Convergence, Yes; Alignment, No - ' Holistic Maturity'

What else have you learned about alignment in last few years?
The most critical thing we've learned in creating these three categories is that alignment is a reflection of management maturity. There has to be a vehicle for measuring that maturity. Not technology or business maturity, but a holistic maturity that looks at organizational and governance structure, at the way companies make IT investments, at enterprise architecture, overall strategy and planning. That maturity shows up in a company's financial performance.

We've seen a significant change in terms of people's attitude toward alignment. People almost never talk about alignment any more, because alignment should be part of your job, not an achievement. Our industry is maturing.

The traditional thinking about the CIO role has to change. The CIO role is not a technology role but a business role that is focused on improving processes by utilizing technology. The CIO role cannot be a support role. It has to be a part and parcel of other roles; it has to be very holistic. At the end of the day, CIOs are the owner of information and process, so how can the CIO's role be just a support role?

This also brings us to the difference between alignment and convergence. Alignment is where CIO matches up with others' decisions. Convergence is where the CIO and management teams up. Governance means two different things at a company at the alignment stage and one at convergence. Governance in the alignment stage is concerned with project governance and setting budget goals. Governance at the convergent stages asks whether these projects are the right things to do, and will they have the business impact we want? That's a different governance role. The same is true with investment decisions.