IT is an enterprise asset class
Like governance generally, IT governance is about the decision rights and accountabilities that encourage desirable behavior in the use of IT. It is a joint effort between IT and the business.
Enterprises have different business governance arrangements. So, for IT governance, one size clearly doesn't fit all. But meshing IT governance with business governance increases the difficulty of designing appropriate arrangements for decision making.
Those arrangements embrace styles and mechanisms most appropriate for the IT decision domain and the enterprise's business orientation. Indeed, they support more effective business governance.
A major challenge in designing IT governance and business governance is resolving boundaries and scope between the enterprise and its business units.
IT governance should be grounded in your enterprise's business orientation
Enterprises can be divided into three major business orientations: synergistic, agile and autonomous. Although an enterprise may seem to have two or all three business orientations, one generally predominates. The key to effective IT governance is to use your business orientation to design your IT governance styles and mechanisms.
The enterprises cited in this report are exemplary top performers in at least one of three categories--profit, revenue growth or asset use. They also scored high on IT governance in the MIT Sloan and Gartner EXP research.
1: Shape your IT governance to your business orientation
The extent to which your enterprise strives for synergy, agility or autonomy should influence your IT governance styles and mechanisms. Identify your predominant enterprise business orientation as a first step in tailoring effective IT governance.
2: Synergistic enterprises emphasize enterprisewide styles, processes and executive committees
Synergistic enterprises face strong pressures for enterprisewide integration, aiming to leverage similarities and scale across business units. Their IT governance style involves constant enterprisewide business commitment and top-down technology mandates. Effective synergistic mechanisms emphasize clear decision processes, executive input and IT-business unit relationship managers.
3: Agile enterprises emphasize fast action and the use of principles and education
Enterprises striving for agility aim to act faster than their competitors. They emphasize local responsiveness and enterprisewide coordination to give leverage to the business units. Their IT governance style focuses on specific decision roles and how IT enables (or hampers) agility. Effective agility mechanisms make greater use of principles, ownership, business education experiences and multiple avenues of communication.
4: Autonomous enterprises emphasize business unit decision making and peer socialization
Enterprises that allow their business units lots of autonomy--to respond quickly to local market changes--provide little enterprisewide guidance. Their IT governance style emphasizes business unit responsibility for IT decision making. Effective autonomous mechanisms make greater use of one-on-one negotiation and peer socialization.
5: Act on the experiences of top performers
Top performers overtly link IT governance and business orientation, regularly reviewing the fit of their IT governance for: Consistency and interdependence of decision making Alignment with corporate values Simplicity of communication
To move forward you need to assess your current situation, review the experiences of enterprises that have similar business orientations and then act.
Der vollständige Bericht gehört zum Angebot der Gartner Executive Report Serie. Für weitere Informationen wenden Sie sich bitte an Gartner .