Concept
A key component of every organisation’s Corporate
Governance framework, the Corporate Governance of IT — as defined
by ISO/IEC 38500:2008 — is the system by which the present, and future,
use of IT should be directed and controlled. It is the organisational
system by which IT-related decisions are made. In essence, the
Governance of IT is a responsibility of Board members and CxO-level
management teams, even when IT management is not directly represented in
such governing bodies.
In practice, IT Governance could be
considered a two-sided concept: one corresponding to the business, and
the other to the IT function of the business.
The business need
for compliance and IT’s need for performance. By establishing
appropriate IT Governance frameworks, both sides of the coin will get
its particular benefit: the business side will meet its stakeholders’
desire for transparency, while IT will gain visibility within the
organisation, becoming an effective and efficient value provider and
risk mitigator.
Implementing an IT Governance framework implies to
put into practice a series of mechanisms (ethical behaviour, leadership,
commitment, support, organisational structures, processes and, finally,
monitoring, measurement and communication activities) in order to help
the organisation in realising its strategy.
Trajectory
A
concept that emerged in the late 1990s, the discipline of Corporate
Governance of IT has seen an increasing interest and growth in the last
decade. Much literature has been written and key standardisation and
regularisation efforts have been made (AS8015 in Australia, in 2005;
ISO/ IEC 38500 in the international arena, in 2008; or, more recently,
‘king III Code’, published on 1st September 2009, in South Africa), all
of them reminding us the significance and topicality of the subject.
Nonetheless,
there is still a long way to go. Most of the practical approaches to
the Governance of IT have been focused on the supply (IT) side. It is,
therefore, also necessary to engage the demand (i.e. business) side. And
this is a task to perform in the years to come.
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