I have just received a new professional designation from ISACA/ITGI: Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT – CGEIT.  I’ve also noticed that when the world ‘governance’ finds its way into a conversation, it causes either an avoidance or denial reaction. Perhaps it’s because we associate the word with ‘government’, which means ‘bureaucracy’ to most, which isn’t necessarily so.  It’s an unfortunate semantic legacy that links the two in listeners’ minds.  Dealing with organizations, I try to redefine the word governance for them to disengage it from this ‘bureaucratic’ association:  Governance is simply about making sure that the right roles are making the right decisions about the right things.  It doesn’t have to be more complicated or more frightening than that.

Over my many years of experience dealing with IT and business environments, I find that governance issues are frequently at the core of problems being experienced at an operational or service delivery level.  Yet these issues are seldom recognized by the organization involved, and when revealed, often dismissed as a priority for action.  It seems that most organizations would prefer to continue to put time and effort into dealing with symptoms than resolve a governance issue.  This is unfortunate since in most instances re-aligning governance requires minimal cost or effort and results in optimal, long-term benefits for the organization. 

Business/IT Alignment is about making sure the right IT decisions are being made for the right business reasons.  Governance helps provide structure to the processes and roles involved in those decisions. If having the right roles make the right decisions about the right things is important for your organization, contact me for a Business/IT Alignment governance ‘check-up’.

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