The IT department has only one single strategic objective; supporting business strategy. If the company has a clear business vision its relative easy to deduce the IT strategy. If the IT can take part in the development of business strategy its even better; the strategy will utilize the opportunities offered by information technology accept the unavoidable limitations. Measuring business alignment is not impossible. Independent of the information upper management is ready to give there is a way to asses the strategic directions (in the worst case you can analyze the product portfolio, the customer base, the industry trends and best practice). Knowing the strategic directions and expectations the next step is to analyze the relative importance of each direction. Then the creative part comes; for every strategy factor the corresponding IT service must be defined. By examining the quality of these services the performance of the IT department can be defined. Doing so you can measure the strategic alignment.
Business strategy -> strategic directions/initiatives -> it services/functions -> quality assessment -> strategic alignment indicator
The next task is to find the IT functions where the highest improvement can be reached and then to start projects to improve them. (The formula is: (relative strategic importance)/(it support quality * cost to improve service by 10%) the higher the result the better the chance to improve the strategic alignment's. )
However one must be careful not to stumble while pursuing goals on the horizon. The IT must be well "embedded" it the company. This can be best measured by regularly surveying customer satisfaction and the opinion of non IT colleagues about the strategic importance of it functions and services. This survey should be analyzed, the customer satisfaction measured and improved as carefully as the strategic alignment.
Business strategy -> strategic directions/initiatives -> it services/functions -> quality assessment -> strategic alignment indicator
The next task is to find the IT functions where the highest improvement can be reached and then to start projects to improve them. (The formula is: (relative strategic importance)/(it support quality * cost to improve service by 10%) the higher the result the better the chance to improve the strategic alignment's. )
However one must be careful not to stumble while pursuing goals on the horizon. The IT must be well "embedded" it the company. This can be best measured by regularly surveying customer satisfaction and the opinion of non IT colleagues about the strategic importance of it functions and services. This survey should be analyzed, the customer satisfaction measured and improved as carefully as the strategic alignment.
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