The concept of IT governance is a hotly debated issue, with company executives demonstrating different views towards its implementation, role and benefits.
This is according to Angeli Hoekstra, national leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers SA Technology Advisory Services practice, and global leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers IT governance services.
She adds that while some equate IT governance with established best-in-class frameworks like CobiT and ITIL, others liken it to compliance with external regulations on the level of corporate governance; and others with the alignment of business and IT.
Hoekstra says there is growing pressure on managing IT as a business to reduce IT risks and to improve business value. However, she says, many corporate officers feel their IT organisation`s current maturity level of providing leadership, organisational structures and processes to achieve business strategy could use improvement through governance.
There are several recommendations to be taken into account when designing an optimal IT governance strategy, she says. "One of the first points to consider is the business strategy and requirements. IT governance should be linked to key business themes and used for enhancing business value, rather than narrowly focusing on the fulfilment of control or compliance requirements."
Over and above aligning IT governance with the broader business, Hoekstra says IT governance structures need to be appropriately aligned with the operational IT environment. "If an organisation uses a service-oriented approach, some IT governance structures would be different to those seen in a more traditional environment."
She cites another requirement of IT governance being driven by top management. "The biggest success in implementing IT governance is in organisations where IT governance has been associated with strong CIOs who have the full support of executive management. This lowers risk of the implementation efforts being faced with resistance from IT staff and business management."
There should also be a clear view about the achievable benefits from introducing IT governance, as well as how to quantify and measure them, she adds. "In many instances, the desired benefits of an IT governance programme are not defined upfront, which then makes it impossible to measure them.
"A big-bang approach to IT governance implementation will in all likelihood fail, and will not deliver the required benefits. Implementation should be gradual and based on reasonable and achievable targets and timeframes."
Another reason for the failure of IT governance structures is when the structure is too complex to achieve targets, she says, stressing that IT governance should not be over-engineered.
Optimal IT governance arrangements will be different for every organisation and dependent on a number of factors in its internal and external environment, Hoekstra says. This includes the business strategy, industry and market factors, regulatory environment, organisation size, the organisational governance, risk appetite and dependency on IT.
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