It's time for the IT industry to grow up

It’s time for the IT industry to grow up. Through this blog my aim is to raise (and ideally progress) the issues around the subject of IT value maximization and IT leadership.

IT value maximization needs to be the focus of any organisation that invests significantly in IT. Failing to maximise the organisational value that your IT investment delivers could be construed as poor governance. The consequences of which can be dire.

I believe that IT value maximisation involves more than just tuning one’s technology. It is an issue that stretches far beyond the IT department perimeter.

My thoughts on IT leadership can be summed up as follows: All leaders need to become IT leaders, as IT is too important to be left to the IT department. Thus we need strong IT leadership to deliver real business value from one’s IT investment.

I am currently serialising my latest book ‘The IT Value Stack – A boardroom guide to IT leadership’ via my column in the Financial Times. (Also see the IT Value Stack framework).

My most recent FT column focused on the need for Process entwinement, which forms the second layer of my IT Value Stack framework. In essence I am saying that the IT department needs to come out from behind the IT fence and take on the role of process consultants. What do you think?