2.  What is IT Alignment?  A lot more people think they are doing it than really are.  Properly done, it is the Holy Grail of CIOs.  The CIO wants this to be the “Vision” that s/he broadcasts to IT and the rest of the company. (Vision = focus, it channels the IT organization’s creative energy all in one direction, aimed at one goal…the goal of IT Alignment)

3.  IT Alignment is the deployment of IT resources to achieve the optimum strategic business impact  Everyone has an IT portfolio that they claim is supporting the business—but that is, in many companies, the exact opposite of good IT Alignment  Notice: This is counter-intuitive for a lot of service oriented IT people.

4.  IT Alignment is the deployment of IT resources to achieve the optimum strategic business impact  Business impact (vs. technology proficient)  Strategic (vs. tactical or operational)  Optimum use of IT resources (vs. pretty good) (usually means lots of redeployment).

5.  There is a night and day difference between the job description and responsibilities of a very good IT Director and a good CIO.  IT Director: Responsible for delivering operational excellence in IT services  CIO: Responsible for helping to develop and then enabling the business (vs. technology) strategy of the company

6.  Step 1: Written strategic business goals  Step 2: Identification of business initiatives throughout the company that support strategic goals  Step 3: Brainstorm to identify the hidden opportunities for IT to enable 1 & 2 above  Step 4: Prioritize ideas from step 3 according to business impact (usually means: redeploy IT resources)  Step 5: System for post project audits and reporting

7. User needs and requests for IT support Your current IT portfolio ------- Some sort of creative process for identifying hidden/optimum IT opportunities IT Projects that optimally enable strategic business objectives The size of the cross section is the measure of your alignment

8.  IT Alignment is the deployment of IT resources to achieve the optimum strategic business impact  Your CIO (and CEO) needs senior people on his/her team who understand the subtleties of IT Alignment vs. operational excellence and can help him/her achieve good IT Alignment