POP QUIZ!
Question 1: What are your top five IT projects? I hope most CIOs can answer this question correctly, but can their direct reports? Or random employees in the IT organization, maybe even those who are working on those or other projects? Or the rest of the executives in the business, outside of IT?
Question 2: What are your business’s key initiatives? I hope the CEO knows, but how far does this information filter through the organization? Do the employees and executives throughout the organization know? How about all the employees in IT?
Question 3: Which of those top 5 IT projects map back to the business initiatives? Let’s hope the majority do. But is their a clear link and has that been communicated?
This may seem basic, but I’m amazed how few organizations pass this basic pop quiz. Alignment has been at the top of CIO’s priority lists for decades now, and few organizations have mastered the basics. If it wasn’t critical before, now is the time to get back to basics when determining which projects get the resources.
Alignment 201 coming soon…