Pandemic Business / IT Architecture Misalignment
Information technology (IT) is failing business. The inability to deliver new solutions and transform bankrupt architectures is causing a pandemic of business / IT architecture misalignment. Misalignment rears its head in countless ways on a daily basis. Examples include major delays in launching new products, limitations on regional or global expansion, customer defections, lack of transactional transparency, reporting errors, market share loss, declining revenues and regulatory violations. While these and related challenges are commonplace, they are far from acceptable and bode poorly for the long-term health of a business. You can choose to fix these issues or you can chose to ignore then. But to ignoring them, can have significant consequences.
To be clear, misalignment is not a one-sided issue. Existing IT architectures that automate businesses today are a reflection of fragmented, redundant and poorly aligned business architectures. So there is no “us versus them” position on this matter and any solution must employ equal degrees of business and IT innovation and investment. Perhaps because misalignment is a result of historic actions taken by the business and IT, it is often accepted as the norm. Either way, it is not acceptable. Consider just a few of the following challenges.
Systems are wired together using a complex spider web of hardcoded interfaces. Redundant, mismatched data is spread across numerous system and data silos. Aggregate views for basic information such as account, agreement, customer, employee and revenue do not add up. Making changes across segregated systems and data structures is rarely easy, typically costly, often risk prone or even borderline impossible. Businesses think this is the norm.
Over half of all business processes are not automated, which drives up costs and errors while driving down transparency and efficiency. Architectural gaps among systems are big enough to drive a truck through, requiring hundreds or thousands of manual steps. Architectural gaps result in a lack of transactional transparency that is both costly and detrimental to growth and expansion. Automated processes are not in much better shape, buried in poorly architected source code that is hard to decipher, which in turn stymies business agility. Businesses think this is the norm.
Data is routinely massaged manually, often by an army of analysts using a myriad of poorly audited, high-risk spreadsheets and related desktop solutions. Executive reports are the result of a small team of artisans who use a cascading set of desktop tricks and techniques to produce analytics that are used to make strategic, high cost and high risk decisions. Data buried in these desktop tools is hidden from view and are or at least should be an auditor’s nightmare. Businesses think is the norm.
Many systems are encased in architectural silos, protected by organizational fiefdoms. And while business functionality is replicated across these silos, the automation needed to enable cohesive, integrated business solutions remains lacking. In addition, systems are assumed to be immutable artifacts that will stand forever or evolve through some phantom transformation strategy. Solutions to these issues typically focus on software languages and platforms, but bad architecture is bad architecture regardless of language or platform. All the while, IT continues to wallpaper over crumbling infrastructures while promising the wonders of the Cloud, SOA and other panaceas. And yet, businesses think this is the norm.
If these issues are acceptable to you as a business or IT leader or practitioner, you should stop reading right now. If you think nothing can be done about system imposed constraints on the business, endless workarounds, escalating inefficiencies and poor information integrity, stop reading right now. If you think that the situation is hopeless and organizational fiefdoms are permanent roadblocks, stop reading right now.
On the other hand, if you think these issues are unacceptable and that strong leadership and innovative thinking can overcome these challenges, let’s explore various options and strategies together. No single approach, tool or technology will address business / IT misalignment. There are no shortcuts. Solutions are multidimensional in nature and require strong leadership and planning, robust business architecture to empower business as a change agent, well defined target state IT architectures and a variety of business / IT architecture transformation approaches.
The beginning of every journey requires a first step. And the first step in this case is to stop thinking of business / IT architecture misalignment as the norm and map out a strategy for moving forward. If you are ready to do this, welcome to the fight. You have taken your first step.
The Art and Practice of Business / IT Architecture Transformation 