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| credit: Chong FeiGiap |
Define IT Governance Objectives and Measure Results
Set clear strategic objectives and use metrics to monitor results ensures that drivers for governance are recognized, and improvements are measured, and that expected benefits are realized. The metrics used will vary and depend on many factors such as the enterprise’s priorities and business drivers as well as risk tolerance. Use metrics and other measuring techniques, utilizing tools such as balanced scorecards and IT or business dashboards.
As IT governance evolves, metrics will grow increasingly broader and more granular, and will shift from an IT-centric focus to a business-centric one over time. The IT-focused end of the spectrum provides metrics such as infrastructure availability or cost per transaction, which helps to measure the performance of enterprise-wide IT infrastructure. As alignment of IT investments with business objectives progressively improve, IT’s contribution to business value will be assessed with more business-centric metrics such as revenue growth and cost reduction, improved competitive products and services, and improved customer orientation and service.
Assess IT Governance, Define Gaps, and Set Achievable Goals
Use a maturity model to provide a practical and organized means of measuring how well developed the processes are against a consistent and easy-to understand scale. By using a maturity scale, you can:
- Compare current practices to best practices
- Define target areas for improvements
- Set attainable goals that add value and reduce risk
- Plan process improvement projects that achieve defined objectives
- Prioritize project work, organize by impact, and implement easy changes
Use Benchmarks to Measure IT Governance Results
While external competitive benchmarking is probably the most useful approach, there is also much to be gained from internal benchmarking to identify the attributes of successful and less successful IT-related business strategies.
Undertake benchmarking projects focused on improving stakeholder value over time. Benchmarking is designed and managed as part of a total business and IT improvement strategy. Benchmarking provides us some answers, and together with qualitative analysis and other tools, it helps management ask the right questions, identify key attributes of success and failure, and enhance stakeholder value over time.
Approach to Improving IT Governance
IT Governance is an operational function. IT governance is an ongoing effort that requires continuous communication, awareness and education. Improving IT governance is a management imperative and requires continuous process.
Planning process should be flexible and adjust as conditions change. Build on what the enterprise already has. Approach IT governance improvement in the following areas:
- Define objectives and outcomes defined based on business need
- Integrate IT governance with enterprise governance
- Scope and time-box objectives and deliverables
- Identify risk to be managed and adjust the scope to mitigate them
- Define and adopt a governance framework
- Assess the enterprise’s present capabilities
- Agree to improvement opportunities
- Implement initiatives to evolve and improve
- Measure to improve and communicate success
- Change the plan as business and IT strategy evolves
IT governance is an Executive leadership-sponsored commitment to establishing a comprehensive IT governance capability.
Return to: 1. IT Governance: a Continuous Program of Improvement
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