I really liked this book. It has a practical approach, delivered in straightforward language, as to how to effectively link business strategy to information technology (IT), down to the bottom line.

The basic idea of the book is very simple. It is about controlling spending, and choosing the right things on which to spend. The book offers a framework for companies to make “right decisions” and get the “right results.”

As mentioned on the back cover (and some other places inside the book), chief executive officers (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), chief information officers (CIOs), and IT managers will benefit by reading this book. It will also provide insight to consultants who are dealing with this kind of situation. But, for sure, this book is not intended for students, since it is more of an answer to “how,” rather than to “what” and “why,” with regard to business strategy for IT action topics.

The book is organized to encourage the reader to read each chapter in order; there are many topics relating each chapter to the previous one. A reader cannot jump to a specific chapter, based on a topic of interest, without reading the previous chapter, otherwise they will miss, or maybe not understand, the point of the topic described.

The book contains many examples, models, and templates, presented in figures (exhibits). The way the book supports visualizing information, with pictures or graphics, is a good idea. Sometimes, however, the same picture or graphic is repeated in the same or a different chapter. There is also no list of exhibits (or table of figures) in the book.

Some chapters have a chapter summary. In other chapters, there is only a partial summary, titled “Summing Up” or “Summary” (but not a chapter summary). Sometimes, you can find one or two of these summaries in one chapter. In chapters 7, 11, and 14 there are no summaries at all. The book also contains a “Summary of the Book,” located in chapter 1.

Overall, however, this book is highly recommended. I give the authors two thumbs up, and thank them for sharing their thoughts.