Opening Thoughts - Zen and the Art of IT Management

At Architecture and Governance Magazine, we have been preaching the convergence of business strategy, enterprise architecture, and IT transformation since our founding 10 quarters ago. In this issue, we have taken our content to the next level in support of that vision.

Our theme this issue is “Zen and the Art of IT Management.” This is, of course, a homage to Robert Pirsig’s 1970s visionary road-trip novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In fact, the Zen metaphor is becoming quite appropriate for IT transformation success. As business strategy evolves and melds with IT capability, it turns out that IT is no longer able to impart standards and governance without regard to current and future business impact. Rather, IT and the business must now adopt a yin and yang relationship—each leveraging the best capabilities of the other to drive maximum business value. It is in this spirit that we present the current issue of A&G.

Galen Gruman, a frequent contributor to CIO Magazine and InfoWorld writes about key metrics that the business cares about. John Lakey and Jon Borg-Breen provide pragmatic advice about creating a win-win budget for IT and business success. Rebecca Geller begins A&G’s coverage of Green IT with an introductory article about the environmental challenges and opportunities facing the CIO. And Dean Griffin from Accenture offers the second half of his article—“Top 10 Challenges in Enterprise Architecture.”

Last month, by the way, Griffin presented a webinar with A&G covering these top challenges and more than 300 of you attended. If you missed that opportunity, you can watch the archive from our Web site at www.ArchitectureandGovernance.com.

Perhaps most importantly, our annual survey shows the tremendous progress of our readership in embracing business and IT alignment. The results show that more than ever, enterprise architecture initiatives are being aligned with the business drivers of growth and innovation.

In our next issue, we will take the case another step forward as we profile our Architecture and Governance Excellence in IT Leadership Award winners. It’s not too late to nominate a colleague or manager for our leadership awards. Simply send us an e-mail at editor@ArchitectureandGovernance.com and we will provide you with the details.