Best Practices in IT Governance (new)

A project analyzing the design and implementation of IT governance structures with firms. It is critical to determine an IT governance structure that fits the strategy and structure of the organization and engages key stakeholders throughout the enterprise in productive dialogue and decision making regarding IT. The focus of this study is to develop insights into the best practices surrounding the governance of IT in large corporations. The study identifies pragmatic frameworks for choosing the right IT governance structure and best practices in governing IT decisions, processes and performance. The research examines the IT governance of large organizations with an aim to explore ways in which it can be employed to align strategic intent for IT and organizational architecture, enable fruitful dialogue among key stake holders, allocate IT resources and decision rights and monitor and measure IT performance. The project addresses the following questions:

• Dimensions of IT Governance – What are the key components of an effective IT governance structure?
• Aligning Business and IT strategies with IT Governance – How can IT governance be used to promote effective alignment of business and IT goals and priorities?
• Assessing Different Approaches to IT Governance – What are the different approaches to IT governance and how can organizations choose the governance structure that best fits their requirements?
• Designing IT Governance Structures – What methods and processes can be used to specify an IT governance structure?
• Creating IT Governance Principles – How can core principles regarding the role and use of IT be identified and embedded into the governance process?
• Measuring the Effectiveness of IT Governance – How can the performance and effectiveness of IT governance be monitored and assessed?

The Characteristics and Evolution of IT Governance: Evidence from IT Purchasing (new)

Who owns the IT decision rights in your firm? Are you getting the most value out of your IT investments? Do you have the right people making the right decisions for your firm? IT Governance requires an unusual combination of technical skills and business acumen. Standards, interoperability, compatibility, valuing and pricing information and information services, and the intangible costs and benefits of information systems all influence the business value and economic return on an IT investments, at least as much, if not more, as the highly technical skills necessary to evaluate information technology solution. Assigning the right responsibilities to the right people, with the right monitoring and reward mechanisms is the realm of IT governance.

Through an analysis of IT purchasing rights (infrastructure rights) in multidivisional firms, this project addresses the following questions:

• How have governance structures changed over years in a large cross section of industries, and what can explain the differences (if any) between industries in their governance structures?
• How should governance structures be designed among the many units of the same firm? Can we explain why certain governance structures are applied to some divisions inside the firm and not to others? How efficient are these hybrid models?
• What is the impact of IT governance on organizations, as measured by effectiveness, adoption of critical IT capabilities, and general performance?