(Length: 13 pages)

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Aligning IT and business strategy remains the No. 1 or No. 2 business IT issue year after year. But no matter how much focus and attention this subject receives, little progress seems to be made. Forrester recommends that 1) firms start measuring strategic alignment as part of the "you can't manage what you don't measure" philosophy, and 2) start using strategy maps to build consensus around strategic objectives and communicate this strategy to all stakeholders. By creating a picture of strategic objectives, making strategy visible in a strategy map makes it easier to communicate and drive alignment, thus embodying another familiar philosophy — a picture is worth 1,000 words.