IT Relationship Management:
Aligning IT with the Business

What is this course about?

In this course, you learn how to build stronger alignment between IT and your business partners through the practice of IT relationship management. Using practice sessions, self-assessments and role-playing activities, you practice the specific skills and behaviours of an IT Relationship Manager to achieve desired results.

Who will benefit from this course?

Anyone who represents IT to the business will find this course useful. Whether one is new to this role or has years of experience working with stakeholders to craft IT solutions for business processes, this course offers an innovative set of best practices to enhance your performance.

IT managers and professionals who have experience as business analysts, project managers or IT liaisons will strengthen their reputation as trusted IT advisors to the business. You learn to speak the language of the business and develop effective working relationships with executives, managers and individual contributors.

What background do I need?

You should have at least two years of work experience in IT or business. People from all types of organisations-technical and non-technical, private and public, military and civilian, small and large-benefit from this course.

How is this course structured?

This course is structured around a dynamic style of learning created by Learning Tree called RealityPlus-an immersive experience that engages you in authentic tasks within a simulated real-world context. Through rich case studies, role-playing and performance-based activities, you participate in an evolving scenario where the decisions you make affect the outcome of the simulation. The RealityPlus learning method is presented in a safe environment where you gain new skills and practice the most effective techniques to bring back to the office. At the end of this course, you are prepared to immediately and successfully apply these new skills within your organisation.

Why is IT relationship management important?

Organisations face increasing competitive pressures and the need to continually reduce costs. In both of these scenarios, IT can play a significant role in enabling an organisation to become more efficient and effective in whatever drives its existence. Yet there is often a communication barrier between the business and IT. The business doesn't necessarily speak IT, and IT doesn't necessarily speak business.

Without IT relationship management, this divide between IT and the business can grow even deeper, to the point where the business bypasses the internal IT department completely in favour of external consultants and IT service providers. Like any business, if an IT department finds itself without customers, then the worst case scenario is that the IT department goes out of business.

Can you really 'learn' how to build a relationship?

Yes. The methods and techniques of establishing trust, the cornerstone of a relationship between two people, are well known. What's unique about this course is its focus on the IT-business relationship. Part of your ability to build trust will come from the technical expertise you already possess. The other part involves listening, analysing, prioritising, communicating in business language, selecting the right opportunities and delivering results. These techniques creatively blend a variety of best practices that are unique to the role of an IT Relationship Manager.

How much time is spent on each topic?

How much time is devoted to activities?

Throughout approximately 60 percent of the course, you are immersed in an ongoing simulation, including rich experiential activities that allow you to practice a variety of relationship-building skills, tools and strategies. Activities include the following:

• Discovering the true meaning of trust
• Assessing your ITRM competencies
• Exploring case studies of successful ITRM programs
• Determining the level of alignment between the business and IT in an organisation
• Analysing stakeholders
• Conducting an initial meeting with a business stakeholder
• Creating an initial catalog of services
• Writing business needs
• Selling IT solutions to stakeholders
• Analysing a balanced scorecard to measure IT success

Does this course discuss the differences between the roles of an IT project manager and an IT Relationship Manager?

Yes. Relationship management is very different from project management, and there is often confusion among stakeholders about the difference. This course clearly delineates the critical differences between the two roles and advocates that these roles should become more separate as an organisation matures its IT relationship management efforts.

Is this course applicable toward a Project Management Institute (PMI) certification?

Yes. Though this course is not designed as preparation for an exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward, or maintaining, a PMI certification. Most PMI certifications require a specific number of PDUs in order to obtain and maintain the credential. Completion of this course provides 17 professional development units (PDUs).

Learning Tree offers several courses that help you prepare for PMI certifications, including Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® Exam, which prepares you for PMI's most popular certification. For more details on these courses and PMI certifications, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

Learning Tree offers other courses in communication, management and planning, including the following:

• Course 905, Facilitation Skills, offers the skills to facilitate goal-oriented results through planning, collaboration and consensus.
• Course 292, Communication Skills: Results through Collaboration, offers the best practices of an IT Relationship Manager (ITRM) for facilitating actionable IT solutions that provide value to the business and satisfy the needs of business stakeholders.
• Course 294, Influence Skills: Getting Results without Direct Authority, provides the specific skills, behaviours and attitudes necessary to achieve desired results without relying on the use of authority.
• Course 211, Introduction to Business Analysis: Defining Successful Projects, provides the foundational knowledge of the role and function of the business analyst.
• Course 345, Delivering Dynamic Presentations, provides the knowledge needed to plan and deliver well-structured, polished presentations.

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