What Is IT Governance and Why Is It Important?

Weill and Ross define IT governance as “specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in using IT” ² :

IT governance is not about making specific IT decisions. That is management. Rather, governance is about systematically determining who makes each type of decision (a decision right), who has input to a decision (an input right) and how these people (or groups) are held accountable for their role. Good IT governance draws on corporate governance principles to manage and use IT to achieve corporate performance goals. ³

To do that requires the creation of a formal structure that includes defined roles, responsibilities and accountability for decisions.

IT governance is “putting structure around how organizations align IT strategy with business strategy, ensuring that companies stay on track to achieve their strategies and goals, and implementing good ways to measure IT’s performance. It makes sure that all stakeholders’ interests are taken into account and that processes provide measurable results.” ⁴

IT governance includes a set of committees to involve stakeholders and defined processes for approving and managing IT projects.