Information Systems Strategic Alignment Maturity Levels: Corporate and Project Implementation Perspectives

Abstract

Deriving value from Information Systems (IS) investments has been a great concern in most organizations. IS strategic alignment also known as Business-IS alignment has been argued as one of the approaches of achieving IS investment value. Various researchers have proposed approaches to understanding the importance, achievement and maintenance of strategic alignment in organizations. This research used a strategic alignment assessment framework derived from Luftman’s Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM) to establish alignment maturity levels of public universities in Kenya. The approach adopted considers both Corporate (decision making) level and Project (IS implementation) level in evaluating strategic alignment maturity of an organization. Survey questionnaires were used in data collection and quantitative data analysis was employed. The study found out that the alignment maturity scores was higher at IS project implementation level as compared to corporate level. There was also consistency in alignment maturity scores ranking of factors in the two levels with communication and partnership scoring high at both levels while the human resource skills were ranked lowest at both levels.

Keywords: Strategic alignment, Information Systems Investments, Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM), IS project implementation