Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
measure the satisfaction level of the user's needs to the target technical system and is
performed iteratively to refine the requirements [41]. The diversity of cultural values
among the users influences their perception of the business and IT being measured.
Valuation Framing adapted from Hall's [43] ten cultural aspects can provide a basis
for capturing and measuring these cultural values. The valuation framing process
integrates Hall's metrics with traditional metrics covering quality, performance and
providing the organisation with robust information (with added values from cultural
aspects) to assist in their decision making process. An Organisational Onion technique
facilitates a representation of the stakeholder's relationship to the business function and
level of influence in the organisation. Through the definition of the formal, informal
and technical factors within the Organisational Onion it addresses the relationships
among the stakeholders. It supports the
“notion of viewing an organisation as a social
system where the people involved internally and externally behaves in a structured
patterns that are govern by a certain system of norms”
[8].
The norm analysis enables an organisation to study holistically the behaviours of
their members and the active interactions between the members that are driven by
norms [40]. The norms define the knowledge of the business processes in the structure
of
<context>
followed by the conditions applied in
<state>
to the associated stake-
holders affected or responsible
<agent>
and to the categorisation of the type of action
<deontic operator>
, and the
<action>
needed
.
According to Organisational Semiotics,
norms can be categorised into formal and informal. Formal norms are a set of
statements, such as business rules governing the business process, which define the
expected or intended behavior of the business in an organisation. However, in practice,
the stakeholders that are directly involved within the business may develop their own
interpretation of the formal norms through adaptation from their cultural background.
These informal norms may not be explicitly defined as the behavior of the business and
they should not overwrite the formally defined norms. However, these informal norms
provide knowledge of the actual social practices that relate to the formal norms of
business. Using such knowledge, the organisation will have the capability to imple-
ment their strategy and ensure business processes that best fit the working culture,
which will eventually improve business performance and productivity.
4 The Design of the Business-Technology Alignment Consulting
Framework
The consulting framework, as it is developed in collaboration with Capgemini [44], is
devised to aid a business and IT alignment. The methods in this framework are under-
pinned by SOA, TOGAF, PAM, and NAM. The framework consists of a require-
ments stage; valuation stage; and strategy formulation stage (see Fig. 1). In the first
stage, the requirement elicitation for the overall business operations establishes a
holistic view of the core and supporting business services. In the second stage, the
requirements are analysed to assess the value of the IT applications that support the
business services by applying the Valuation Framing techniques [41]. This assessment
incorporates an assessment of the financial aspects, (in the IT Financial Analysis
component), that influence the value of the IT applications towards the business ser-
vices. The valuation phase outputs provide information on the state or performance of
