3. Brainstorm to find hidden opportunities for IT to help accomplish those goals and initiatives

This assures that IT resources will be deployed proactively and strategically. Creative-thinking groups need to identify employee roles that need to exist but currently do not — or to identify current roles that should no longer exist. From this dialogue, strategic business initiatives of business units can be determined and new ways can be identified in which IT could contribute to overall strategic goals.

4. Prioritize new IT opportunities and plan for redeployment

This helps ensure that IT resources will be deployed optimally. It also helps eliminate the trap of expending IT resources against only tactical business needs, as redeployment of IT resources from tactical projects is often part of how these strategic projects get resourced.

5. Plan for post-project audits

This provides accountability up front. This audit plan will show who will be collecting what metrics when and what the success and failure criteria will be based on these metrics. It also provides a process that will improve future efforts in aligning IT resources.

For IT alignment to be truly successful, the CIO needs to get the other C-level executives to help identify and think through the opportunities for strategic value creation that can come from using IT as a strategic catalyst. This will increase the effectiveness of the identified strategic business initiatives. (Also read A Formula for IT Alignment.)

A Short Word on IT Governance

As the CIO involves the other CXOs in the identification of strategic business goals and a plan for how to use IT as a strategic lever to help achieve those goals, then he or she is involved in "IT governance." Sharing ownership of IT as a strategic resource can be a very political but rational process. It requires the CIO to work with each executive to enhance that particular CXO's ability to perform his role.

CXOs are very busy. The CIO will be able to engage their substantial participation in this process only if they can see how participating in the process will improve their own performance of their roles. The communication of this opportunity, and the fulfilment of this promise, is part of the CIO's role. The CIO can "sell" IT governance on the merits of step two of the IT alignment process. Essentially, she is saying, "If you participate in the IT governance process, IT can provide strategic leverage for the success of your strategic business initiatives. We'll help you be a hero! If you don't participate, then IT will be unable to help you succeed."

If IT governance is done properly, it becomes indistinguishable from the IT alignment process. Nevertheless, the CIO is well served by remembering that these are two separate processes. Otherwise, the strengths of a good IT alignment process get lost in the politics of the IT governance process. The CIO needs to keep the other CXOs focused on the merits of conducting good strategic IT alignment. In this way, IT alignment becomes the framework for the IT governance process — and providing strategic competitive leverage becomes the primary identifying characteristic of IT in the company.

Richard L Routh is the director of the Institute for CIO Excellence and full-time faculty at the University of South Carolina Upstate in the Department of Informatics.