Week3 CS832 Doctor Steven Reynolds

ALIGN YOURSELF TODAY
By
Tai Cleveland
Class CS832
Doctor Steven Reynolds
Due August 08th, 2009










TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page 1
Table of Contents 2
Align Yourself Today 3-5
Reference List 6

















The continuing development of Information Technology (IT) within the concept of business and IT alignment is indeed a constant theme among business organizations. IT needs a special alignment with business as it serves as concealment for advertising products, consultancies, services, and analysis that afford a small value to the organization.
While it might be fitting to jump on the business competition, the truth is that IT does indeed need alignment with the business for other reasons. Making the right decisions and strategic planning are all part of the alignment bandwagon (R.J. Benson, et.al, 2004). No other function of the business in sales, finance, marketing, human resources, and manufacturing can so straightforwardly get out of a bind than IT. However, the business cannot verbalize the tongue of technology, and thus, alignment can be a problem. With the right decisions, a business is capable of meeting its technology-driven requirements with little or no delay and with as much accuracy as possible. Business managers apply strategic intentions in prioritization to provide benefit and boost competitiveness fast with as little latency as possible. The more an organization aligns itself, the more it will act in a harmonized fashion. In other words, application development services and more specifically, the functioning of application development and upkeep is very important for the success of any business unit.
Alignment will make it much simpler for the management team to thrust the organization in the path that is intended. In many cases, several organizations, even in this time of technology and management tools, are still trying to plot the course of change of change without a proper guidance system. Developing a plan, through the merged efforts of all apprehensive stakeholders, will present management with a crucial alignment tool it needs to have a successful alignment between organization goals and technological resources within the organization. The chief role of management will be to put across this plan in such a way that those drawn in not only fully realize the task at hand, but also to fully accept it (J. Stephenson).
It is generally considered that the general strategy has to be aligned with functions such as human resources management and information technology (J. Stephenson). This can entail a technology policy, depending on the organization’s needs. It is evident that even though IT has developed from its customary direction of managerial support, toward a more strategic role within an organization, there is still a deep-seated lack of established structures within which to recognize the potential of IT for future organizations. As a result, a vital factor for achieving the dynamic potential necessary in today's challenging business environment is not a particular set of complicated technological functionality but the organizational and management capabilities to control technology to build client confidence in the organization as well as distinguish it from competitors.
Indeed, alignment approaches may vary to solve the daily business challenges. Several of these approaches pivot on searching the most favorable way to appropriately characterize the needs of the business and promptly execute those needs such that results can easily be measured. Looking at this perspective, the role of IT alignment facilitates the problem solving concerns with technology-driven capabilities. To the degree that businesses are continuously shifting business needs, the endeavor is to assist alignment by removing the slow activities of development that basically gets in the way. This is also where making the right decisions come in. A proficient IT alignment set-up along with the right decisions will not only control on constructing and amplifying competency as the main focus, but will also help in giving more detailed solutions to detailed concerns.
Alignment should be an ongoing management issue. The ideal IT alignment should be about bringing into play the same rules for any management area. That means applying the basic principles for both business management and IT management with prioritization (R.J. Benson, et.al, 2004).
Also, business IT issues usually has a long term impact. Even if a business organization is entirely aligned at the moment, the business could have a problem later on. Systems and people follow the same sort of rules, but act differently. When businesses are dealing with an alignment issue, they should communicate the differences of different type of resources. Making the right decisions is all about communication and mutual acceptance. Decisions about managing the proper resources determine strongly how much should be used up in projects and lights-on (R.J. Benson, et.al, 2004).
When tackling the right decisions and prioritization plans, realizing the alignment of IT and business comes into play. Every computer project scheme should exhibit the economical cash flow of its planned business upgrading. A display of the ranges in risks will improve the integrity of the proposed endeavor. Executives must grasp that computer-related change in business processes are risky (P. Strassman, 1998).
IT alignment brings together the major forces of information technology and the visionary potential of top management. Business organizations can now “build strategic plans that will aid performance in the short run and build success for the long term” (J. Stephenson).

REFERENCES
Benson, R.J., Bugnitz, T. L. & Walton, W. (2004). From Business Strategy To IT Action.
John Wiley and Sons. Retrieved August 01, 2009, from
http://books.google.com/books?id=2wYZbaKzuwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=From+Business+Strategy+to+IT+Action.

Brown, C. V. & Topi, H. (2003). IS Management Handbook. CRC Press.
Retrieved August 02, 2009, from
http://books.google.com/books?id=SS-K7RB3ZlcC&pg=PA2&dq=IT+alignment.

Lovelace, Herbert W. (1998 November 02). Align Yourself Today. Information Week.
Retrieved August 02, 2009, from
http://www.informationweek.com/707/07uwhl.htm;jsessionid=KXVZCJQ0GRXI3QE1GHPSKHWATMY32JVN.

Stephenson, J. Strategic Alignment - An Evolving Process. Ezine Articles.
Retrieved August 01, 2009, from
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=1443822.
Strassman, P. A. (1998 August). Alignment is The Delivery of the Required Results. The
Squandered Computer. Cutter IT Journal. Retrieved August 01, 2009, from
http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/alignment/.