| The most powerful tool to drive coordinated action is | | | | data with a "need to know" clause, a company where |
| agreement on principles. If you can't agree in principle | | | | "corporate" means HQ and not everyone in the |
| then chances are high you won't agree on anything | | | | enterprise. |
| else. I've used principles, specifically the shared | | | | Now imagine having a set of these principles, perhaps |
| development of principles, in many situations but | | | | 15 to 25, that address key business areas, for |
| primarily to drive the alignment of business and IT. This | | | | example, people, process, information, and technology. |
| tool, when used properly, results in a shared vision, | | | | The principles in your hands are powerful because |
| common objectives, action plans and a governance | | | | they were built with your peers; you argued and |
| tool. It also exposes areas where common effort is | | | | agonized over them, and now you own them together. |
| not going to work, where there is such fundamental | | | | How might you use them? |
| disagreement that it is pointless (for the moment) to try | | | | - Principles and Rationale create, reinforce or modify |
| and work together. | | | | the enterprise vision. |
| A principle is a statement of belief. "All men are | | | | - Rationale create, reinforce or modify your objectives. |
| created equal" is an excellent statement of principle | | | | - Implications and Issues create, reinforce or modify |
| because | | | | your action plans, in line with your most pressing needs. |
| - the opposite is arguable "The royal family is | | | | - New proposals can be assessed against how well |
| descended from God." | | | | they will help you live up to your principles. |
| - the rationale is strong "Individuals are endowed with | | | | - Reuse them (and modify as needed) to help drive |
| inalienable rights." | | | | each planning cycle. |
| - the current state of affairs can be measured against | | | | I mentioned earlier that the process of defining |
| it and actions can be taken to close the gap--the | | | | principles may also uncover areas where progress is |
| American revolution, the emancipation of slaves, | | | | not, at least for the moment, possible. The following is |
| women's rights, etc. | | | | a real life and extreme example. |
| A simplified enterprise example: | | | | I was consulting with the IT group of a large (IT budget |
| Principle: "Data are corporate assets." | | | | of one billion dollars) telecommunications company in |
| Rationale: "Data on customers, products, suppliers,... are | | | | 1993. IT wanted to better align with the business and |
| of more value when shared across business units and | | | | they were convinced that what they needed was an |
| are required to meet our objective of providing a single | | | | architecture. I thought better because they already had |
| face to our stakeholders. Accurate and current data | | | | two, very expensively purchased, architecture |
| are a corner stone to every employee's ability to meet | | | | documents collecting dust on the shelf. One document |
| and exceed their goals." | | | | was three years old and the other just one year old. |
| Implications: "Common business and technical definitions | | | | They agreed that a one day "principles workshop" |
| for our core common data must be defined and | | | | would help them assess if they were ready for |
| enforced. Access to this common data must be easy | | | | "architecture". After a long day with 12 VPs of IT they |
| and seamless across the enterprise for all employees." | | | | had managed to write only one principle: "We manage |
| Issues: "We are acquiring new companies rapidly and | | | | IT like a business." They had not managed to |
| will need to make their information systems conform. | | | | document the rationale, implications, nor issues. I asked |
| Many of our business units are building and | | | | them what kind of a business they meant; body shop |
| implementing quick win/short life-span applications that | | | | (what they were at the time for the various marketing |
| are successfully generating revenue--how do we | | | | groups in the company), revenue center, just really |
| maintain this agility?" | | | | professional, or something else. They all had different |
| Most organizations today would agree with the | | | | ideas of what they meant by "like a business." In fact |
| principle above, that data are corporate assets. They | | | | there was no agreement. We focused our future |
| would differentiate themselves more in terms of their | | | | efforts on other means to better align IT with the |
| rationale, implications and issues. For example, a | | | | business. |
| different company may have qualified access to the | | | | Pretty cool tool, n'est-ce pas? |