Introduction to IT Governance
A process or the framework where all the important decisions related to Information Technology is closely monitored so that when the product or service is given to the end customers, all the values are ensured to be right and the decisions taken in the field of IT is promised to deliver proper values to the businesses being undertaken by the stakeholders in the field and if there are any risks involved, the surety to mitigate the risks is called IT Governance.
IT Governance Components
Given below are the IT Governance components:
1. Framework
Framework is very much important for IT Governance so that the process is standardized and errors can be simplified. Framework is the base of any project and this helps to identify different steps to be included in the process. All the responsibilities and tasks should be included in the framework so that anyone who looks into the framework can identify the process with a glance.
2. Business Benefits
There are many benefits in the organization, let it be monetary or growth benefits, but understanding them in the growth of the organization is very much important. As this helps the organization to follow the standards and raise a level for itself by helping its employees forming the rules.
3. Management
Managing the organization for its strategic or ethical behaviors is important in IT Governance as this helps the organization to achieve the business objectives without sacrificing any of its ethics. Portfolio management helps the organization to grow within its shell and reach out to different customers. Strategy and IT is two sides of the same coin.
4. Optimizing Risks and Resources
It is important to know and allocate the resources in the organization so that several risks can be avoided.
IT Governance Process
A framework has to be followed while doing IT Governance.
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There are three main activities in this process.
- Evaluation
- Direction
- Monitoring
1. Evaluation
The organization is evaluated for its ethics, strategies it follows, protocols, if any to deal with clients and alignment with other organizations. This helps to know the organization for its rules so that IT Governance can be employed in a manner incorporating the values of the organization. Any circumstances should be managed by the organization while using IT Governance.
2. Direction
Here the employees are assigned with several responsibilities based on the strategies being followed in the organization. This helps to manage the organizational activities and government’s investment in the project. Also, several rules are setup in this phase so that the organization will adhere to IT Governance and establishes which rules can be managed by the employees or stakeholders.
3. Monitor
Once the rules are set, it is important to check whether the rules are followed in the organization. Proper monitoring is necessary to check for employees IT compliance so that risks can be reduced to an extent unless someone does the violation purposely. Performance of the organization is monitored to ensure that the company is following all the directives set by the government.
IT Governance Challenges
Given below are the IT Governance challenges:
1. Managing the Resources
When IT Governance is involved in a project, preplanning and post planning has to be done to make the rules effective. Resources for IT Governance is critical and they should know the laws and the regulations to be followed while doing a project. Often, this becomes a challenge as the rules of IT Governance for each project vary. Team management should ensure that the IT support is provided always throughout the project completion and after the project.
2. Responsibility and Accountability
Whenever a challenge occurs, there must be someone in the team to be held responsible as IT Governance is not everyone’s cup of tea. Government makes investment in the projects and hence every one in the project should follow the rules being regulated by the government and these rules of IT Governance makes everyone accountable if any risks is being posed to the government through technology.
3. Risk Management
It is important to ensure that no risks happen during the course of project as security of data is very much important. All the frameworks should be followed as ignoring one law might result in breaching the protocols and stopping the work. All the technology should be standardized so that if anything goes wrong, it will be easy to trace out the errors. This also helps to mitigate the risks by involving top management in the framework and prioritizing the rules.
Advantages of IT Governance
Given below are the advantages mentioned:
- Most often, business strategy and IT strategy are different and it is the need of the hour to make them get along to achieve the desired results. IT Governance brings in that harmony by setting some rules to be followed in each businesses or projects.
- Whenever a project or work is running or in hand, it is important to set accountability for each task so that someone can involve into the task wholly. IT Governance makes the tasks to be accountable to every person so that expectations can be set and results can be achieved in shorter span of time.
- Decision making is done in a better way as most of the rules and risks regarding IT is known to all via IT Governance. This makes the employees to consider all the viable options and look into the tasks.
- It is easy to create reports regarding all the tasks as each task is related to IT, everything is documented properly to avoid further confusion. This helps to create documents and hence the reports beforehand.
- The company is strategically aligned to any new reforms regarding IT Governance and this helps in the development of novel projects in the industry. Pre-implementation and post implementation of the projects are looked upon very well with IT regulations.
Conclusion
When a corporate project is governed by IT governance and learning it takes some time, IT Governance poses lag to the corporate projects. It is important to know all the rules governing the technology and to handle it with proper care. Also, ethical violations should not happen from any side of the project.
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This is a guide to IT Governance. Here we discuss the introduction to IT Governance, along with the components, process, challenges and advantages respectively. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
