What is it about?

Business leaders may bemoan the burdens of governing IT, but the alternative could be much worse. Governance of IT is a board and top-executive responsibility focusing on business performance and capability, not on technical details. A principles-based approach to the governance of IT, as described in the ISO/IEC 38500 standard, is consistent with broader models for the guidance of the governance of organizations and access to business leaders without specific technical skills. Adopting ISO/IEC 38500 to guide the governance of IT helps leaders plan, build, and run IT-enabled organizations.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Governance of IT is a board and top executive responsibility that must focus on business performance and capability, rather than technical details. Major business transformations, enabled by new technology, are taking place in established organizations: these require top-down focus on business strategy, capability, and performance through effective use of IT, and an approach to Governance of IT that engages business leaders in appropriate behavior. A principles-based approach to Governance of IT, as described in ISO/IEC38500, is consistent with broader models for guidance on governance of organizations, and is accessible to business leaders who have no specific technology skills. Adoption of ISO/IEC38500 to guide Governance of IT provides rich engagement of leaders in planning, building, and running the IT-enabled organization, and enables directors and senior executives to be appropriately diligent in their duties to direct and control the organization's use of IT

Perspectives

I hope this article makes what people might think is a very important issue, governing IT beyond simply expecting managing IT, kind of interesting and maybe even exciting. Because the way we spend money on IT assets is not just a problem for the board, managers, and practitioners to worry about - it is an issue that touches every organization in digital transformation in one way or another. More than anything else, and if nothing else, I hope you find this article thought-provoking.

Dr. Carlos Juiz
Universitat de les Illes Balears

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: To govern IT, or not to govern IT?, Communications of the ACM, January 2015, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/2656385.
You can read the full text:

Read

Resources

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page