I travel around the world talking to thousands of people about the power and promise of IT Governance and the frameworks, methodologies and processes that make it possible. If you have read my blog, you know how passionate I am about these processes as well as process management in general. But as much as I believe in these processes I will never advocate them for their own sake.

I tell my audiences I don't believe in IT Governance for the sake of IT Governance; Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) for the sake of PPM; PMOs for the sake of PMOs; process for the sake of process; or technology for the sake of technology. And this is despite the evidence I can produce based on leading research (from MIT CISR, Gartner, Forrester, the Butler Group, the Standish Group - just to name a few), research that shows enterprises and organizations with effective IT Governance and PPM processes have significant quantifiable advantages over those that don't.

So even though I firmly believe in every governance process I advocate I tell folks they should not contemplate any effort, consider any solution, or take a single step until they are confident they understand the business problem to be solved (and this includes the "problem" of exploiting a business opportunity).

I know this may seem very obvious to folks but they would be amazed at how many organizations don't openly ask and answer this fundamental question. Instead, an individual leader or influential group endeavors to address a problem or issue and subsequently pursues a specific solution. The proposed solution then becomes the battle cry and before you know it, the problem that fostered the solution is left in the dust. And this is a critical mistake because it is the problem being solved that will:

• Identify alternatives
• Lead to a proposed solution
• Rally the troops by showing everyone "what's in it for them"
• Provide the key metric in determining if success is being realized

In my process management presentation I note 3 problem-based components when an organization undertakes an effort to establish or improve any process:

• Identify the enterprise-strategy-driven business problem being solved or the business opportunity being pursued. Carve it into stone!
• Identify the objectives of the process - These are the objectives required to ensure the process solves the business problem, of which there are two sets: the objectives to delight the customer of the product or service being produced; the objectives to meet the expectations and needs of management. Carve these into stone!
• Identify the critical process issues - these are highest priority problems (and risks for the most ambitious and sophisticated) associated with the inability of existing processes to meet those objectives. Carve these into stone!

Now they are ready to move forward. And as they do, they will continually refer back to these three problem-based components:

• Will solving the described business problem fulfill Enterprise business strategy?
• Will meeting the proposed process objectives solve the business problem?
• Does the process design meet the process objectives and solve the critical process issues?
• Is the process implementation (manifestation of the process design) on track to ensure process objectives will be met and critical process issues will be solved?
• Has the implemented and managed process solved the critical process issues?
• Is the implemented and managed process meeting customer and management objectives?
• Does the process solve the business problem, and if so, are we realizing enterprise strategy?

As you can see, the business problem, process objectives and critical process issues are the key metrics in measuring and determining process success. These are also the most effective tools when it comes to rallying the troops by showing "what's in it for them." Organizations will be ready with the answers when the following inevitable questions are raised:

• "Why do I have to follow this process?"
• "Why do I have to fill out all of these forms?"
• "Why the heck are we doing this?"

Here is an example of a very valid process observation/challenge:

"I am so busy that it's ridiculous. Why do I have to fill out these time sheets? I know what to do and how to manage my schedule and nobody is going to look at the data anyway."

Here is an example of a problem-centric answer:

"Our Company needs to break into a new market and we know it will create numerous new programs and projects that will cause a huge strain on our existing resources. We've never done a good job of managing our portfolio of programs and projects and we are implementing PPM processes to make sure we are only working on the most critical endeavors. Understanding resource availability and utilization is a critical aspect of sound PPM practices and the only way our Leadership Team can know if we have the capacity and capability to undertake these new efforts. In the past, this lack of information and insight has resulted in you and other members of your team receiving erratic, sometimes conflicting, and almost always overwhelming work assignments. We want to make your workload more consistent and reasonable. We want to make your work possible and practical. We want to make you successful and the only way we can do that is if you enter your time so we can collect, analyze and diseminate the resource management data to enable leadership to make reasoned and rational decisions."

Notice how the answer is laced with the problem-based components listed above. Notice how we didn't say:

• Because we need to do PPM.
• Because we need to do Time Accounting.
• Because I told you so.

And this is but one example of the resistance that will create obstacles in your path to process success. There will be countless challenges and focusing on the business problem will always serve to address these challenges. It also serves to test the approach undertaken when these challenges can provide insight into potential missteps in solving the problem.

So before you undertake the IT Governance Journey and any of its wonderful processes in which I believe with all my heart, please first answer this crucial and fundamental question:

What's your problem?

 Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist