Spanning the layers...

Blogger: Chris Haddad

Does thinking about business and IT alignment trigger brain buffer overflow? During  Burton Group Institute Service Oriented Architecture Workshop sessions this week, we presented a list of activities and metrics that can be used to solve perennial questions that block SOA initiatives; "How do I sell SOA to the business?" and "What is the business benefit of SOA?"   The audience was quiet when the discussion focused on how to measure business value. When the conversation segued into activities that can be used define linkages between business capabilities, application assets, and services, we found few organizations prepared to start strategic projects.  In contrast,  discussions about Enterprise Service Bus products and SOA security strategies were more animated and directly correlated with the attendee's focus.

When Anne and I talked today about the reasons behind the perceived difference in engagement activity and interest, we thought underlying reasons may go beyond sugar crashes from the excellent snacks served by  Boston's Four Seasons Hotel staff.  Maybe we are asking technologists to come out of their comfort zone and span business and technology layers.  Our view of key  design and planning layers is presented  in the following illustration:

Alien terms such as  demand portfolio management, application portfolio management, application rationalization, capability modeling, and business process improvement exist above the technology line. During our SOA Contextual Research project, we have found a direct correlation between business value and a cross-organizational focus on business transformation and/or optimization projects. Is IT expected to be taken away from their main job and participate in these business-oriented activities? Aren't IT teams already too busy fulfilling their standard job description?   We all want to demonstrate business value, but sometimes we either don't know where to start or relegate the activity to the 'nice to have, but it's too hard' bucket. 

Burton Group Consulting Services can help you overcome resource and skill hurdles, we have recently announced a new set of engagement areas focused on application development cost control. The initiatives will not only improve IT efficiency and productivity, but can serve as the supporting context for your SOA initiative and justifying business value.

Comments

[Antoine Borg]

Hi Chris,

How interesting to see that the old cliche ("These techies don't understand us/These management people are clueless") is more than a joke or a stereotype. Personally, I would have thought that IT people in this day and age are a little more aware of the business needs of an organisation.

Speaking as someone within the SOA industry, I am focused on delivering IT solutions provided that the business is the driving force behind the solution. I would therefore suggest that it is not unreasonable to expect IT people to be business-savvy and to be aware of a client's business needs. That is not beyond the standard job-description, in my opinion.

Thanks for the blog

Antoine