IT Governance: How Can You Improve Yours

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IT Governance How Can You Improve Yours

• John Kost
• Group Vice President
• Gartner CIO Research Worldwide

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Is This How Your Human Services Agency does IT
Governance?
Strong project governance generally requires a
bit more methodology than singing Kumbaya around
the campfire.
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What Is Governance?
Gartner's definition of governance Who decides,
and by what process? Do you have the right
governance model for your organization? Do you
have the right governance model for your project?
Gov-urn-ants
"To steer a jar of insects"
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Fixing the Who decides part of IT Governance
in Government
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Governance in a Perfect World!
IT Investment and Prioritization
Goals
Bus. App. Requirements
Enterprise Architecture
Principles
Domain
Input
Decision
Input
Decision
Input
Decision
Input
Decision
Input
Decision
Stakeholders
?
?
?
?
Exec. Committee
?
?
?
?
?
Steering Committee
?
?
?
?
?
LOB Managers
?
?
?
?
IT Leadership
?
?
?
?
?
Bus. Proc. Owners
?
?
?
IT Rel. Managers

• IT Leadership CIO, CIO Office and BU CIOs

• Exec. Committee Executive committee (C-level
  executives)

• Steering Committee IT steering committee
  (representatives from executive and LOB
  management and senior IT management)

• Bus. Proc. Owners Business process owners

• IT Rel. Managers IT/business relationship
  managers

• Bus. App. Requirements Business application
  requirements

• LOB Managers Business unit (BU)
  heads/presidents

So what happens when these decisions dont get
made in a timely manner or at all?
Note This chart is adapted from MIT Sloan Center
for Information Systems Research and Gartner
drawing on the framework of Peter Weill and
Richard Woodham, 2002.
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Key Determinants of an Appropriate IT Governance
Model

• Engagement of the CEO (enterprise and agency) in
  IT decision making
• Personality of the leadership
• Relationship between leadership and the CIO
• The constitutional organizational structure
• The relative constitutional authority of the CEO
  against other elected officials.
• An enterprise vs. agency (silo) approach to
  leadership
• Is someone in charge?
• Are there multiple power bases?
• Aggressiveness and Breadth of the Agenda for
  Change
• Cross-enterprise Leadership Buy-in
• Overall amount of change
• Importance of IT in success
• Culture of Consultation

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Engagement of the CEO in Decision Making
CEO

• CIO should report to enterprise executive who
  actually manages.
• Probably not the CEO
• Possibly COO or finance director
• Identify who will resolve conflicts
• CIO must show value in budget and procurement
  processes.

Incapable of making non-policy decisions
Doesn't care about day-to-day operations
IWOTA Impenetrable Wall of Technical Apathy
Doesn't care about technology
CFO
CIO
Procurement
Bureau Heads
Doesn't understand technology
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Assessing Authority Within Your Governance
Structure

• Who is part of your chain of command?
• Who is part of formal IT governance?
• Who are the key influencers in IT decision
  making?
• What is your relationship with these people?
• How engaged are they in decisions THEY need to
  make?

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Target Your Executive Education
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In the future, the focus of Human Services
executive experience will replace the MSW with
SCM Government Human Services as a Supply Chain
Management Challenge (May 2008)
Hopeless
Case-by-Case Low-Priority Education
IT Aptitude
Work-around
Educate
Communicate
0
0
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IT Decision-Making Authority
Gartner for IT Executives Tool
Public Sector Leadership IT Aptitude Assessment
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Unique Public-Sector Challenges Why Getting IT
Governance Right Is Critical

• Getting agencies to work together
• Cohesive enterprise leadership driven by
  cooperation, not "turf"
• Consensus of direction

Hierarchy of challenges
Hard
Turf/politics

• Procurement, HR, budgeting
• Rigid command and control
• Hierarchical rather than open

Process

• Standards
• Data modeling and integration
• Modernization
• Privacy and security

Technology
Easy
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Fixing the by What Process part of IT
Governance in Government
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What are Processes in which IT Governance can be
Imbedded?
Should we do some-thing?
How do we buy it?
What internal capacity?
Will we fund it?
How do we execute it?
How will it matter?
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Getting IT Governance Right, Generally
Understand the business
Show opportunities to innovate
Create standards and architecture
Oversee IT component of projects
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Model Project Governance (large project within
single program)
Project Champion
Governance Council

• Program Director should be highly engaged in
  decision making and execution
• Program Manager reports to Program Director
• All affected bureaus within the program are
  represented and participating in governance

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Model Project Governance (large project across
multiple programs)
Project Champion
Governance Council

• Department Director (Secretary) should be highly
  engaged in decision making and execution
• Program Manager reports to Department Director
• All affected programs within the department are
  represented and participating in governance

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Model Project Governance (large project across
multiple departments)
Governance Council

• Department Directors (Secretary) should be highly
  engaged in decision making and execution
• Program Manager reports to Governance Council
• All affected departments are represented and
  participating in governance
• Someone above the department director level must
  be prepared to step in to resolve stalemates in
  governance decisions

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Often Overlooked Issues of Governance

• Are the objectives of the project clear?
• Why are we doing this?
• What are the expected benefits?
• To whom?
• Are decision making processes clear?
• Who has ultimate authority and responsibility to
  resolve conflict within the project?
• Is there a process for escalation and timely
  resolution of issues?
• Are change management issues understood and
  addressed
• By people with authority and responsibility to
  execute?
• Are there legitimate risk and milestone review
  processes
• To make tough decisions?
• To kill something that isnt working?

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Advice

• If your Governance process is not ready, dont
  start
• Make certain your project has effective change
  management processes in place
• Led by business unit executives with the
  authority to execute
• Led by business unit executives with the audacity
  to execute
• Focus on engagement among stakeholders early,
  often, and simply
• Recognize political reality
• Recognize personalities Educate where you can
• Evolve and mature your decision-making approaches
  to encompass decisions about operational,
  tactical and strategic IT

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IT Governance How Can You Improve Yours

• John Kost
• Group Vice President
• Gartner CIO Research Worldwide