Comparison of Functional, Structural, and Dynamic Business-IT Alignment Models: A Case Study

Alignment between business and information technology (IT) has been a top priority for academics and business managers over the past decades because it is believed to create competitive advantage for the organization. However, alignment is not an easy task. In this paper, we present a qualitative case study where three alignment models are used to examine what kinds of explanations they give about the success/failure of alignment. We show that functional, structural, and dynamic alignment models alone are insufficient to provide a profound understanding about alignment. Instead, the models complement one another. This knowledge leads us to propose a set of questions for analyzing business-IT alignment.