IT governance is an idea whose time has come. According to the latest IBM Global CEO Study, CEOs foresee an Enterprise of the Future that is characterized by accelerating, pervasive and unrelenting change. Although periods of change and innovation are typically associated with the risks of performance erosion and increased costs, governance best practices can enable the agility required to minimize these risks. By clarifying decision rights and accountability chains for specific strategic components, governance best practices can target the decision making and behavior required to achieve specific objectives. Most common negative outcomes are caused by too much emphasis on the technical, financial and scheduling aspects of IT activities and too little attention on the business context of IT use. Therefore, it is critical to clarify the decision rights and accountability chains for business goals that depend on improved use of IT.

This paper explains how CIOs can use governance best practices to mitigate the depth and duration of performance declines that often accompany periods of change and innovation. It will clarify what governance is—and isn't—and articulate how CIOs can begin to improve governance within their organizations.

We need a new approach to make long-term improvements in the business value of enterprise IT

Our research shows that a lack of trust in IT's ability to deliver business value is one of the biggest hurdles that enterprises face in bringing IT and business closer together. In today's business and technology environments – where expectations of IT are higher, but where change, risk, and complexity are increasing and the legacies of past investments are having an ever greater impact – it's imperative that IT organisations find ways to demonstrate their ability to add value.