Aligning software projects with business objectives

Companies increasingly recognize that software and IT play a significant role for their current and future business strategies. Therefore, it is important to align IT/softwarerelated strategies with the business goals across the organization. Currently, little experience exists regarding how to effectively create this missing business-IT link. For this purpose, the GQM +Strategies® approach was developed to support companies in aligning IT/software-related strategies with business goals through measurement. This paper focuses on facilitating the approach for aligning IT/software projects with an organization's higher-level goals. Lessons learned from applying the approach in the context of the Japanese Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA), specifically its Software Engineering Center (SEC), are presented. The transparent documentation of goals and strategies, and the collection of key performance indicators were helpful for effectively aligning the projects with overall organizational goals and strategies as well as for evaluating the degree of alignment and the risk of misalignment.