Relationship Prioritization
Prioritize relationships with stakeholders and business units (for example, depending on previous, current, and upcoming business initiatives) to minimize negative impacts of competing priorities.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Relationship Prioritization at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Outcome
- Minimal understanding of each other's positioning and priorities, particularly at the lower levels of the hierarchy.
- Outcome
- No measurement of the impact of relationship management.
- Outcome
- Minimal understanding of each other's positioning and priorities.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Arrange meetings between senior IT and key relevant business managers on an ad hoc, informal basis.
- Outcome
- Senior IT management gains some understanding of how IT can support the business.
- Metric
- # communication sessions between senior IT and business management
- Practice
- Assess effectiveness of relationship management based on subjective view of IT managers and validated against customer satisfaction levels.
- Outcome
- Senior IT management assess level of success of their relationship management efforts.
- Metric
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers)
- Practice
- Implement basic process to handle transition of relationships, including agreed handover of responsibilities to relevant areas of the business with timelines and end dates.
- Outcome
- IT avoids wasting resources and business areas are aware of their responsibilities, reducing potential ambiguities.
- Metric
- # relationships transitioned
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Arrange regular meetings between IT management and business managers from key areas of the business.
- Outcome
- Shared perspective of IT/business no longer resides solely within senior management.
- Metrics
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers).
- # communication sessions between IT and business management.
- Practice
- Measure performance of all relationships with key business entities using small number of defined relationship management metrics.
- Outcome
- Create objective basis for measuring relationship management effectiveness.
- Metrics
- # relationships with defined relationship management metrics.
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers).
- Practice
- Implement process to review relationships on an occasional basis to identify any which are no longer required and transition to new state in agreement with all relevant business stakeholders.
- Outcome
- IT becomes aware of need to transition redundant relationships at an early stage, and manages them in a controlled fashion.
- Metrics
- # relationships to be transitioned.
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers).
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Schedule regular meetings between individuals from all levels of IT with contacts in the business to pursue improved relationships between the two sides.
- Outcome
- IT staff is able to foster improved relationships with individuals from the business units.
- Metrics
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers).
- # scheduled meetings between IT and business staff.
- Practice
- Measure performance of all relationships using relationship management metrics which align directly to business value impact for each business entity.
- Outcome
- Relationship management is perceived as delivering value to the organization.
- Metric
- # relationship management metrics tied to business value
- Practice
- Create defined transition plans for all key IT/business relationships as a contingency measure and agree these transition plans with all relevant stakeholders.
- Outcome
- Enables IT to respond quickly to any unforeseen changes in a relationship requiring a transition to a new state.
- Metrics
- # key relationships with defined transition plan.
- % customer satisfaction.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Arrange joint meetings between IT and the rest of the business to identify opportunities for improving relationships and information flow through recognition, discussion and resolution of issues and emerging challenges.
- Outcome
- Reduction in conflicts between IT and the rest of the business.
- Metric
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers)
- Practice
- Measure value delivered by relationship management to the business.
- Outcome
- Relationship management clearly demonstrates its value to IT.
- Metrics
- % customer satisfaction (internal customers).
- $ business value generated.
- Practices
- Continuously monitor all IT/business relationships to ensure adequate prioritization and resource allocation.
- Define monitoring points to identify improvement opportunities in the transition process.
- Outcome
- Continuous improvement of transition process.
- Metrics
- # key relationships with defined transition plan.
- % customer satisfaction.