A Gartner piece that is worthy of some attention. Gartner recommends seven fundamental rules to articulate the business value of IT. Let’s take a look.
Rule 1: Value is determined by the stakeholder or consumer, not the provider/producer.
Rule 2: Not all outcomes are equally valued.
Rule 3: Build two value narratives: run and change.
Rule 4: Measure IT’s impact on stakeholders’ objectives, not IT effort expended.
Rule 5: Align IT costs to the business services they enable.
Rule 6: Communicate IT value in the language of the stakeholder.
Rule 7: Those funding IT must understand the value and impact of IT on stakeholder objectives
I’ll highlight this from the article in CIO Dive as it relates to Rule 1:
IT’s stakeholders – not IT – determine what is valuable. Without insight into business priorities, IT is likely to remain focused on the delivery of technologies and platforms rather than business objectives, benefits, or outcomes.
Why do we care?
It’s as if focusing on what the customer wants from a business perspective is the optimal way to approach IT. Funny about that. Snark aside, these are solid recommendations, and I wanted to reinforce this for listeners.