Business and IT alignment in turbulent business environment

Abstract

Business and IT alignment is currently indicated as most important concern of companies because it is considered as a key concept to ensuring the requirements of a rapidly changing business. The goal of alignment in such circumstances can be defined as an alignment of speed of enterprise’s change with speed of environment’s change. Alignment model for companies operated in turbulent business environment is proposed here. That model assumes coexistence of two flows of changes: “top-down” flow from business model to operational level and “bottom-up” flow, which adapts organization to minor changes. Model of change that includes three phases (change detection, modeling, and solution implementation) is developed and key factors that determine time of change are discussed. Quantitative parameters, which can help to detect changes, are also proposed.