Analysis of IT/Business Alignment Situations as a Precondition for the Design and Engineering of Situated IT/Business Alignment

IT/business alignment has constantly been among the top priorities for IT executives. From a prescriptive, design research perspective, our analysis of related work shows that neither is IT/business alignment sufficiently specified to allow systematic artifact construction, nor are existing approaches situational to reflect the diversity of IT/business alignment problems in the real world. We use goal decomposition to characterize IT/business alignment by qualities from (i) the IT systems, (ii) the business, and (iii) the IT governance perspective. A survey-based exploratory study among 174 professionals from various European countries is conducted that helps to identify four distinct IT/business alignment situations. This knowledge can now be used to construct methods and models that do not only operationalize alignment, but also can be adapted to the different situational needs.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: HICSS
• Authors: Jan Saat, Robert Winter, Ulrik Franke, Robert Lagerström, Mathias Ekstedt
• Keywords: Alignment Problems, Biometrics, HICSS 2011, Survey-based Exploratory Study, Systematic Artifact Construction