IT Governance: Guidelines for Directors

INTRODUCTION

‘Can IT align with the business?’¹

Your immediate response to this question gives a sense of the adequacy or otherwise of your IT governance arrangements. If you think it’s a good question, one worth pursuing, then you’ve just identified the first, and most critical, symptom of inadequate IT governance: a disjunct between your most important business enabler and the business itself.

If you find the question incomprehensible – because, to you, it’s axiomatic that IT aligns with the business – you may not need this book. However, before putting it aside, consider this: a late-2004 global study² of North American and European businesses found that only one-quarter of the respondents considered their business and IT strategies to ...