Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 5

How to Align Business and IT

Pitched Battles

Lack of Trust

Tension Abounds. There has always been distrust between the business and the technical sides of an organization, but performance dashboard projects seem to heighten the tension to extreme levels. I have been in the technology industry for 20 years, and frankly, I’m shocked by the intensity of the distrust that I have witnessed between these two groups while researching this book.

Although there is much talk about the need to align business and information technology (IT) departments, little progress has been made. Part of the problem is systemic to IT departments and technical people, but another part involves the willingness of business executives and managers to engage with IT constructively on a long-term basis.

A performance dashboard project exacerbates the tension between business and IT because the two groups need to work closely together to deliver an effective solution. Unlike operational systems that are designed once and run for long periods of time without major modification, performance dashboards must continually adapt to the changing needs of the business. Consider this comment from a business manager who spearheads a performance dashboard project:

We’re supposed to submit a project plan to IT that spells out what we are going to do every month and quarter and budget accordingly. But we can’t operate that way. We know there will be a reorganization, new processes, and a major acquisition that ...