Published:
June 08 2009, 10:16 PM
by
Steve Romero
In my last blog post I noted how I use the basic definition of governance to convince organizations they have IT Governance, even if they don't recognize it. I make this assertion so often that I hardly took note of my brevity in presenting the argument. Upon reflection I thought I should elaborate on this position and invite others to share their thoughts on my contention.
First, I must admit that I did not always have this belief. In fact, I spent a lot of time and energy during my first year as CA's IT Governance Evangelist pondering and attempting to help other folks solve the challenge of persuading their organizations to embrace and establish IT Governance. The question of how to "convince" leadership came up soon after I delivered my first IT Governance presentations. I spent the months that followed refining my opinions and suggestions to bolster my endeavor to help people gain Executive Sponsorship for IT Governance.
My favorite suggestion was to understand the challenges and opportunities of their Enterprises. I told folks if they understood what kept their Leaders up at night they could map those concerns to the appropriate aspect of IT Governance to showcase its potential. I am not a process-for-the-sake-of-process person and I believe we should always have an acute understanding of the business problem we need to solve before undertaking any process effort.
In addition to understanding the problem or opportunity I suggested variations of the following:
- Understand how your organization defines value and establish a business case that shows the value of IT Governance
- Understand and speak the language of your organization to ensure your message and recommendations resonate with Executive Management
- Find a willing and influential Sponsor on the Leadership Team to advocate your cause
- Work at the grass-roots level to identify and solve a problem using an IT Governance construct in the hopes of showcasing the discipline's potential if it is applied at an Enterprise level
As I continued to amass these clever ideas I decided one evening to write them done for future reference and continued refinement. As I began listing them in my head I had an epiphany, I don't need to help convince organizations to "do" IT Governance...they are already doing it!
Let's begin with the most basic, if not simplest definition of IT Governance: The processes and relationships that lead to reasoned decision-making in the use of IT. This simple definition has three major components:
- Processes
- Relationships
- Decision-making
So to test if an Enterprise has IT Governance, we need ask only 3 questions:
- Are they making technology decisions?
- Do they have relationships (people interacting with other people)?
- Do they have processes?
It is practically incomprehensible to think there are enterprises not making technology decisions, so the answer to Question 1 is most likely "yes." Every organization I have ever seen has people, so the answer to Question 2 is also "yes." Question 3 is a little less straightforward, as I have encountered numerous organizations that mistakenly claim, "We are not a process shop." Yes, mistakenly.
I have heard the following from many people, "My organization does not have processes." I then hear one of the two following statements, "We've tried to put processes in place and they failed," or "We decided we are not a process shop." Let's dispel this mistaken notion right now, ALL organizations, enterprises, companies etc., have process. It is simply a matter of whether or not the processes are informal or formal and to what degree.
I follow a process when I brush my teeth. I don't have a documented process design, and I never formally implemented my tooth brushing process, and I don't officially manage the process. But it is a process none-the-same. For those organizations claiming they don't have processes, they in fact do. It is just that their processes are:
- Ad hoc, informal, inconsistent
- Unknown, unnamed, unrecognized
- Fragmented, haphazard, disjointed, disconnected
- Incoherent, complex, chaotic
- Lacking continuity, uncoordinated, not integrated
- Not managed, not measured
So if you accept my contention that all organizations have process, and the other two aspects of IT Governance are a given (relationships and technology decisions) then ALL Enterprises have IT Governance. The major differentiator from one organization to the next is simply the nature and formality of the processes in place to enable IT Governance. For those that don't have processes, all of their technology decisions are simply based on relationships - people making decisions about technology.
So the question is not, "Should we have IT Governance?" The question is, "How well is our IT Governance working?"
If your making money hand-over-fist, if your shareholders and constituents are delighted, if your employees are happy and self-actualized, if you have enough resources to get all of the work done, if your programs and projects are successful, if everyone loves IT, then you are good to go. If your technology is aligned with your business, if your technology investments deliver appropriate value to the business, if you are properly managing technology risk, resources and performance, then don't change a thing. If not, then take a look at your IT Governance framework, constructs and mechanisms. I'll bet we can do something about the IT Governance processes needed to help people in your organization make reasoned and rational technology decisions. We can introduce and establish the IT Governance required to make them successful.
Did I convince you that any Enterprise making decisions about the use of technology has IT Governance? Let me know.
Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist