1. Business users are usually not at fault:
From an IT perspective, we can easily grumble about our non-technical and business colleagues,
who seem to have issues effectively using the tools for their business daily activities.
Nevertheless, the truth though is that users are at fault far less often than we might like to believe
when looking for someone to blame.
8.4.2.2. Faulty hardware or software might be the problem:
Sometimes unexpectedly faulty hardware or software might be the problem, with neither IT
professionals nor business colleagues really having something to do with it.
Often, the problem is that the tool our business colleagues are having issues with is not truly suited
to their needs.
This example illustrates the case where there is a need for educated empathy for IT professionals,
when helping business colleagues troubleshooting issues or define IT solutions to fit with business
strategies.
8.4.3. Empower business colleagues for business tools
It’s paramount for IT professionals to understand the issues business colleagues are facing. That is
not only in terms of the technical details of these issues, but why these issues are so important to
them.

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It's also valuable to consider a solution, that is not only capable of accomplishing the goal or solving
an issue our business colleagues are facing, but furthermore that solution should allow our business
colleagues to carry out operations that matter most to their line of work.
Additionally, it's essential we empower our business colleagues best, so that they are able to exploit
the provided business tools without our interference, unless in exceptional circumstances.
8.4.4. IT professionals to challenge themselves
Therefore, when we IT professionals are working with business leadership to define future needs or
solve issues, we ought to challenge ourselves on few points, in the manner that follows.
• We should raise questions regarding currently deployed systems or future ones, on
meeting the challenges being faced by the business, in a way that's both useful and usable.
• Also, we need to access whether business users are able to overcome the challenges they
face, without assistance from IT professionals, but with the help of the appropriate training
and documentation for the systems they use.
• Similarly, we should evaluate and then craft a solution that meets our business users’
needs. Moreover, we need to consider at all time ways to assist our business colleagues
move forwards, when necessary, to best accomplish our organisational shared goals.
8.4.5. Business professionals to challenge themselves, too
No need to say that this concept goes both ways. While IT leadership should display educated
empathy towards their business colleagues, that professional respect will be mirrored from the
business side, too:

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• Business leadership should ask themselves whether their requests, to the IT side, are
reasonable in a first instance.
• In a second instance, they should evaluate whether there are ways the business side can
better communicate their challenges or desires.
• Thirdly, they need to understand if with their effective ways that the business will be able
to empower their IT colleagues to assist them, either by displaying greater flexibility in
developing solutions, or by providing the IT-side with additional resources.
8.4.6. Business professionals to help IT provide the required help
Efficient IT leadership is always looking for ways to respond to business originated queries, and to
provide great solutions in return.
However, business professionals need to help IT provide help to the business, by clearly stating
challenges business faces, by attentively listening to IT’s advices and by facilitating the
development of IT-proposed solutions.
8.5. Resolving Conflicts
8.5.1. Need of establishing trust and respect
One needs to take into account that conflicts are inevitable in strategic planning, especially when
technology is involved.
This constitutes enough reason for establishing trust and respect between technical and non-
technical leaders within our organisation.
It’s the case where open and continuous communication will help reduce the information asymmetry
which resides at the heart of avoidable conflicts.
8.5.2. IT and Business look to leverage technological strengths
When technical leaders are able to understand the business' priorities, while at the same time,
business leaders have a certain degree of appreciation for technical complexities, and both groups
look for ways to leverage technological strengths in the following manner:

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• They set organisational objectives which will have positive results.
• Moreover, in such an environment, many conflicts can be avoided before they even arise.
8.5.3. Some level of disagreement is inevitable, but …
Nevertheless, we must accept that some level of disagreement is inevitable, perhaps in one of the
few key categories which follow:
• First, we all know that resources are limited in every modern organisation, therefore
conflicts overtime and cost are inevitable at some level, within our organisation.
• It may prove not feasible to implement an IT solution within the delay the business would
have expected, especially when financial resources are constrained. Likewise, some
budgets are proven unworkable given the baseline costs attached to some of the technical
capabilities.
• Furthermore, there is the delicate matter of solutions wanted by the business leadership,
for which our organisation may lack of technological capabilities to implement.
In most cases the challenges may be theoretically possible, but only a good degree of patience will
make it feasible.

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This is especially true for solutions that are reliant on third-party tools, which lack the resources and
capabilities to allow our business users to take more direct control of their needs.
Still, there are techniques that exist to help us break the deadlock when conflicts occur, between IT
and business (as mentioned earlier).
8.5.4. Techniques to break deadlocks when conflicts occur
8.5.4.1. MoSCoW method:
The MoSCoW method is one of those techniques to help us break a given deadlock. This method
name stands for:
• Must,
• Should,
• Could, and
• Won't have.
With that method:
• All minimum viability features should be categorized as Must have.
• All features that seem critical, however still fit in a category which is considered to be the
bare minimum should fall into the Should have category.
• Desirable aspects that are less critical will be listed under Could have category.
• Features that are definitely not necessary, at least for now, should be placed into the Won't
have category.
It’s clear that this categorization process can itself be difficult to carry out:
• How do we decide what features are truly a Must?
• How do we distinguish between Should and Could have?
• And how do we determine when an aspect is not important enough to list it?
In this situation, the technics of weighted rankings and multi-voting can both be useful, as described
next.
8.5.4.2. Weighted rankings:
Weighted rankings are rather useful in analytical analysis. When there is a need to directly compare
costs, relevant performance specifications, timing, or other calculable factors and a consensus
should be reached on what weight to give each of these categories.

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To illustrate that point:
• We could assign 25% of our importance to cost, 35% to ease of use, 30% to performance,
and 10% to time to launch when comparing different deployment options for an IT tool for
business operations.
• When an agreement is reached on how to weigh such factors, the options will be ranked
based on how well they meet each requirement established. In order to facilitate the use
of the information gathered, the top result should be granted the most points.
• Out of 5 options, the first in any category should receive 5 points, with the second
preference getting 4 points, and so on so forth.
• Next, we multiply each score by its weight, and then add all of these adjusted scores
together, for each option gives us an objective way of ranking options that may not be easy
to compare or choose between at first.
8.5.4.3. Multi-voting methods:
8.5.4.3.1. Nominal Group Technique:
Multi-voting methods are better suited when it comes to further qualitative discussions. If using
multi-voting, groups of participants are provided with a way to express a set number of votes.
The multi-voting technique (which is also known as Nominal Group Technique), begins with a
brainstorming session, to generate a list of options, ideas, problems, issues or solutions.

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For motivating to be productive, it’s important that this list is exhaustive and covers most facets of
the question in hand.
8.5.4.3.2. Achieving a consensus of opinion:
Once the list is ready, the following procedure can be initiated to achieve a consensus of opinion:
• First, review each item on the list and explain it in clear and crisp terms, so as to ensure
that all participating team members have a fair understanding of what each item means.
It’s quite possible that some new and related ideas may crop up during the review phase;
these can be added to the end of the list. If two or more ideas have some common ground,
on the basis of which they can be grouped together, then this is the stage where this
grouping must be carried out.
• Second, assign every item on the list a reference number, which the team can use on the
voting cards. Before the voting can begin, the team is required to set the number of items
that can be voted for by the team members. As a rule of thumb, this number is either one
third or one fourth of the number of items on the list. For instance, if the initial list contains
40 options, this number can be set to 10 or 12.
• Third, to begin with the voting process, all participants are asked to build up their personal
list containing the set number of items, from the complete list. Going with the above
example every participant will be required to choose 12 options that, according to them
are the most significant ones, from the list.
• Forth, the participants must assign a score to each and every item on their list. This scoring
can be done in two ways:
1) Assigning a score to each item on a scale of 1-10, where 10 means most
important and one implies least important.
2) The items can be ranked on a priority basis using the set number as the highest
rank. In the example the participants would be required to rank the most important
option as 12.
• Fifth, with that done, it’s time to tally the votes, and add up the totals to see how much
each option has scored. After the tally, the list needs to be recompiled. For this, it’s best
to keep only the top 30-40% options that have scored the highest, on the new revised list.
• Sixth, with the new list in hand; the procedure will need to be repeated until finally the list
has condensed down to no more than 3 options.
• Last, as a final step, the final options are discussed and analysed to assign each of them
a priority.
8.5.4.3.3. Multi-voting has great benefits and is easy to implement:
And to conclude, although the multi-voting technique involves a lengthy procedure, it proves to be of
great benefit in situations where there are too many options, and the situation demands a
consensus over the final decision.
Multi-voting is simple to implement. Often, votes take the form of stickers handed out to participants,
which they can apply next to items listed out with a marker on poster board.
If we are trying to avoid any chance of group think setting in, so participants can't be influenced by
real-time feedback, that is of seeing where votes are being placed by others, a survey system could
be used instead.

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8.5.4.4. Delphi method:
The Delphi method is an effective tool for arriving at consensus, when earlier methods like
facilitated workshops and focus groups still leave some issues behind.
This technique is a research design, usually considered a qualitative method, which was designed
to forecast viable solutions to problems where data was missing or incomplete.
The objective “is to obtain the most reliable consensus of opinion of a group” as to the best
workable solutions to the problem:
• The designated facilitator sends out a topic or list of questions to the group, and in return
each member sends a written response.
• Then, the facilitator compiles these responses into an anonymous summary, which is then
distributed to all of the group members for a further round of feedback. There, members
are asked to provide their revision based on a summary.
This process might carry on over a number of rounds involving the group members, with the hope
that the best answer will immerge over time, as individual members will take into account feedback
provided by other members, and they become gradually comfortable with the immerging consensus.
A positive element is the anonymous nature of this Delphi method, which allows all parties involved
to have their perspectives and impact felt equitably, without any political factors or biases towards
any participants in a particular direction.
The Delphi method is particularly effective as a forecasting technique, especially when dealing with
topics such scalability and scheduling.
8.5.4.5. Strong lines of communication remain important for all techniques:
While each of these techniques can help resolve conflicts, we must remember that no tool can
replace the need for strong lines of communication, respect, and a shared sense of goals.

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A few issues are manageable so long as the stakeholders involved are working toward the same
objectives, respect one another, and share their perspective and knowledge clearly with others.
8.6. Methods for Sharing Information
8.6.1. About methods selection
It’s imperative for us, IT professionals, to understand how to select methods for sharing information.
Furthermore, we should note how important effective communication is to the concept of aligning
business and IT strategies.
Nonetheless, the medium we choose to communicate can greatly impact our effectiveness.
8.6.2. The 3 communication methods to utilize
There are three communication methods we utilize when sharing ideas and information with our
business colleagues. These include:
• Interactive communication,
• Push communication, and
• Pull communication.

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8.6.2.1. Interactive communication:
Interactive communication includes any situation where multidirectional, real-time, or near-real-time
communication takes place between two or more participants. These include:
• Meetings,
• Phone calls, and
• Video conferences.
Usually, interactive communication methods are the best choice when we wish to share ideas
instantaneously with business colleagues, and immediately receive their feedback.
8.6.2.2. Push communication methods:
Push communication methods may be valuable but tend to have a different use case. Methods like
letters, memos, reports, emails, faxes, and voicemails fall into this category.
In its essence, push communications are targeted at specific recipients and are most appropriate
when we must, either share a large set of information or we want to carefully collect our thoughts,
before sharing them.
If on one hand, a report might answer many of the same questions that a meeting could do, without
requiring a specific timeslot be reserved for multiple participants; on the other hand, interactive

______________________________________________________________________________
communication methods guarantee that recipients receive messages, and provide the best
opportunities to ensure comprehension.
8.6.2.3. Pull communication methods:
Pull communication methods are suited when we try to reach larger audiences, or when we share
large amounts of information that each recipient may only need a portion of, in order to answer
questions.
Its methods like organisations’ intranets, databases, and other knowledge repositories are useful
when the recipient of the message chooses to access the information stored there.
8.6.2.4. Interactive communication methods are preferred ones:
• When defining strategies or goals, interactive communication methods tend to be preferred
ones. For sharing deep levels of detail about plans or revisions to plans already well
known, push communications could be best.
• Pull-based strategies typically make the most sense for ongoing needs for information that
might arise at different times for different business users.
That is said, we, IT professionals, must keep these differences in mind when we need to choose
communication strategies; This will help us to enhance our ability to reach business colleagues and
business users, more effectively.
8.7. A recap on Understanding Communication Strategies
• We went through the standard communications model of encoding, transmitting, decoding,
receiving, and acknowledging messages, and looked at where noise factors can interfere
with our ability to share our thoughts with our business colleagues effectively.
• Afterwards, we considered the collaboration methods like brainstorming, facilitated
workshops, focus groups, and more, that can help us align our understanding of business
issues and strategies and how to tackle them.
• Next, we viewed the value of displaying educated empathy in the way we approach
communications with our business colleagues, and various methods, plus the way they
can be helpful to us in resolving conflicts.
• Also, we considered the three kinds of communication (interactive, push, and pull), and
examined which might be most appropriate for different purposes.
• Still, we need to understand, that it's not possible to align strategies, let alone accomplish
our strategic goals if we are not able to communicate effectively between IT and business
professionals. To do so would require us not only just saying or writing some elements,
but us ensuring the highest level of clarity in our communication.
• Further to that, we should take care to make sure what we say is rightly understood; and
that our perspective is informed as much as possible, while a sense of mutual respect
presides over our IT-business encounters.
• Implementing best practices, in how communications occur, can help to make the best
decision for the organisation. Nonetheless, the most important aspect is the sense of
educated empathy, that is doing our best to understand where our colleagues are coming
from and take steps to meet them at some point.
• If we were to start with the necessary amount of humility, respect, and patience required,
we are most likely bound to succeed, in collaborating with our business colleagues.
• Now, we should be sufficiently equipped to look at enterprise architecture and the

______________________________________________________________________________
frameworks, that we could exploit to help us bring IT and business together, in order to
achieve success.

______________________________________________________________________________
9. Getting Ready for the Enterprise Architecture
9.1. Turning shared IT-business goals into tangible success
We need to explore one last tool, which might assist us define a unified IT-busines strategy for
progress, and thus help us turn our shared IT-business goals into tangible success.
9.1.1. There is no “one broad tool” for all organisational needs
For turning shared IT-business goals into tangible success, there is enterprise architecture which is
a field of study that emphases on unifying organisation's IT efforts, to match its strategic and
business needs.
However, this is not a question of using “one broad tool” for all of our organisation's needs.
It’s more to do with maximizing the flow of data and information throughout our organisation, on one
hand.
And on the other hand, it’s also to do with minimizing capacities where tools duplicate one another's
functionalities, as we well know that duplication costs our organisation.
9.1.2. How to be equipped to better help our business colleagues
To equip ourselves to better help our organisation and business colleagues, we need to:
• Explore and understand the concept of enterprise architecture more deeply;
• Look at the benefits this approach offers from an IT, business, and strategic perspective.
• Look at how we can help ensure IT and business strategies remain aligned.

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9.2. Exploring Enterprise Architecture
9.2.1. About IT legacy systems
9.2.1.1. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” attitude:
Both IT and business might tend to agree on “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”, when it comes to legacy
systems still in daily use within our organisation.
Nevertheless, this approach to enterprise architecture could potentially deprives our organisation
from leveraging new opportunities to either better serve end-users and customers, increase
productivity, or break down internal barriers.
9.2.1.2. Difficulty in selling legacy systems replacement to business leaders:
It’s not easy to sell the replacement of legacy systems to our business leaders, particularly when
these colleagues lack technical literacy, and are not particularly pre-emptive in solving issues before
they arise.
Enterprise architecture can assist us breaking through this business leaders’ unwillingness to move
forward, by making a proposition our business leaders cannot overlook, the potential to create a
substantial return on investment (ROI).
9.2.2. Cohesive set of documentation for enterprise architecture
9.2.2.1. To describe the way our organisation's systems and processes operate:
Enterprise architecture demands for a cohesive set of documentation to be put in place, which
describes the ways an organisation's systems and processes operate, while specifying how each
system meets business and strategic needs.
These serve as blueprints to understanding how an organisation operates. All of the details we need
to know to operate are readily accessible, from a helicopter viewpoint.

Aligning IT and Business Strategies - Study Notes

Aligning IT and Business Strategies - Study Notes

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Aligning IT and Business Strategies - Study Notes