1. Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results
Make IT governance the glue that holds things together, not the red tape that holds you back.
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2. ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
Governance optimization is achieved where decision making, authority, and context meet.
Governance is something that is done externally to IT and well as internally by IT, with the intention of providing oversight to direct the organization to meet goals and keep things on target.
Optimizing IT governance is the most effective way to consistently direct IT spend to areas that provide the most value in producing or supporting business outcomes, yet it is rarely done well.
IT governance is more than just identifying where decisions are made and who has the authority to make them – it must also provide the context and criteria under which decisions are made in order to truly provide business value.
Valence Howden,
Director, CIO Practice Info-Tech Research Group

3. Our understanding of the problem
CIOs
CTOs
IT Directors
Achieve and maintain executive and business support for optimizing IT governance.
Optimize your governance structure.
Build high-level governance processes.
Build governance committee charters and set accountability for decision making.
Plan the transition to the optimized governance structure and processes.
Executive Leadership
IT Managers
IT Customers
Project Managers
Improve alignment between business decisions and IT initiatives.
Establish a mechanism to validate, redirect, and reprioritize IT initiatives.
Realize greater value from more effective decision making.
Receive a better overall quality of service.

4. Executive summary
IT governance is the #1 predictor of value generated by IT, yet many organizations struggle to organize their governance effectively.*
Current IT governance does not address the changing goals, risks, or context of the organization so IT spend is not easily linked to value.
The right people are not making the right decisions about IT.
Establish IT-Business Fusion In governance, alignment is not enough. Merge IT and the business through governance to ensure business success.
With Great Governance Comes Great Responsibility Involve relevant business leaders, who will be impacted by IT outcomes, to take on governing responsibility of IT.
Let IT Manage and the Business Govern IT governance should be a component of enterprise governance, allowing IT leaders to focus on managing.
Organizations do not have a governance framework in place that optimally aligns IT with the business objectives and direction.
Implementing IT governance requires the involvement of key business stakeholders who do not see IT’s value in governance and strategy.
The current governance processes are poorly designed, creating long decision-making cycles and driving non-compliance with regulation.
Use Info-Tech’s four-step process for optimizing your IT governance framework. Our client-tested methodology supports the enablement of IT-business alignment, decreases decision-making cycle times, and increases IT’s transparency and effectiveness in making decisions around benefits realization, risks, and resources.
Successful completion of the IT governance redesign will result in the following outcomes:
Align IT with the business context.
Assess the current governance framework.
Redesign the governance framework.
Implement governance redesign.
*Source: MIT Sloan School of Management

5. IT governance is… IT governance is not…
An enabling framework for decision-making context and accountabilities for related processes.
A means of ensuring business-IT collaboration, leading to increased consistency and transparency in decision making and prioritization of initiatives.
A critical component of ensuring delivery of business value from IT spend and driving high satisfaction with IT.
IT governance is not…
An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.
Limited to making decisions about technology.
Designed tacitly; it is purposeful, with business objectives in mind.
A one-time project; you must review and revalidate the efficiency.

6. Avoid common misconceptions of IT governance
Don’t blur the lines between governance and management; each has a unique role to play. Confusing these results in wasted time and confusion around ownership.
Governance
Management
IT governance sets direction through prioritization and decision making, and monitors overall IT performance.
Governance aligns with the mission and vision of the organization to guide IT.
Management is responsible for executing on, operating, and monitoring activities as determined by IT governance.
Management makes decisions for implementing based on governance direction.
Image Source: ISACA, 2012

7. Governance is performed in three ways:
The IT Governance Framework
An IT governance framework is a system that will design structures, processes, authority definitions, and membership assignments that lead IT toward optimal results for the business.
Governance is performed in three ways: 1 2 3
Evaluate
Direct
Monitor
Governance ensures that business goals are achieved by evaluating stakeholder needs, criteria, metrics, portfolio, risk, and definition of value.
Governance sets the direction of IT by delegating priorities and determining the decisions that will guide the IT organization.
Governance establishes a framework to monitor performance, compliance to regulation, and progress on expected outcomes.
Everyone needs good IT, but no one wants to talk about it. Most CFOs would rather spend time with their in- laws than in an IT steering-committee meeting. But companies with good governance consistently outperform companies with bad. Which group do you want to be in?
– Martha Heller, President, Heller Search Associates

8. Enterprise Governance
Create impactful IT governance by embedding it within enterprise governance
The business should engage in IT governance and IT should influence the direction of the business.
Enterprise Governance
Engage in
Authority for enterprise governance falls to the board and executive management.
IT Governance
Responsibilities Include:
Provide strategic direction for the organization.
Ensure objectives are met.
Set the risk standards or profile.
Delegate resources responsibly.
Governance of IT is a component of enterprise governance.
Responsibilities Include:
Build structure, authority, process, and membership designations in a governance framework.
Ensure the IT organization is aligned with business goals.
Influence the direction of the business to ensure business success.
Influence

9. Identify signals of sub-optimal IT governance within any of these domains
If you notice any of these signals, governance redesign is right for you!
Inability to Realize Benefits
Resource Misallocation
IT is unable to articulate the value of its initiatives or spend.
IT is regularly delegated unplanned projects.
The is no standard approach to prioritization.
Projects do not meet target metrics.
Resources are wasted due to duplication or overlap in IT initiatives.
IT projects fail at an unacceptable rate, leading to wasted resources.
IT’s costs continue to increase without reciprocal performance increase.
Misdiagnosed Risks
Dissatisfied Stakeholders
Risk appetite is incorrectly identified or not identified at all.
Disagreement on the approach to risk in the organization.
Increasing rate of IT incidents related to risk.
IT is failing to meet regulatory requirements.
There are no ways to measure stakeholder satisfaction with IT.
Business strategies and IT strategies are misaligned.
IT’s relationship with key stakeholders is unstable and there is a lack of mutual trust.

10. A majority of organizations experience significant alignment gaps
The majority of organizations and their key stakeholders experience highly visible gaps in the alignment of IT investments and organizational goals.
57% of CXOs identify a major gap in IT’s ability to support business goals.
84% of CXOs often perceive that IT is investing in areas that do not support the business.
88% of CIOs believe that their governance is not effective.
Source: Info-Tech Diagnostics

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