April 23, 2002
Okay, I'm halfway through the IT-business alignment series and it's checkpoint time: Executive sponsorship? Check. Strategic plan, roadmap, and operating model? Check. Business alignment and planning (BAP) Team development? Check. Internal marketing plan? Whoa, wait a minute. That's right, internal marketing. Getting executive backing, developing a strategic plan, and putting the right people in place to implement the plan aren't enough. Your IT-business alignment initiative is most likely to fail because of a lack of internal marketing. What do I mean by internal marketing? Simply put, it's getting the business and IT to understand and accept what the BAP concept is all about so it will get their active and willing support for the BAP rollout. No matter how well we plan and organize, we won't succeed if the entire organization doesn't get on board. The inability to get the organization as a whole on board with this concept is the primary cause of failure of any IT-business alignment effort. Because John Mills, the CIO here at HomeWorks, is giving this initiative 100 percent of his executive support, the BAP team might be able to try and force the other HomeWorks Inc.' IS groups and business units to accept the role that BAP will play in aligning IS and the business. I might also win the Lotto this Saturday but I'm not planning on it.
I think we all know that forcing a major workflow and culture change down an organization's collective throat doesn't work. We need to communicate, ask for input, and deal with the various realities of the HomeWorks' company to gain cooperation and support from everyone for the project. (At this point, I'd like to remind you that most of the topics covered in this series are ongoing in nature — just because I'm addressing internal marketing in the fourth entry doesn't mean that you shouldn't be giving it some serious attention from the very start of your IT-business alignment project. You can never start this effort too early.) Marketing to a House DividedAs I mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons for developing the BAP roadmap (besides helping me figure out what BAP is all about) is to clearly define our roles and responsibilities so that Mills and my team can internally market the new concepts to the rest of company. Throughout the life of the IT-business alignment, Mills and I need to be relentless in selling and communicating the roadmap to both the internal IT staff and to the business at large. Of course, internal marketing is not just selling; it's also listening and evolving the plan as needed. Although Mills, my team, and I think we have a workable BAP organization and processes, we haven't fooled ourselves into thinking that any of it is perfect either. We've tried to be open to other peoples' ideas and suggestions as BAP goes forward. I'm amazed how many people want to help us in this effort once they begin to understand it. The marketing effort itself is divided into two main pieces: I'll be working on marketing the BAP concepts internally to IS, especially the three IS directors. In the meantime, Mills will work to sell the executives (his peers) on BAP and will run interference for me as needed when (not if) we encounter any resistance. Internally, Mills needs to develop and maintain solid relationships with his own directors (Immelt, Lyons, and Zimka), so he's not going to give the BAP team carte blanche to implement changes. He will choose his battles carefully — always keeping in mind the long-term strategic needs of the company and IS. In fact, Mills is often my toughest sell when I propose a process change. For example, he (and the rest of the directors) really ran me through the ringer when we were reviewing how we planned to have our business analysts (BAs) work on the applications development teams. Winning Over IS"So who is going to manage all these crazy business analysts running around on our projects?" said Andy Lyons, Director of Technical Services. "I mean, where's the accountability here? Are they reporting to my project managers or someone from BAP?" It was clear from their expressions that the other directors had the same questions. Although delving into the whole "accountability" issue with Lyons (of all people) would have been highly entertaining, it would have done nothing to further BAP's cause. And because this was just the first of many "marketing" meetings I expected to have with the three IS directors, I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot. "Well, Andy," I began, "the BAs aren't crazy." I smiled. "As to how this is going to work, imagine that the BAP team is an independent consulting group working within HomeWorks. The business analysts are charged with gathering the requirements and then making sure that the original requirements are met once the project is implemented." "But you still haven't answered Andy's question," jumped in Mills, his voice betraying just a hint of frustration. "Who do they report to — BAP or the project manager? "Well, the answer is both," I replied. "The analysts will report to the project managers for things related to the project, but they also will report back to Rebecca Morse on things related to the requirements gathering methodology and process to ensure that the requirements are implemented. Both Rebecca and the project manager will ensure that the requirements are done right and the project doesn't suffer from poor requirements." I could tell that all the directors (and I think Mills, too) were still uncomfortable, to say the least, with how this was going to work day to day on a project. "Well," said Mills after another 30 minutes or so of discussion, "we'll give this a try. But," he said turning to me, "I want to make sure that we don't have two captains steering the ship here. I expect you, Ted, to stay on top of this and make sure it works. This is an interesting idea and we have to find out if it's workable." Don't get me wrong — it's perfectly understandable that Lyons and the other two directors would be concerned with "those crazy business analysts." The BA's accountability is to the project, not to any particular project manager or director. The BAs represent some loss of control to IS. Also, the BAs (although part of IS) would be looking out for the interests of the business, as much as the interests of IS. In effect, it was like having a person from the business on each project. To people like our directors, this was something they hadn't had to deal with before. Like it or not, IS projects will be handled differently under BAP. There will be more accountability and more consideration given to the overall business goals. Which means that, yes, the IS directors will lose a certain element of control over their projects. That's where the constant internal marketing comes in. If I fail to communicate the BAP team's roles and responsibilities on an ongoing basis to Lyons, Immelt, and Zimka, the analysts might be perceived as outsiders (and therefore not to be trusted). I must also be responsive to their concerns if things go off track (which they have from time to time) and be willing to modify how we work with the applications teams. It's a very delicate balance because a certain amount of constructive friction is good on a project team. The applications people will be pushing on the BAs to alter the business requirements to fit the technology in place. And the BAs will be pushing the tech people (while maintaining a good rapport, of course) to supply more functionality than they may be willing to develop. Granted, it's an unusual set-up. The key is to have a crack team of trained BAs who can prove themselves early in the project — so the value they're bringing to the initiative is never in doubt. Winning Over IS Directors One at a TimeWinning over Marilyn Immelt to the BAP idea will be easy because she's a hardcore methodology person anyway. In fact, there's a strong possibility that she'll out-BAP the BAP team when it comes to putting processes and procedures in place. But there is a danger here, too.
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