IT-business alignment refers to the process of synchronizing an organization's information technology (IT) with its business objectives and goals. The goal of IT-business alignment is to ensure that the IT department is working towards the same goals as the rest of the organization, and that the technology solutions being developed and implemented support the business's overall strategy.

There are several key components of IT-business alignment, including:

Business understanding: 

IT professionals need to have a deep understanding of the business's goals, strategies, and processes in order to align their work with those objectives.

Communication: 

Effective communication between IT and business leaders is essential for ensuring that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Governance: 

There should be a clear governance structure in place that outlines how IT decisions are made and how they support the business's objectives.

Metrics and measurement: 

Measuring the impact of IT initiatives is important for determining whether they are contributing to the business's goals.

Agility: 

IT-business alignment requires an agile approach to technology development and implementation, so that changes can be made quickly in response to changing business needs.

By achieving IT-business alignment, organizations can ensure that their technology investments are focused on the areas that will deliver the most value to the business, and that IT is seen as a strategic partner rather than just a cost center.

1. Luftman, J., & Kempaiah, R. (2007). The IT-business alignment construct revisited: an empirical study on its dimensions, alignment maturity and performance impact. Information Systems Journal, 17(4), 337-362.
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3. Henderson, J. C., & Venkatraman, N. (1993). Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM systems journal, 32(1), 4-16.
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5. Weill, P., & Ross, J. W. (2004). IT governance: How top performers manage IT decision rights for superior results. Harvard Business Press.
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7. Luftman, J., & McLean, E. R. (2004). Key issues for IT executives 2004: Aligning IT with business objectives. MIS Quarterly Executive, 3(2), 79-94.
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9. Sabherwal, R., & Chan, Y. E. (2001). Alignment between business and IS strategies: A study of prospectors, analyzers, and defenders. Information systems research, 12(1), 11-33.

Kaizen in Information technology

Kaizen comes from the school of Lean thinking. Lean, Kaizen, Innovation, Design, or Continuous Improvement are all related and essentially the same thing. They're based on empowering employees to solve problems on their own for the work they do to meet the targets and goals of the company. The focus is on meeting the needs of the customer and eliminating any waste and complexity that's not adding customer value. The concepts of problem solving and continuous improvement have been here for quite some time.

Concept of Kaizen has been around since World War II. It was known as Job Method training that enabled workers to device ways to improve yield from work process. Its development was spurred by the World War II necessity to produce very much more of everything that was needed for the war effort, faster than anyone ever had done in the past.

The methods that have been placed under the label Kaizen are varied and range from suggestion systems (Teian Kaizen) to planned events conducted in the workplace that systematically uncover waste in a work process and eliminate it (Gemba Kaizen).

Kaizen is the continuous improvement of stable standardized well understood processes. Ken Kreafle from Toyota once described it as a set of stairs, where the stair is a standardized process and the riser is Kaizen. which always ends in standardization. There only one best way until a better way is found. We keep going in the pursuit of perfection. Kaizen has been applied to many areas such as Manufacturing, Automobile Healthcare among others. It is also applicable to software methodologies.

Agile software development methodology supports Kaizen philosophy. The scheme for this support is the following: we plan, we do, we receive some feedback on what is done and based on this feedback we improve. This circle is implemented in SCRUM by several SCRUM events. We can use continuous improvement to determine the root cause of inefficiencies and apply effective remedies. We should reflect at key milestones and after you finishing a project to openly identify all the shortcomings of the project

It could plan in the context of IT operational efficiency. Simple things add up. I have seen a recent example of Kazien in action when our online reference was modified. We had a share point based document repository that was not too user friendly. Our team came up with suggestions and we designed a new web interface that was easy to use.

1. We created an easier search utility2. There were links to heavily used items
3. We have created a process to communicate to users. So that users are aware of any new changes.
Following the philosophy of Kaize, we are never finished. There are endless possibilities of improvement. We have a list of suggestions that we are working on. 

References:

https://www.vitalentusa.com/products/kdrs/kaizen_defined.htm

http://www.leaninstituut.nl/publications/Roots_of_Lean_TWI.pdf

https://www.vitalentusa.com/members/member_main.php