Are you realizing value from your investment in technology?

In my experience, most organizations have difficulty answering this question. I have also found I need to take care when asking the question.

In my last post I noted how IT should create value and I received some savvy comments from Bill Monroe, Chief Collaboration Officer. Bill noted that IT in and of itself does not "create value. He noted that IT is a tool that enables value. Semantics aside, I think we were in violent agreement.

Upon reflection, what I really want to ensure is that I am realizing business value from IT. I talk about this lofty goal constantly as it is a major principle of IT Governance. A recent ISACA survey of 255 non-IT Executives found that "value creation" was the #1 reason enterprises are dipping their toes in the IT Governance waters (having thankfully relegated "Managing Risk" to the #2 reason).

And realizing this value from IT is all the more complicated by the fact that study after study shows that at least 50% of our IT projects are failing (and here's another plug for Michael Krigsman's "IT Project Failures" http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/ ). I responded to a recent blog post from Toni Bowers http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=733  (who also plugged Michael's blog) agreeing that the failure of these projects is rarely due to problems with the technology. I noted, "In my experience the greatest challenge is understanding, changing and managing the related business processes and human behavior."

My answer to this intolerable quandary is IT Governance. I am a major subscriber to the teachings of the IT Governance Institute and I am a major proponent of their ValIT Framework. This past July they published their second version and in its quest to realize enterprise value, the framework sagely notes, "Realizing business value is not about acquiring technology, but about using IT in conjunction with associated changes in the nature of the business, business processes, individuals' work and competencies, and organizational structures."

I embraced the first version published in 2006 and a recent tweet by @kcaretta, editor of SearchCIO-Midmarket.com motivated me to finally read Version 2 in its entirety. Kristen was asking if anyone was using ValIT which resulted in our scheduling some time on the phone to discuss my views on the topic.

We had a great conversation and I now have to temper the almost limitless resulting inspiration and blog fodder and choose one thing to share with you in this post. I settled on a tidbit I think gets squarely to the subject of the inordinate number of IT project failures and our associated inability to deliver appropriate value to the business.

The newest version of the ValIT Framework includes an excerpt from John Ward's article in the Forum, the Monthly Newsletter of the Information Systems Research Center at the Cranfield School of Management - August 2006, ‘Delivering Value From Information Systems and Technology Investments: Learning From Success'. Their study identified a number of characteristics typical among initiatives that meet success in delivering value:

• Programs are selected based not just on their desirability but also on the organization's ability to deliver them.
• Having methodologies in place is less important than whether business managers and specialists use them.
• Robust and realistic business cases are used and, if possible, include benefits for all stakeholders.
• Benefits are managed over the entire investment life cycle through consistently applied practices and processes.
• Integrated planning addresses benefit delivery as well as organizational, process and technology changes.
• Business ownership and accountability are assigned for all benefits and changes targeted.
• Investments and their results-in terms of whether benefits are realized-are systematically monitored and reviewed.
• Lessons learned are consistently gleaned from both successful and unsuccessful programs -and used to improve the planning and management of new ones.

Though aspiring to these characteristics may be quite daunting, I hope you find this list as inspiring as I did. Send me a comment if your enterprise has achieved any of these characteristics or if you are challenged in your quest to accomplish them. If so, I am sure I have much to learn from your experience.

Steven Romero, IT Governance Evangelist