Successful IT governance involves more than technology, security, financial and business-related issues - it includes the correct governance of people.
This is according to independent consultant Delton Sylvester, speaking yesterday at ITWeb`s IT Governance conference in Midrand.
"Companies often overlook the importance of governing people as part of IT governance," he told delegates.
He said common problems experienced by many companies include a resistance to change, a management that has "other priorities", the viewpoint that IT governance is merely an additional burden to normal work, and a fixation with over-complication and red tape.
Some of the common excuses management produces, he said, are insufficient resources, a lack of money, and the phrase "we`ve already been audited".
"People, in general, can break a project very quickly. If you get on the wrong side of the organisational culture, you`re doomed."
On a general level, he explained: "IT governance is supposed to enable an organisation to understand the risks and exploit the benefits of IT."
Steps that CIOs and IT directors can take to formulate a successful governance strategy include raising awareness of IT governance, building a guiding team, addressing accountability issues, obtaining buy-in from top management, fusing IT governance with IT strategy, and conducting an assessment using best practices framework COBIT.
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