Business Value! Business Contribution!

There is an emergence of the mindset of providing value to business. I guess we want to address the age-old problem of IT being viewed as overhead.

I have always said that we should treat out IT projects as if we were a small business. In that world, everything we procure for the business needs to provide a tangible bottom-line value....or, we don't acquire it. If we did this to our IT projects, despite kicking and screaming customers, we would stop being just an expense in organizations.

I say this principle is the essence of Six Sigma.

Now, having said that, I am running into ITIL V3 -- pretty much an evolution of ITIL into the same business value mindset. Basically, it is the same principles from ITIL V2 except, instead of focusing on process, it starts with Strategy, which is really defining value to the business.