IT Synthesis

I recently finished my MBA thesis ” IT Synthesis: An Integrated Approach to Improving the Success Rate of IT Initiatives in Small to Medium Sized Companies.”

Abstract

Information Technology initiatives continue to challenge companies, financially and organizationally, resulting in out-of-scope and costly initiatives that deliver little measureable business value back to the organization. This trend has led to a well-defined gap between business and technology resulting in misguided and inefficient operations. In this qualitative study, four research questions guided my data collection and analysis: why do technology initiatives present institutional challenges, who is involved in determining the business need and technology selection, how is the ROI of a technology initiative determined and is the technology department seen as a strategic business unit and included in designing, developing and driving strategic initiatives. Analysis of data collected for this study yielded four main themes: a lack of leadership, including the misalignment of business and technology objectives and goals; a lack of change management; an inability to value IT initiatives, and a lack of general business knowledge among IT professionals. Together, these themes raise critical implications for understanding the business-technology gap. I offer recommendations and a framework, which I refer to as an IT Optimized Business Approach, and I describe how forward-thinking business methodologies can help address this gap, thus helping companies develop defensible IT initiatives that deliver business value back to the enterprise.