IT-Business Engagement Starts With Top Execs
by William Ulrich
(Originally appeared in Computerworld April 16, 2001)
Remember the days when users tossed requirements over the wall, IT tried to interpret what delivered a system that missed the mark? Those days are long gone because IT is too critical to the bottom line and time frames are too compressed to continue down that path.
Design, development and testing have become highly iterative activities, requiring participation from business analysts at every step of the process. Therefore, IT and business professionals must work as a team to tackle tough assignments in highly constrained time frames. And IT must take the initiative to educate, motivate, persuade and cajole business executives, management and analysts to work as a team.
Most business professionals want to cooperate with IT; they just don't seem to have time for what's perceived as "IT's job." That's why education and motivation begin with the executive team to help send a message on how critical it is to have everyone working together.
The demand for new systems, flexible access to legacy data and increased dependence on technology mean that executives are poised to cooperate to accomplish these goals. IT must leverage this support to change the way business professionals perceive their role in the development and evolution of information systems.
Senior IT executives need to convey to business executives how critical it is to establish collaborative, cross-disciplinary business and IT teams. But before they launch another reorganization, executives should have business and IT managers, analysts and technicians help form the teams needed to meet high-priority information requirements.
A good approach is to hold a meeting where business, IT and third-party participants, such as ASPs or outsourcing firms, are encouraged to share opinions on the best way to work together to achieve common goals.
During this meeting, participants would organize according to ongoing IT projects or functions. This allows participants with common objectives, such as integrating supply-chain management, to form teams based on a common purpose. Executives would provide a list of projects and instruct people to join teams related to their jobs.
Management should encourage each team to experiment with ways to improve business and IT project collaboration before making any organizational changes. Approaches should focus on improving communication among all project participants. Executives should review each team's purpose and oversee them as they do today.
Various ways to improve communication and collaboration include placing IT personnel into business units, using external facilitators, creating social time so teams can get to know one another and holding off-site working sessions so that teams can organize in a quiet environment.
A development team, for example, could hold an off-site meeting to clarify its purpose and build relationships. The meeting could open by having each member share what he believes is the most important factor in making the project a success. The team could then draft a project purpose and operating principles based on these success factors to guide project activities.
A typical project purpose might read: "To build an e-business system that consolidates billing data into a single invoice, accessible to customers over the Internet." A sample principle might state: "All project requirements, designs, plans and results may be viewed at any time by any project participant." Teams should share success stories with other teams. Whatever approach a team uses should be augmented by the latest development technologies. For example, online conference tools can be used to reduce the need for in-person meetings. Integrated development environments can be used to develop and share designs, test plans and results.
It's important to allow teams to see what works for them and not to impose management's view on the individuals doing the work. Forced collaboration doesn't work. The important thing is to be creative, stay focused on your project purpose, have some fun and share what works best.