Book Review :IT Business Partnerships – A Field Guide, Paving the way for Business and Technology Convergence

Abstract

IT Business Partnerships – A Field Guide, Paving the way forBusiness and Technology Convergence, John Sculley&Joseph Topinka,CIO Mentor Press, 2014, 392 Pages, INR 1771.The relationship between Information Technology (IT) and business has beenastressful for more reasons than one. More than two-thirds of businesses donot view IT as a strtegic partner and do not consider IT in their strategicplanning efforts. Some businesses even consider IT as a cost center. The lack ofinter-personal relationships and a differing mindset about their expectations ofeach other, often exacerbate misgivings even further. During my corporate daysin the U.S., I have felt that the businesses struggle to strike a meaningfulrelationship with IT and vice versa. The waterfall software development
methodology of those days didn’t help much. Requirements were handed off toIT and the software product that turned out was often disappointing for the
business. There is then the headlong rush to fix defects and at times updates areimproperly done. Such outcomes often queered the pitch for constructing better
relationships between IT and the business since previous encounters promote avery defensive mind set.