IT Governance

Group 4:
James Fort
Stephanie Joyner
Jeff Seremak
What is IT Governance?
Structure to help align IT strategy with business strategy
According to ITGI, there are 5 areas of focus:
Strategic alignment
Value delivery
Resource management
Risk management
Performance measures
Why is IT Governance
important?
Compliance with regulations

Competitive advantage

Support of enterprise goals

Growth and innovation

Increase in intangible assets

Reduction of risk
Who is involved?
Team leaders

Managers

Executives

Board of Directors

Stakeholders
IT Governance Framework
(ITGI)
Provide
Direction

Set Objectives IT Activities

v IT is aligned with the business v Increase automation (make the

v IT enables the business and business effective)
Compare v Decrease cost (make enterprise
maximizes benefits
v IT resources are used responsibly efficient)
v IT-related risks managed v Manage risks (security reliability
appropriately and compliance)

Measure
Performance
Challenges and Concerns
Relative to It governance
Aligning IT and Business Strategy

Corporate Mission Business Goals IT Strategy

Requires involvement from many levels and activities

within the enterprise.

Lack of alignment leads to adverse business issues.

Strong IT Governance contributes toward proper

alignment.
Ensuring Value and Effectiveness

IT issues are the least understood, despite increasing

reliance placed on IT.

Initiate IT governance structures with the right level of

executive involvement.

Board of Directors require essential IT related skills

IS Governance
Consists of leadership, organizational structures and
processes that safeguard information.

Security over information assets.

Benefits of IS Governance.

IS is a top-down process.
Measuring IT Governance
Performance

Measuring IT performance is a key concern as it

demonstrates the effectiveness and added business
value of IT.

Commonly seen as the IT Black Hole costs

continually rise without clear evidence of value derived
from the IT function.

Traditional performance measurement methods require

monetary values which are hard to apply to IT systems.
IT Governance Performance
Management Approaches
IT Balanced Scorecard
One of the most effective means to aid an
organization in achieving IT and business
alignment.
Provides a systematic translation of the IT strategy
into tangible success factors and metrics.
Gives a balanced view of the value added by IT to
the business.
Calculating the value of IT investments is a
business issue for which business managers are
ultimately responsible for.
Harley Davidson IT
Governance Case Study
 Harley Davidson IT

Harley Davidson is the oldest producer of motorcycles

and has achieved 20 consecutive years of record
growth. Until 2003, Harley Davidson focused solely on
manufacturing and selling high quality motorcycles.

They realized that for continued growth, they must unite

management and the IT and Audit functions with a common
governance while maintaining their unique company culture.
Until 2003, Harley Davidson had limited IT controls in place and the
employees had limited knowledge of control and risk.

There were limited: Standardized user access processes, change

management processes or backup and recovery processes.

Harley Davidson created a new IT compliance department to manage

control and risk in the company.

This department implemented the COBIT framework to focus on key

value areas of the business.

Switched to a broad control framework rather than continually raising

the bar.
COBIT Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology

Harley Davidson chose COBIT because

An internationally accepted standard for IT governance and control
Provides a common language for management, end users and IT audit
professionals
A means for benchmarking controls compliance
Low implementation cost
Cohesiveness with other standards
External auditor signed off on the framework

It was important for management and IT to understand the importance of

effective, value-focused controls.

By focusing on IT business value and their control needs, COBIT provided a

tool to spur internal change while maintaining their position as an industry
leader.