ABSTRACT
Top-performing enterprises succeed in obtaining value from IT where others fail, in part, by implementing effective IT governance to support their strategies and institutionalize good practices. IT governance involves specifying decision rights and accountabilities for important IT decisions. In a business monarchy, senior business executives make IT decisions affecting the entire enterprise. The IT duopoly is a two-party arrangement where decisions represent agreement between IT executives and one business group. Anarchies are the bane of many IT organizations because they go their own way, and they are expensive to support and make secure. Over 70" of enterprises rely on IT monarchies to make IT architecture decisions, suggesting that senior business executives view architecture more as a technical issue than as a strategic business issue. Effective IT monarchies design infrastructures to anticipate and support the application requirements of business units. Enterprises make IT investment and prioritization decisions using three archetypes about equally-business monarchy, federal, and duopoly.
