Big Picture Visualization for Business and IT Alignment

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Abstract

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation illustrates how big picture visualization can be used for business and IT alignment. Digital success must be built on more than understanding the value of technology investments; it must also embrace implications beyond the technology, as transformations impact people, process, and stakeholders overall. As such, the goal for executives is not just to consider specific technology plans but also to understand the consequences of strategies and risk-based decisions. In that broader context, IT leaders are challenged to make sure that conversations are clear and unambiguous in terms of exactly what a digital change entails.

Using pictures to convey an idea lets stakeholders explore proposed changes with a lowered risk of misinterpretation or understanding gaps that can come from relying on words alone. When future IT leaders draw an image to represent the new possibility, they provide the most straightforward and unambiguous reference point for discussion. Visualization ensures that digital strategists simplify and clarify their intentions.

Business leaders often approach digital investments using traditional language and analysis, and as a result, they can miss important questions about the strategy and road map. The devil is often in the details. For example, executives can have unrealistic expectations of "digitizing" the business, so it is important to build on concrete or specific ideas of what the planned change implies. Often, nondigital leaders take parallels and interpretations from articles and discussions where, in fact, the planned investments do not actually align. It is also a natural human tendency to hear what we want to hear, or to be optimistic about what a project will deliver. Finally, in the competition for limited strategic resources, it is easy to inadvertently downplay risks to garner support for a project. Digital leaders must challenge themselves and their stakeholders to make sure that discussions are unambiguous about the exact nature of a change and its implications.

Look at the big picture approach as your opportunity to "fail early." By making sure that the factors surrounding a decision are clear, including calling out areas of risk, you give the team the opportunity to take questions and concerns and address them in the strategy and plan. This document demonstrates techniques, using big picture visualization, to:

• Simplify, by making the picture as straightforward and elementary as possible
• Amplify the changes, to make sure people really think them through
• Identify aspects of the change that might not be as expected, to avoid surprises
• Force the tough questions early in the conceptual and design phases

Meaningful investment discussions must build understanding and encourage discussion, rather than being a "pitch" for ideas or plans. Big picture visualization supports a fulsome and meaningful decision process by shining light on the specific changes that are proposed and demonstrating in easy-to-understand terms how they will be impactful. This document explores using visualization to explain digital investments, investigate business process changes, and support business-aligned analysis. Leverage big picture discussions to break down subtle aspects of a digitally based plan, so nontechnical executives and/or board members can genuinely engage to provide strategic oversight.

"Future success in digital transformation is directly proportional to our ability to help other business leaders understand what we are doing," says Alizabeth Calder, adjunct research advisor with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP). "By supporting digital conversations with a big picture, visualization will shine light on potential risks including inaccurate assumptions. Big picture visualization helps key stakeholders understand, adopt, and integrate new technology into their business strategy and execution."

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