This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The role of BTM
Business Technology Management (BTM) is an emerging management science, grounded in research and practice, that aims to unify decision making from the boardroom to the IT project team. The standard described in this book and put forth by the BTM Institute provides a structured approach to such decisions that lets enterprises align, synchronize, and even converge technology and business management, thus ensuring better execution, risk control, and profitability.
Companies have employed a number of methodologies and techniques to improve business and technology alignment. Although many of these methods have acknowledged strengths, they represent piecemeal solutions.
Disparate islands of practice exist within the technology management domain (see Figure 1.2), particularly in the areas of operations and infrastructure. These range from the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) for services management. However, none of these approaches focuses on integrating and enabling the capabilities necessary to achieve strategic business technology management and the sustainable value that follows. But the danger of relying solely on downstream technology management methodologies is that by the time misalignment becomes apparent, it may be irreversible.
)
Figure 1.2 Other Management Frameworks
BTM integrates and enables the capabilities necessary to achieve strategic business technology management.
The BTM Standard provides a set of guiding principles around which a company’s practices can be organized and improved. It builds bridges between previously isolated tools and standards for business technology management. Essentially, BTM sits strategically above operational and infrastructure levels of technology management. The standard aims to create a seamless management approach that begins with board and CEO-level issues and connects all the way through technology investment and implementation.
The BTM Framework identifies 17 essential capabilities grouped into functional areas: Governance & Organization, Managing Technology Investments, Strategy & Planning, and Strategic Enterprise Architecture. These capabilities are defined and created by four critical dimensions: processes, organization, information and technology (see Figure 1.3).
)