The Power and Potential of IT Governance Principles

The five principles of IT governance potentially offer much more than the standards by which the board can make the most of. Given the opportunity, the five principles of IT governance provide the focus and purpose for every information technology decision. This is a major aspect of IT governance lost on most everyone.

Yes, IT governance is about assigning decision-making accountability and constructing control frameworks, but it can be so much more. If enterprises set aside the committees and the policies and standards for a moment, they could see the enormous potential of the principles of IT governance. If everyone, and I mean everyone, fixated on the five principles of IT governance it would have a huge influence on their day-to-day behaviors and their resulting decisions. Imagine if everyone in the enterprise approached every single task with the goal of ensuring they were aligning technology with the business; ensuring they were delivering value to the business; and ensuring they were appropriately managing risk, resources, and performance. Those principles would provide the best possible reason and rational for every decision, and that makes them incredibly powerful. It was the power and promise of those five principles that caused me to fall in love with IT governance.