BITA 2012 - 3rd Workshop on Business and IT Alignment (BITA 2012)

A contemporary challenge for enterprises is to keep up with the pace of changing business demands imposed on them in different ways. There is today an obvious demand for continuous improvement and alignment in enterprises but unfortunately many organisations don’t have proper instruments (methods, patterns, best practices etc.) to achieve this. Enterprise modelling and business process management are two areas belonging to a tradition where the mission is to improve business practice and business and IT alignment. In this tradition the alignment process usually is manifested in taking a business from one state into another improved state, i.e. a transformation of the business and its supporting IT into something that is regarded as better. A challenge in business and IT alignment is to move beyond this narrow focus on one tradition or technology. We need to be aware of and able to deal with a number of dimensions of the enterprise architecture and their relations in order to create alignment. Examples of such dimensions are: organisational structures, strategies, business models, work practices, processes, and IS/IT structures. Among the concepts that deserve special attention in this context is IT governance. An effective IT governance aligns IT investments with overall business priorities, determines who makes the IT decisions and assigns accountability for the outcomes. There are ordinarily three governance mechanisms that an enterprise needs to have in place, 1) decision-making structures, 2) alignment process, and 3) formal communications.
This workshop aims to bring together people who have strong interest in business and IT alignment. We would like to invite researchers and practitioners from both industry and academia to submit original results of their completed or ongoing projects. We encourage broad understanding of possible approaches and solutions for business and IT alignment, including IT governance subjects. Specific focus will be on practices of business and IT alignment, i.e. we encourage submission of case study and experiences papers.
Topics
Challenges in business and IT alignment
Business and IT alignment in small and medium sized enterprises
Business/ IT alignment through BPM
Business and IT alignment discovery, change and improvement - methodologies and best practices
Business value of business and IT alignment
Organisational implementations of various levels of business and IT alignment approaches
Metrics associated with the alignment life cycle, re-design, implementation, management and improvement
Best practice business and IT alignment case studies
The relationship between BPM and enterprise architecture
Critical success factors and associated KPIs´ for alignment initiatives
IT governance as a mean for alignment
Enterprise modelling as a tool for business and IT alignment
Human aspects of business and IT alignment; organizational staffing and structure, change management and leadership strategies
Design thinking in business and IT alignment
Practices of business and IT alignment
Experience reports and case studies