Franklin and the CIO

Franklin has asked some good questions on today’s CIO agenda.

• How does IT deliver projects that bring real value to the Business
• How to link the Business objectives to the IT objectives
• How to demonstrate the Business Value of IT

These are pressing questions for organizations right now.  They probably should have been pressing questions 30 years ago, but alas, we still had to figure out how to make a relational database work reliably. 

The only thought I would add at this point, since Franklin has not yet given us his answers, is that IT should not be left alone to establish alignment. Any CEO or COO worth her salt should be deeply involved in creating alignment across all departments, and IT in particular (at least for the sake of this discussion).  If IT is responsible for creating alignment, then the alignment process will suffer from a power vacuum.  In my experience, the owner of revenue has more power than the owner of IT, so who will call the shots?

An approach we have seen work is to focus on the portfolio governance process at the top-line process.  Projects are the top-line controlling process for most value-added IT work.  And rarely do IT projects happen in IT alone; this is where the CEO/COO earns her pay. 

I’m interested in reading more from Franklin to learn what approached he recommends. 

These are pressing questions for organizations right now.  They probably should have been pressing questions 30 years ago, but alas, we still had to figure out how to make a relational database work reliably. 

The only thought I would add at this point, since Franklin has not yet given us his answers, is that IT should not be left alone to establish alignment. Any CEO or COO worth her salt should be deeply involved in creating alignment across all departments, and IT in particular (at least for the sake of this discussion).  If IT is responsible for creating alignment, then the alignment process will suffer from a power vacuum.  In my experience, the owner of revenue has more power than the owner of IT, so who will call the shots?

An approach we have seen work is to focus on the portfolio governance process at the top-line process.  Projects are the top-line controlling process for most value-added IT work.  And rarely do IT projects happen in IT alone; this is where the CEO/COO earns her pay. 

I’m interested in reading more from Franklin to learn what approached he recommends.