This point was raised when I recently delivered my IT Governance presentation to a Master's class at San Francisco State University. I had completed the first half of the presentation that covers the principles and decision areas of IT Governance and launched into what I consider to be the major IT Governance processes.

The first process I discuss is "Integrated Business and IT Planning." I provided a high-level overview of strategic, tactical and operational planning and one of the students asked, "Technology changes so fast and frequently, what do you do when technology changes in the middle of your plans?"

I liked answering this question because it gets to the spirit of one of the main concerns I hear when it comes to advocating, fostering and establishing IT Governance, "Things are moving too fast and we don't have time." This question went beyond the time it takes to do the planning, it addressed the time it takes to "do the plan!" In many cases, technology changes before you have the time to complete your best laid plans.

My answer was simple, if not witty, "Plan on it." If you work in an environment faced with frequent and fast-paced changes in technology, then your IT Governance processes should accommodate and address this phenomenon.  How about a strategic planning process that includes technology checkpoints at regular intervals, with the anticipation that new technologies will be reviewed, evaluated and possibly adopted? All subsequent technology adoptions would then be incorporated into the strategic plan - with timely and appropriate decision-making.

And it just so happened that "Technology Evaluation and Adoption" is one of the IT Governance processes I advocate. The question helped illustrate the relationships and interdependencies between IT Governance processes and how these connections must be recognized and managed.

This question also underscored something in which I firmly believe. Good governance processes and mechanisms are not only unaffected by technology change, they ensure enterprises can deal with that change, if not exploit it. Technologies will come and go, but the need for rational and reasoned decision-making in the use of technology is here to stay.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist