Chapter 2
The Role of IT in Business Operations
Awide variety of models and definitions for analyzing and assessing various aspects of information technology (IT) exist in today's market. Given this wide variety, combined with the highly focused/niche characteristics of some of these models, I lay out explicitly a perspective on how IT fits within the larger context of an operating business.
This chapter focuses on defining and contextualizing how IT relates to the rest of an operating business. Chapters 3 to 5 focus on the relationship between strategy and IT.
MODELS AND DEFINITIONS
For the sake of this book, the logical progression and ordering of various models flows in this order: A strategy drives a business model, which in turn informs an operating model, which is then resolved in an enterprise architecture. Many other models and orderings may exist, but for the sake of clarity and transparency, this is the context that I employ for this book.
This chapter maps out the path from strategy to business model to operating model to enterprise architecture. Figure 2.1 illustrates the steps involved in optimizing and assessing IT.
Figure 2.1 Steps for Optimizing and Assessing IT
Figure 2.1 also was presented in Chapter 1 (see Figure 1.1); I refer to this recurring figure on a number of occasions throughout this book. My interest here is in providing a map or guide to how all the ...
