Building the Business/IT Relationship through Knowledge Management

Abstract

The tenuous relationship between the IT organization and the business presents a major challenge for business organizations, especially in the area of knowledge management. The business-IT gap can often be traced to a lack of knowledge of each other’s issues and communication norms. Poor practice in these areas results in negative effects on knowledge sharing, leading to poor co-ordination of work practices, project management deficiencies and defective information system.In this paper we present a relationship management maturity model that was generated as part of an action research project. It was designed to help a large financial services firm carry out an extensive effort to bridge this gap. The major focus of this program was to improve the relationship between IT and business via improved knowledge sharing. By addressing weaknesses in traditional IT-driven approaches that have been regularly noted by knowledge management researchers, this innovative program accounts for the social networks between people in order to ensure that the right knowledge is shared at the right time across these networks.Over time, the program began to achieve its intended ’one-team’ mentality goal and a knowledge sharing culture as the relationship management approach helped both business and IT personnel build networks that spanned the boundary between them. The outcomes of the action research show the results of the relationship management initiative after one year, and present a maturity model that gives practitioners a knowledge management tool for enabling the gap to be bridged. This can be used, via further action research, to study both knowledge and relationship management in the IT discipline.As it stands, this paper primarily illustrates the use of knowledge management theory as a holistic way to manage the complex relationship between business and the IT organization. We conclude that the research approach and findings provide evidence that the knowledge management approach can improve the business/IT relationship. We also conclude that the Relationship Management Maturity Model can be used to both measure the maturity of an organization and to provide a mechanism for improving business/IT relationships over time via knowledge management.