For CEOs and executives, the relationship between business strategy and technology execution is the single greatest determinant of competitive advantage. Yet, inadequate planning and management of business capabilities often leads to disastrous consequences: increased Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), decreased productivity, service disruptions, and eroded employee morale.
Check Capability Work™ provides the framework for assessing and fortifying the seven essential management processes required to ensure your organization realizes an adequate and predictable return on every technology and capability investment.
The goal is to move the needle on technology-business engagement, which research shows can boost performance (on-time/on-budget delivery and growth) by up to 54 percent.
| Process | Executive Mandate |
Strategic Value to the C-Suite |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Roadmap | Sustained Strategic Clarity | Ensure every critical business capability has an integrated, business-owned 3-year plan that explicitly defines People, Time, and CAPEX/OPEX required. This guarantees investments directly support business priorities. |
| 2. Opportunities | Disciplined Demand Management | Establish a robust "Demand Management" funnel to screen and prioritize opportunities. This balances the high demand for technology services against constrained resources, ensuring capital is allocated to the vital few, highest-impact projects. |
| 3. Principles & Standards | Governance and Risk Mitigation | Define clear roles, responsibilities, and technology architecture standards. This lowers TCO, minimizes risk, and ensures every solution integrates seamlessly across the organization (analogous to a "building code"). |
| 4. Measurement | Accountability and Perception vs. Reality | Quantify and share business satisfaction with technology services and outcomes. This process identifies service gaps, addresses "IT bashing" with facts, and ensures accountability between IT and business leaders. |
| 5. Service | Operational Reliability & Cost Control | Define and enforce rigorous Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or Expectations (SLEs) for critical applications. This ensures optimum reliability, defines what is critical to the business, and supports cost-effective operational management. |
| 6. Methods | Consistency and Quality | Mandate a documented, consistent methodology for project planning, execution, and deployment. This ensures all new capabilities are developed on schedule, within budget, and meet established quality standards. |
| 7. People | Talent Foundation for Execution | Invest in and evolve the right skills and competencies (both technology and business). This is the primary determinant of successful outcomes, ensuring real-time performance reviews align technology and business goals. |
Effective capability management treats information technology like any scarce resource. If you are concerned that your organization is not realizing an adequate return on technology investments, you must immediately assess the presence and strength of these seven critical processes.
Consistent, formal, and high-quality dialogue—driven by these processes—is the single most effective way to elevate the performance and value of your technology-enabled business capabilities.
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