IT Governance and Decision Making Process - Essay Example

Governance is the process of making decisions which define the expectations of an organization or people it serves, verifying the performance of the decision made, and granting the organization authority to implement the provisions of the decision made. In the modern times, information technology is integrated into governance. On this basis therefore, IT governance refers to the method of creating a chain of responsibility, communication and authority for purposes of empowering the people under consideration (Birrell, 2012). On this note, to effectively define IT governance, the following elements must be there; that is responsibility, communication, authority, and empowerment. Responsibility refers to the concept of being accountable for every action an officer undertakes, while authority refers to the ability of an officer to influence the behavior of individuals. Empowerment in relation to governance means the authority an officer has towards acting on the decision made. Communication is the exchange of ideas or information pertaining to the policy or decision that has been made. For IT governance to achieve success, the authorities concerned must show the values of transparency, appropriate representation and support (Birrell, 2012). Transparency refers to availing information on the process itself, and this includes on how the decisions are made, and who are the individuals who make the decisions. Appropriate representation denotes the representation of people who might be affected by the decisions made, while support refers to the ability of an organization to mobilize the support of its IT governance structure. The organization should seek the support of every one interested with its affairs, and this includes its employees, and members of the public. The IT governance has a structure component, which provides an answer to what is governed, and who governs it. My university of study has a centralized IT governance model divided into four sections (Brisebois, Boyd and Shadid, 2010) , 1. The Strategic level/ Committee. 2. The Executive level. 3. The Advisory groups; a. The Business process governance level. b. Program governance level. 4. Operational level/ layer. The first level of the governance structure is the strategic level, and it comprises of the senior most executives of the business entity. The main focus of governance at this level is to align the education strategies of the university, with its information technology strategy. At this stage, the committee creates the vision of the vision of the university, and how information technology will help it achieve its vision (Weill and Ross, 2004). The second level of the IT governance structure is the executive level. This stage comprises of divisional and departmental leaders of the various departments within the university, and their responsibility is to allocate resources, prioritize initiatives, and create methods that the organization will achieve its education objectives. This is through the integration of technology in its decision making process. The third level of IT governance structure consists of two parts, namely business process governance, and program governance. In program governance, an entity hires specialists who have the task of overseeing the implementation of an information technology project. This group deals with the changes that affect the University management because of implementing a specific program, and the values an organization will derive by implementing the project. This group is a stand by committee, and once the project is implemented and comes to a conclusion, this group is disbanded. The second part, of this third level of the IT governance structure is the business process governance group (Weill and Ross, 2004). This forms an integral part of the IT governance structure, and it concerns itself with the manner in which the process is executed, and decisions arrived at. This group analyzes the various components of the policy developed, and whether they reflect the mission and visions of the organization. Finally, the last level of a component that forms the IT governance structure is the operations layer. This is the body that governs the operations of the decisions made, and its main emphasis is on information technology. This level forms the change advisory council, control and advisory board. It also concerns itself with the management of change that occurs in the business set up, because of the adoption of information technology. There are six methods of arriving at a decision in an IT governance decision making process. My university of study incorporates all this processes in its decision making. This is a major strength of the decision making process of my university of study. The six stages of decision making are (Wallace, 2011), 1. Problem identification. 2. Information Gathering. 3. Development of alternatives. 4. Evaluation of alternatives. 5. Implementation of the best alternative. 6. Following/ analyzing the impact of the decision made. In step one, the decision maker must identify the problems that he wants to solve, and hence must have a clear knowledge of the situation and circumstances surrounding the problem (Wallace, 2011). Stage involves gathering the required information, to enable a decision maker have a choice in developing alternatives and solutions to the problem identified. On this note therefore, stage three involves the development of alternative solutions to the problem identified. In the fourth stage, a decision maker evaluates the alternatives developed. This is for purposes of ensuring that he chooses the best solution for a problem. In the implementation stage, the decision maker uses the structures of governance in place to implement the solution developed (Hughes, 2003). This stage requires adequate planning, and cooperation from all the stakeholders involved. Finally, it is important to analyze the impact of the policy developed in solving the problem identified. Decision makers can acquire knowledge from this through feedbacks from the public, and the people targeted by the policy. The only weakness in the It governance structure of my university of study is its reliance on foreign experts to oversee the implementation of the policies developed. The university contracts information technology companies to monitor and oversee the various projects it initiates. This is unacceptable, because the institution has the capability of training information technology experts, within the current group of its employees, and its students. On this note therefore, it is important to train employees for purposes of imparting these skills to them. This is because employees of an organization are aware of the culture of the organization, its vision and mission. References: Birrell, D. (2012). Comparing devolved governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Brisebois, R., Boyd, G., & Shadid, Z. (2010). What is IT Governance? and why is it important for the IS auditor. Canada: Into It. Hughes, J. (Director) (2003, November 6). http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU03184.pdf. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU03184.pdf. Lecture conducted from Educause, George Mason University.Top of Form Bottom of Form Wallace, M. (2011). It governance: policies & procedures, 2012 ed.. S.l.: Aspen Publishers. Weill, P., & Ross, J. W. (2004). IT governance: how top performers manage IT decision rights for superior results. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Read More