The best e-businesses exhibit this teamwork in just about everything they do. Corp., for example, business and IT are so tightly knit that it is hard to tell where e-business ends and IT begins. Working together is the key. Whether you're facing strategic planning or a project-level fix, IT and the business both must contribute to the decision and follow through on the execution. Business-IT alignment sounds easy, but in practice proves hard to achieve and sustain.
Alignment depends on communication, and communication is often elusive.
The business sees only the benefits while IT sees only the costs, making it hard to come together. The consequences of poor alignment can be severe. Business looks at IT as an albatross, and IT looks at the business as a relentless taskmaster. Tension fills the air every time IT and business meet. In the most extreme cases, the animosity between business and IT comes out into the open.