IT Governance: Simultaneously Empowers and Controls Source: IT Governance, Chapter 1.

IT Governance: Definition Specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in using IT. Top performing enterprises seek value from IT: – Clarify business strategies and the role of IT in achieving them. – Measure and manage IT costs and benefits (value) – Assign accountability for organization changes required to benefit from new IT capabilities. – Learn from systems implementation and reuse IT assets

Corporate and Key Asset Governance

Key Assets Human assets: People, skills, career paths, training, reporting, mentoring, competencies, and so on. Financial assets: Cash, investments, liabilities, cash flow, receivables, and so on Physical assets: Buildings, plant, equipment, maintenance, security, utilization, and so on IP assets: Intellectual property (IP), including product, services, and process know-how formally patented, copyrighted, or embedded in the enterprises’ people and systems Information and IT assets: Digitized data, information, and knowledge about customers, processes performance, finances, information systems, and so on. Relationship assets: Relationships within the enterprise as well as relationships, brand, and reputation with customers, suppliers, business units, regulators, competitors, channel partners, and so on

Governance Mechanisms Governance of the key assets occurs via a large number of organizational mechanisms (e.g., structures, processes, committee, procedures, and audits). Some mechanisms are unique to a particular asset (e.g., the IT architecture committee) and others cross and integrate multiple asset types (e.g., approval process) ensuring synergies between key assets.

Effective IT governance must address three questions: 1.What decisions must be made to ensure effective management and use of IT? 2.Who should make these decisions? 3.How will these decisions be made and monitored?

Five Interrelated IT Decision IT principles: Clarifying the business role of IT IT architecture: Defining integration and standardization requirements IT infrastructure: Determine shared and enabling services Business application needs: Specifying the business need for purchased or internally developed applications IT investment and prioritization: Choose which initiative to fund and how much to spend Direction of decision’s influences

Key IT Decisions

Why Is IT Governance Important? Good IT governance pays off IT is expensive IT is pervasive Many new information technologies bring new business opportunities Critical for organizations to learn about IT value

IT Governance Archetypes

Governance Arrangements Matrix

UPS

Carlson Companies

Governance Lessons from Top Performance

IT Infrastructure as a Centrally Coordinated Set of Shared and Reliable Services

IT Infrastructure can be deployed at multiple levels

IT Infrastructure Services in 10 Clusters Local I T Applications Standardized Interfaces Agreed-upon Standards

Assessing IT Governance Performance