Dimensions of Business Technology Management

BTM addresses four critical dimensions that serve as integrated building blocks supporting improvements across the enterprise:Process: The first dimension for institutionalizing BTM principles is set of robust, flexible and repeatable processes. Simply defining these processes is insufficient though, to effectively implement BTM requires that processes be defined and consistently optimized evaluated to ensure:

• General quality of business practice—Doing the right things
• Efficiency—Doing things quickly with little redundancy
• Effectiveness—Doing things well.

Organization: Management processes are more likely to succeed when they are supported by appropriate organizational structures based on clear understanding of roles, responsibilities, and decision rights. Such organizational structures generally include:

• Participative bodies—involving senior-level business and technology participants on a part-time but routine basis
• Centralized bodies—requiring specialized, dedicated technology staff
• Needs-based bodies—involving rotational assignments, created to deal with particular efforts

The right set of structures will vary according to an enterprise’s value discipline, its primary organizational structure, and its relative BTM maturity. Centralized bodies, such as an Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO), tend to require specialized, dedicated staff. Participative bodies, such as a Business Technology Investment Board, are ongoing, part-time assignments for their participants— the key stakeholders.Information: Valid, timely information is a prerequisite for effective decision-making. This information must be delivered in a way that is comprehensible to non-specialists and, at the same time, actionable in terms of informing choices that matter. Useful information does not just happen. It depends on the interaction of two related elements: data and metrics. Data must be available, relevant, accurate, and reliable. Metrics distill raw data into useful information.Technology: Effective technology can help connect all the other dimensions. Appropriate technology helps make processes easier to execute, facilitates timely information sharing, and enables consistent coordination between elements and layers of the organization. It does this through the following:
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• Automation of manual tasks
• Analytics for decision making
• Reporting
• Integration between management systems