The Three C’s of Governance
0 Comments Published by Hanno Ekdahl on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 1:42 PM.
Most companies struggle on some level with decision-making. Let’s face it; keeping a large company working in a coordinated manner is no simple task. In the case of IT, this problem tends to be exacerbated by the fact that there is a lack of common language between groups. The business speaks in terms of finance and marketing, while IT talks about projects in terms of features and technical feasibility. The result is a lack of alignment, which hurts both groups. The solution to this dilemma is governance. The goal of governance is to fix broken processes and bring focus back to the strategic priorities of the business. In this entry, I suggest that we can look at governance through three lenses: control, communication, and change.
Effective governance exerts control either through formal authority or influence, depending on the degree of (management) centralization and the authority granted by executive leadership. In either case, the governance board works to establish standards and policies for the organization to guide development efforts. In addition, establishing a project approval process is essential to managing priorities and keeping IT departments focused on key initiatives instead of working in reactive mode to respond to the request of the day. The goal here is to balance the needs of the business with technical requirements to develop solutions that deliver business value and are secure and efficient to maintain.
The benefits we hope to achieve through control begin with communication. Project selection, policies, and standards should all be established through conversations between the business and IT within the context of strategic objectives and desired outcomes. These decision points hinge on a common understanding of the value delivered, the risks mitigated, and the cost to implement. Alignment between the business and IT is essential to set the right policies and to ensure that organizational compliance is high. Furthermore, a formal project selection process allows the IT and the business to set priorities together, stop projects that aren’t delivering value, and redeploy resources where they are most needed.
The last dimension of governance is change; how do we remove political obstacles and also get users to adopt the solution? Governance offers the opportunity to establish a structured, organized change management process to get us from our current state to a desired future state. Politics represent one barrier that can be challenging to overcome. It is the role of business stakeholders on the governance council to help IT overcome political barriers by identifying and addressing issues early on. User resistance to change is another matter entirely. Resistance to change is rooted in a desire to avoid disruption to the user’s established routine and to stay with the systems they know well. The best way to counteract this resistance is to improve communication and involve end users early in the development cycle. The project lifecycle should take care to generate user buy-in by asking for feedback, evaluating and incorporating changes from the user population, and supporting the transition to the new system.
Another look at the three C’s of Governance:
Control
· Formalize project selection/prioritization
· Employ IT portfolio management
· Establish standards
· Define policies
· Balance formal authority against influence
· Deliver consistent solutions
Communication
· Communicate business value – How will we benefit from this project?
· Gather business requirements – Does the solution meet our needs?
· Create transparency and better understanding of IT activities and performance
· Improve understanding of objectives and expectations
· Improve visibility of project issues and priorities
· Change perception of IT as a ‘cost center’ to strategic partner
Change
· Involve users earlier in the development cycle
· Capture enhancement requests
· Improve solution adoption
· Establish communication plan
· Identify and plan for objections/resistance to change
· Overcome organizational politics
· Provide end-user training
Effective governance exerts control either through formal authority or influence, depending on the degree of (management) centralization and the authority granted by executive leadership. In either case, the governance board works to establish standards and policies for the organization to guide development efforts. In addition, establishing a project approval process is essential to managing priorities and keeping IT departments focused on key initiatives instead of working in reactive mode to respond to the request of the day. The goal here is to balance the needs of the business with technical requirements to develop solutions that deliver business value and are secure and efficient to maintain.
The benefits we hope to achieve through control begin with communication. Project selection, policies, and standards should all be established through conversations between the business and IT within the context of strategic objectives and desired outcomes. These decision points hinge on a common understanding of the value delivered, the risks mitigated, and the cost to implement. Alignment between the business and IT is essential to set the right policies and to ensure that organizational compliance is high. Furthermore, a formal project selection process allows the IT and the business to set priorities together, stop projects that aren’t delivering value, and redeploy resources where they are most needed.
The last dimension of governance is change; how do we remove political obstacles and also get users to adopt the solution? Governance offers the opportunity to establish a structured, organized change management process to get us from our current state to a desired future state. Politics represent one barrier that can be challenging to overcome. It is the role of business stakeholders on the governance council to help IT overcome political barriers by identifying and addressing issues early on. User resistance to change is another matter entirely. Resistance to change is rooted in a desire to avoid disruption to the user’s established routine and to stay with the systems they know well. The best way to counteract this resistance is to improve communication and involve end users early in the development cycle. The project lifecycle should take care to generate user buy-in by asking for feedback, evaluating and incorporating changes from the user population, and supporting the transition to the new system.
Another look at the three C’s of Governance:
Control
· Formalize project selection/prioritization
· Employ IT portfolio management
· Establish standards
· Define policies
· Balance formal authority against influence
· Deliver consistent solutions
Communication
· Communicate business value – How will we benefit from this project?
· Gather business requirements – Does the solution meet our needs?
· Create transparency and better understanding of IT activities and performance
· Improve understanding of objectives and expectations
· Improve visibility of project issues and priorities
· Change perception of IT as a ‘cost center’ to strategic partner
Change
· Involve users earlier in the development cycle
· Capture enhancement requests
· Improve solution adoption
· Establish communication plan
· Identify and plan for objections/resistance to change
· Overcome organizational politics
· Provide end-user training
Labels: change management, governance, IT, policies, standards
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