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Getting IT governance right…our top 10 tips
According to Gartner Group, today over 50 percent of spend in any large organisation is likely to be on IT. So even managers not working in IT should care about IT governance – with so much at stake riding on IT initiatives, good IT governance is critical to the future of nearly every organisation.
Getting IT governance structure and processes right is no easy task. Here are iTools’ top 10 tips for setting up an IT governance model that works.
1. Understand what governance is and what it isn’t
Governance is not one single thing: it is a process and structure. It isn’t management. Gartner Group defines governance as a process that outlines decision-making authority and accountability; and specifically “sets directions, establishes standards and principles, and prioritises investments”.
2. Know your business
Aligning IT – and IT governance processes - with the business is critical. Know your business, and the business’s key drivers. Examine how IT can help to deliver on the customer promise, and carve out a competitive advantage. Ask and be able to answer the big question: how can IT strategy contribute to the business strategy to deliver on the customer promise?
3. Get the IT governance structure right
The IT governance structure should link IT to the organisation’s business strategies. At the steering committee level, senior managers from key parts of the business should be represented. At the next tier down, the structure needs to align IT managers with the business’s middle management to ensure an ongoing, day-to-day relationship between IT and the business. At the project level, projects should be centrally run – perhaps as part of a Projects Office - with consistent methodologies and tools used. The projects’ group need to be linked by transparent reporting processes to management and the IT steering committee.
4. Align IT architecture to business strategies
The IT architecture needs to forge linkages that allow business units to seamlessly fit together and end-to-end business processes to flow. The IT architecture should fit around the business model.
5. Create a culture of consistency
Consistency is king. You need a consistent platform for project managers to work off, where they share data and tasks in real time and online, and use the same tools to deliver in a consistent way. This aids in reporting with credibility.
6. Install early detection systems
One of the key emerging trends predicted by Gartner Group for 2005 is proactive transparency. Translated, achieve transparency, and you can see what is going on, and therefore be proactive to ‘nip problems in the bud’.
Achieving transparency across IT projects means IT managers can be proactive about dealing with any potential problems early on.
7. Set up processes for prioritising projects
CIOs can save themselves a lot of money – some analysts believe between 10 to 20 percent - by prioritising priority projects and getting rid of redundant ones.
Managers need to adopt a culture of revisiting approved projects regularly, with this review mechanism being part of the IT governance process. Establish a robust process to directly compare projects, or you run the risk of continuing to resource projects that are not in the best interests of the business.
8. Implement risk assessment controls
Having controls embedded in the IT governance process to assess risk levels is critical. When there are no internal controls, and a priority risk turns into an issue that a project sponsor doesn’t know about, that’s when you have a serious problem.
9. Put in place systems for measuring performance
Demonstrating the performance and real return on IT initiatives improves IT’s credibility and is key to good governance. Managers need systems in place to equip them with real time information on their projects’ performance.
10. Be able to report in real time
Good IT governance is about being able to report on what is happening across projects in real time. Real-time – and usually online – reporting enables continuous, transparent disclosure of data for reporting purposes.
If you want to find out more about IT Governance and how Progressive Enterprises went about putting in a robust IT governance process, download the white paper ‘The CIO’s problem with IT Governance’ at www.itoolscontrol.com
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