The ABCs of Governance


By exercising strict governance over the strategic direction and tactical control of IT projects, CIOs can maximize the business value of their IT investments. A portfolio approach gives senior technology executives, such as the CIO, a mechanism to align investments with overall corporate strategy, and, where possible, exercise familiar, dollars-and- cents control over the somewhat previously inscrutable world of IT. Increasingly, IT is being asked to produce quick wins where the revenue distance (the length between the investment and the revenue producer it supports) is as short as possible. The natural tendency, therefore, is to focus myopically on pure financial indicators such as ROI in lieu of more holistic indicators that incorporate a blend of both tangible and intangible measures. Business and technology decision- makers must resist the temptation to overly emphasize the quantitative at the expense of the qualitative, lest they make inappropriate assumptions regarding risk and value. The underpinning data that portfolio analysts need to draw intelligent conclusions about the status and direction of an IT portfolio is supplied from the bottom-up, through the models that are created during the activities of BTM. In addition, these models help IT managers to reanalyze their investments with respect to current ”not outdated ”conditions and to communicate more effectively with their business counterparts during the budgetary process.

BTM's principles and activities also ensure that IT project managers maintain the same degree of control, accountability, and fiscal responsibility that is expected of projects in the rest of the business. In this manner, the CIO can feel confident that the promises he or she makes when communicating the value of IT to the business, come true when put into practice.



The Alignment Effect. How to Get Real Business Value Out of Technology
The Alignment Effect: How to Get Real Business Value Out of Technology
ISBN: 0130449393
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 83
Authors: Faisal Hoque

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