Value = (Align + Connect)2 IBAFrame: A value driven approach for IT projects and

IT related organisational change

Leon Dohmen

July 2011

Many companies and institutions perceive difficulties with the information technology (IT)

push of the last decades. Investments in new IT solutions suffer from poor results. As a cure

for the raised problems caused by the technology push, this article introduces IBAFrame.

IBAFrame stands for IT (or Innovation) Benefits Accelerator Framework. For value creation

IBAFrame supports alignment and connection from a result point of view and a process point

of view.

Value = (Align + Connect)2

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Introduction

Many companies and institutions perceive difficulties with the information technology (IT)

push of the last decades. Investments in new IT solutions suffer from poor results. Not seldom

new IT solutions are implemented via a special (temporary) work construction: an IT project.

Two main reasons can be appointed as main causes for the poor results:

1. From a result perspective: IT projects focus (too much) on technology only;

2. From a process perspective: IT projects act (too much) as an island disconnected from the

rest of the organisation.

As a cure for the raised problems caused by the technology push, this article introduces

IBAFrame. IBAFrame stands for IT (or Innovation) Benefits Accelerator Framework.

IBAFrame is a (new) framework that provides insights and instruments that supports

organisational change driven by IT. A long-term period – over ten years – of research has

established the foundation of the framework. Many cases and projects in public and private

institutions and organisations have been analysed. Cases like mergers, setting up a shared

service centre, implementations of new IT solutions and outsourcing of IT services.

Result perspective

From a result perspective IBAFrame is supported by the TOP-concept.1 Different worlds fuse

into one is the credo of TOP and involves Technology, Organisation and People (figure 1).

Figure 1: Context and consistency of

technology, organisation and people

(TOP-mix)

Technology

This is the offering of available technology (infrastructure, middleware, applications) and its

possibilities, limitations and impossibilities. Even when limited to the domain of IT the

offering is enormous. A technology that turns several industries upside down is the Internet.

Internet has made it possible to create a virtual world (V-world) besides the physical world.

The meaning of terms like place, time and presence has drastically changed in the V-world.

1 TOP-change for the fifth technology revolution: http://www.slideshare.net/ldohmen/topchange-for-the-fifth-

technology-revolution

Technology

• Applications

• Middleware

• Infrastructure

Organisation

• Processes

• Structure

• Location

People

• Attitude

• Knowledge

• Skills

Value = (Align + Connect)2

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Organisation

Organisations apply IT to support their corporate objectives. IT gives organisations almost

unlimited possibilities to reshape business processes and organisation structure (including

location). Due to the shortening of life cycles of available IT, absorbing new IT has to be a

key capability to transform and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

People

New IT solutions change the content of work and collaboration between employees inside and

outside the own organisation. A proper attitude and stimulation of learning processes are

important to quickly build up new knowledge and skills. Learning processes have to be tuned

on individual preferences and capabilities. Related to the affinity with IT, digital natives

versus digital immigrants is a popular way to distinguish between (generations of) people.

Food for thought: Limited views

There is a permanent interaction in the context of technology, organisation and people (TOP-

mix). Each TOP-mix contains its own dynamics and unpredictability. Results are never

absolute. Here is where the most views that the various professional fields and studies have

developed go wrong. Many of these views about how change can best be carried out limit

itself to one or at most two domains of the TOP-mix. Psychologists, sociologists and

behaviour scientists point to the importance of the people factor and the developing of correct

behaviour. IT project managers restrict their project to the technology domain only. Most IT

project managers have no idea what takes place outside of this domain. Organisation scientists

especially evaluate processes and structures and explain which organisation form is most

appropriate for an organisation. Each view from a separate field of study or profession is

incomplete and without insight in the required contribution of and interaction between other

domains, only a partial solution can be offered.

Each implementation of a new IT solution impacts the alignment and connection of the

existing interplay of TOP. Approaching the implementation of the new IT solution with TOP

prevents a narrow-minded focus on e.g. technology only. This result perspective is the first

part of alignment and connection to create value: Value = Align + Connect.

Process perspective

Today’s projects build tomorrow’s organisation. Classical (project) management methods,

developed for an era in which IT was less dominant do not evolve quick enough to take on the

problems of poor results of IT projects. The professionalization of the discipline has lead to

exaggeration of the attention for instruments, milestones and time schedules without

emphasizing what is key for projects: the absorption of the project result. From a process

point of view IBAFrame arranges the alignment and connection by involving:

­ changes of the IT solution itself; this could be a change of an existing IT solution or the

implementation of a new IT solution (IT project);

­ changes in the work domain of users of IT (user organisation or demand side of IT);

­ changes in the work domain of IT support (IT organisation or supply side of IT).

IBAFrame involves all three subsections and their mutual influencing and dependency

therein. Continuous alignment and connection are required to have the subsections mutually

join each other perfectly well, in order to ensure that innovation or change in which IT is

Value = (Align + Connect)2

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dominant becomes successful. To arrange this alignment and connection IBAFrame provides

six key principles. First two principles are positioned at organisation level, principles three

and four are linked to group level. The last two principles are on individual level.

1. Shared view and direction including insight in complexity and impact;

2. Fitting change approach tuned on the complexity;

3. Commitment and collaboration based on realistic targets and timeframes;

4. Stimulation of learning processes to support the absorption of the new IT solution;

5. Proper attitude to support a pro-active contribution;

6. Necessary competences of technology, organisation and people aspects.

The six principles arrange the alignment and connection on the different levels of

organisation, group and individual: therefore corporate objectives are linked to group and

individual objectives. The IBAFrame process perspective is the second part of alignment and

connection to create value: Value = Align + Connect.

Research and foundation

Applying TOP and IBAFrame in a proper way from a result and process point of view can be

represented by the ‘formula’: Value = (Align + Connect)2.

Applying the concepts of IBAFrame and TOP is not such a tip or trick. Necessary

competences are required to understand and to arrange an optimum in alignment and

connection for value creation. The foundation of the first concept has been in 1999. The

foundation was initiated by a case study related to a thesis for an IT auditing study. In the

years after the concept has been developed further by applying it in multiple practices. On

case level for two cases it could be concluded working according the IBAFrame principles

leads to an increased value (result) of 8% (merger and acquisition case) and 44% (shared

service centre case). Experiences, learned lessons and gained insights from different

professional fields like project management, change management, IT auditing and educational

institutions have stimulated further development and the launch of the current IBAFrame

concept in the publication ‘Regie voeren over organisatieverandering met ICT’2 (2008, Dutch

language) followed by the publication ‘Changing IT in six’3 (2010, English language).

A generic model

Latest insights on the IBAFrame concept are expressed in the research ‘Leading principles for

IT related organisational change’.4 In this research of 46 IT projects (and/or situations)5 the

relation between the way of steering (change-ability) and the achieved result are expressed on

a scale from 1 (very poor) to 10 (excellent). The average score result represents the

IBAFrame result perspective. The result expresses sub-areas like:

­ result is an improvement;

­ result fits the objective;

­ result coincides with the expectation;

­ result is properly absorbed.

2 Regie voeren over organisatieverandering met ICT: http://www.sdu.nl/catalogus/9789012125895

3 Changing IT in six: http://www.vangorcum.nl/EN_toonBoek.asp?PublID=4552

4 Leading principles for IT related organisational change: http://www.slideshare.net/ldohmen/iba-frame-study-

results-20100416 5 Individual IT projects and the general performance of IT projects in an organisation were part of the study.

Value = (Align + Connect)2

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The average score way of steering (change-ability) represents the process perspective of

IBAFrame reflecting the key principles of IBAFrame. A level of steering of 4.3 leads to a

result of 1.9. A level of steering of 5.4 leads to a result of 4.6 etcetera (figure 2). The white

line, representing the

relation between result and

process perspectives

corresponds with the

classical S-curve, very

often used to visualize

learning processes.

Obviously an investment

in development of

knowledge and skills is

necessary for value

creation.

Figure 2:Generic model for

application of IBAFrame principles

The results of the research ‘Leading principles for IT related organisational change’ are also

published in ‘Kampioen organisatieverandering’6 (2011, Dutch language). One of the main

findings of this research is that 27 of the 46 IT projects (and/or situations) – this is 59% –

achieve a result lower than 6.0. Only 3 projects (7%) come to a result of 8.0.

Food for thought: Failed IT projects

The failure of IT projects is often determined on the basis of exceeding the delivery date

and/or the available IT project budget. However, if budget and time exceeds 10% and the

result contributes to more efficient working business processes, higher turnover or higher

margins, will we then refer to the project as a failed project? This classic approach on whether

or not a project was successful leads to a high level of narrow-mindedness in which the

project appears to be the objective on itself instead of the means to contribute to the corporate

objective. IBAFrame uses a different approach. The term (change) result is the exponent with

which the result (of the change by means of IT) is expressed, instead of the budget and time.

Summary ‘Narrow streets breed narrow minds’. The limited and one-sided thinking from a technology

point of view insufficiently contributes to the success rate of organisational changes where IT

plays an important role. Only when these changes are approached from the total content of

technology, organisation and people - TOP-mix - a proper analysis of the issue is possible and

the correct steering can be chosen. For this, people are needed who have competences from

several fields of expertise or know how bring them together. The concept of IBAFrame

6 Kampioen organisatieverandering: http://www.unibook.com/nl/Leon-Dohmen/Kampioen-

organisatieverandering

Value = (Align + Connect)2

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provides insights from a result perspective and process perspective to create more value for

organisational change where IT plays an important role: Value = (Align + Connect)2.

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Leon Dohmen is principal management consultant at Logica. Also he teached

Management of Technology at the Rotterdam Business School for Master-

and MBA-programmes from 2003 to 2012.

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