Tackling Alignment Challenges: A Light-Weight Method to Plan Business and IT Co-evolution

The aim of Business-IT alignment in today’s fast-changing digital world is not to arrive at an endpoint where IT and business are aligned, but to continuously adjust them to maintain alignment. In spite of decades of alignment research, concrete operational methods for continuous alignment between business and IT remain lacking. Therefore, we set out to design an easy-to-use and lightweight method for planning the co-evolution of business and IT that would help to address modern alignment challenges. We designed our planning method using the Design Science Research approach. This involved conducting exploratory interviews to surface common alignment challenges, reviewing existing strategy and planning instruments, expanding upon them, and integrating them into one single planning process. We then evaluated the designed method through pilots in an educational setting and through semi-structured confirmatory expert interviews where we employed the technology acceptance model. Through interviews with 16 practitioners in six different organisations, we surfaced nine major categories of alignment challenges. Method design resulted in a 5-step process for collaboratively creating, sharing, and monitoring so-called evolution plans, complete with templates, a manual, and an instructive example. The educational pilots and expert interviews confirmed the usability and acceptability of the method. Our co-evolution planning method complements existing, theoretical alignment research results with a concrete operational instrument that addresses alignment challenges commonly encountered across organisations.