Where Does Business Technology Management (BTM) Fit?
Most companies employ a number of methodologies and techniques to improve business and technology alignment. While many of these methods have acknowledged strengths, they typically represent piecemeal solutions. Disparate islands of practice exist within the technology management domain, particularly in the areas of operations and infrastructure. These range from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and balanced scorecard to the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM). However, none of these approaches focuses on integrating and enabling the capabilities necessary to achieve strategic business technology management and the sustainable value that follows. The danger of relying solely on “downstream” technology management methodologies is that by the time alignment problems become apparent, they may be irreversible. Furthermore, when methodologies are borrowed from the business domain, there are often deficiencies with respect to focus, goals/objectives and adaptability. For example, Balanced Scorecard is a performance measurement methodology originally designed for the HR function, and Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology first applied to the manufacturing function. These methodologies are often applied to technology operations with varying degrees of success, but they may not be comprehensive enough to address the unique needs of business-technology integration.
BTM addresses this challenge by providing a set of guiding principles around which a company’s practices can be organized and improved. It harmonizes and integrates and elevates previously isolated tools and standards for “IT” management to deliver a seamless strategic management approach that begins with the concerns of Board and CEO and connects that all the way through business technology investment and implementation.
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