By N2H

IT Governance

June 24, 2008

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Corporate Governance can be defined as ethical corporate behavior by directors or others charged with governance in the creation and presentation of wealth.

Corporate Governance spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. This helps in providing a structure through which company objectives are set and means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance.

IT Governance tries to ensure that the organization and related technology support its resources i.e. resources are used responsibly, and its risks are managed.

IT has long been considered as an integral part of the overall organization’s strategy. IT helps achieve this overall strategy by efficiently and effectively deploying secure and reliable technology. The intent of IT Governance is to ensure:

Integrity of IT systems.
Inclusion of independent audit.
Inclusion of appropriate controls for monitoring IT risks, controlling IT assets, compliance with laws and regulations and record management.
Enable the enterprise by exploiting opportunities and maximizing benefits of IT
Ensure IT resources are used responsibly.

Factors driving IT Governance are:

Expanding role of IT into corporate/enterprise governance support, strategy initiative, knowledge management, privacy/security/continuity.
Proliferation of technology solutions.
Increased emphasis on accountability
Need to manage the management process.
Focus on organizational capital, value and balance.
Rapid advance of technology.

The key elements driving IT Governance are:

IT strategic planning
IT control performance
IT project management
IT asset management
IT policies/standards/processes i.e corporate, business units, information services.

IT Governance is concerned with two issues i.e. IT delivers value to the business and that IT risks are mitigated. The first issue is driven by strategic alignment of IT with business this is driven by embedding accountability into enterprise.

IT governance is the responsibility of the Board and Executive management. It is an integral part of the enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategy and objectives.

A key goal of IT governance is aligning of business and IT to achieve business value.

This key goal is achieved by aligning IT governance frameworks with best practices. Such a framework should be composed of:

IT governance .

Structures, processes and relational mechanism.
The key governance practices are:
IT strategic committee.
Risk management
Standard IT balanced scorecard.

BEST PRACTISES FOR IT GOVERNANCE:

Corporate governance is a set of responsibility and practices used by an organization’s management to provide strategic direction thereby ensuring that goals are achievable, risks are properly addressed and organization’s resources are properly utilized. IT Governance is a structure of relationship and processes used to direct and control the enterprise towards achievement of its goals by adding value while balancing risk vs return over IT and the processes.