¹La Trobe University, School of Business, Melbourne, Vic. 3086, Australia.
²La Trobe University, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Melbourne, Vic. 3086, Australia.

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Abstract—Structuring a good working relationship between business and information technology (IT) is synonymous with structuring good alignment. Alignment refers to the degree of fit between business and IT to reach a common business goal. However, it has long been accepted that establishing strong alignment is a complex task due to a lack of information on how organizational components can be extracted. Organizations consist of key components such as model, strategy, operations, processes etc. Processes in business operations are stable key elements which need to be well managed and fit optimally with the proposed business strategy and other related organizational activities. This paper presents a method of extracting organizational components for the purpose of achieving better Business/IT alignment and describes how we have applied it to a medical inventory system. Successful business process extraction will typically provide information for the following: what needs to be included in the process; why businesses need a process; who the process stakeholders are; how to implement the process; and how well an Information System (IS) supports its business process.

Index Terms—business process extraction, business process modeling, IS requirements, business-IT alignment, IS development, bubble diagram.

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Cite: Azmat Ullah, Richard Lai, "A Method of Extracting Organizational Components for Aligning Information Technology with Business," Journal of Software vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 374-385, 2018.