The IT Value Chain: A Process Foundation

This chapter establishes the analysis framework for the IT value chain. With all the frameworks created for enterprise IT, it seems redundant to create another, but there are limitations to existing frameworks. Rather than a laundry list of IT process areas and functional capabilities, the value chain framework adopted here distinguishes between the primary and the secondary IT processes and maintains focus on the value-adding activities. This chapter has taken the ambitious goal of creating yet another IT process framework, this one based on value chain theory. This is a critical step in understanding enterprise IT, which remains functionally blinkered. The central plan, build, and run value chain is an event-driven flow, which can be casually referred to as inspire to retire. It is measurable and has defined stakeholders, and to that extent it meets the demands of current BPM thinking. Further work can be done on elaborating the IT value chain concept.