journeys in it governance v2
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Overview
• Common IT challenges municipalities face• What governance is – and how it addresses
the challenges• Our experiences of recommending and
implementing governance• Specific experience at the Town of Aurora
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About us
• Founded in 1980• Public-sector focus• A history of IT Strategic Planning (1989)
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Some of our recent work
• IT Strategy & Governance• Regina, Oshawa, Kitchener, Region of Waterloo,
York Region, Waterloo, Oakville, Burlington, Whitby, Ajax, Aurora, Whitchurch-Stouffville
• GIS Strategies• Region of Peel, Red Deer, Cambridge
• Strategic Studies• Mississauga, Business Application Simplification
Strategy, MISA Ontario Strategic Plan
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Everyone wants to be …
…a technology leader in municipal services
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Common current themes• Demand/project overload (all organizations)
• IT is grappling with changing focus from technical to business enabler / Partner from Supplier
• Senior Managers on SMT represent IT poorly
• Infrastructure typically good – applications and information flow is the challenge
• Operating & maintaining existing technologies consume a large % of resources (industry around 70%)
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Common current themes
• Tactical departmental technology projects (short term view)
• Duplication of projects initiated in different departments
• Most projects fail to fully meet expectations
• Lack of shared accountability for IT projects
• Senior managers feel IT is out of their control
• Expectation vs. Delivery
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“Inadequate, and in many cases ad hoc IT governance, is one of the primary reasons why
perceptions do not meet reality”
IT Portfolio Management: Step-by-Step
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IT environment has changed … • Small work group large corporate/enterprise
solutions• Inter-dependencies & integration complexity• IT projects are typically business transformation
projects supported by technology• IT projects are not engineering projects
– Inexact specifications– Managing change
• people, • processes
• IT projects must align with the business goals - otherwise why do it?
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Reality check
• Technology presents infinite possibilities
• Can’t do all that your customers want to do
• Someone needs to decide what the organization’s priorities are – and it shouldn‘t be you
• Requires collective decision making or senior direction setting
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Define IT Governance
“Specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage
desirable behaviour in the use of IT”
Weill & Ross, IT Governance
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You must know and be able to articulate what desirable and
undesirable behaviors are
Components of IT Governance• Decision making groups
(e.g. membership, inter-relationships)
• Policies & standards (e.g. architecture, software procurement policy)
• Processes & methods (e.g. prioritization, ops)
• Measurement (e.g. KPI reporting)
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Components of IT Governance• Decision making groups
(e.g. membership, inter-relationships)
• Policies & standards (e.g. architecture, software procurement policy)
• Processes & methods (e.g. prioritization, ops)
• Measurement (e.g. KPI reporting)
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desirable behaviors
Department/IT Alignment
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IT governance is about
The need to engage…
involve…
and
educate15
“A problem shared is a problem halved”
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IT Governance Mechanisms
Bodies/Groups• ELT/SMT/CMT• IT Strategy Committee• IT Steering Committee• IT Management Team• IT Leadership Team• Projects Approval Board• Architecture Team• Relationship Management• Project Management Office
Processes• Business planning• IT investment process• Architecture & exceptions• Service Level Agreements• Charge backs• Project/portfolio reporting• Project Management• Business value tracking
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Communicationsenior management announcements, portfolio reporting, formal decisions,
Typical municipal IT governance• IT director/manager responsible for budgets and
prioritization of projects
• Department head level may have some projects in departmental budgets
• SMT and/or Council– “This is a MUST-DO project” – imposes new priorities
(regardless of impact)
• IT steering committees (where they are present)– Dysfunctional, low level, turns into an IT user group
• Projects tend to be tactical responses, not strategic18
Some are doing well where…• IT has credibility, respect & is trusted
• Good IT representation on SMT helps:– the corporation focus on priorities– allows IT to ‘hold the line’– ensure that the right resources are committed to solutions
• IT has defined professional standards & corporate policies are supported & endorsed
• Business recognizes the value that IT bring to the table
• IT is not seen as a bottleneck – IT has realized that its about getting things done – not being confined by its own capacity
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Changing Attitudes?
• Preaching a similar message for the last 10 years. What’s different now?
• We appear to be getting acceptance at the senior level
• IT is now starting to be recognized as core to business service delivery– End to End customer service
• CAO/SMT willingness to allocate time to IT
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IT governance model
© MIT Sloan School Centre for Information Systems Research
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Governance bodies
• Define responsibility for each domain• Bodies must be representative to achieve
corporate engagement• Corporate policy must support governance
bodies (including budget processes)• Governance bodies must be sustained and
reinforced (Council, SMT, Directors)
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IT GovernanceCommittee
Executive Leadership Team
IT ProjectsEvaluation Committee
CPAG
IT PMOTechnical
Standards Group
Dir. Forum
Program and Application Working Groups 1
1 examples include standing groups for SPL, GIS, Web, Information Management, Hansen, Enterprise Suite
Mapping Accountabilities
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Steering Committee Effectiveness
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The Bad, The Ugly The GoodSometimes large up to 25 members – unwieldy forum for decision making
Smaller groups more effective
Delegation leads to low level membership & lack the ability to look holistically
Senior members more effective
Defense of turf vs. corporate view
Corporate view essential
Can turn into an IT user group & communication forum
Operating at the strategic level is more effective (but a willingness to get into the details is necessary)
Steering Committee Alternatives
• Do we need to run a democracy? Does everyone need to be represented?– Small selected non-partisan Director level
• Re-use the Executive team (GM’s, CAO, IT Dir)• Re-use another existing forum
• Departmental Management Teams• Management Committee
• IT run with increased mandate for co-ordination function, reinforced by Senior support
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Aurora: What we did
• IT Strategy May 2009
• One of central themesfocused upon establishinggovernance and processes to support IT governance
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Key Governance Elements
• Executive IT Steering Committee = ELT• IT portfolio ranking process, aligned with
corporate priorities = agreed corporate project priorities
• Standard method for initiating projects = business cases + project forms – through EITSC
• Improved project accountability and project resources = project sponsors, secondments, external resources
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Additional Strategy Outcomes
• Re-organized IT into functional groups• Added 2 new staff – 1 Application Analyst, 1
Network Analyst
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Lessons Learnt
• Achieving buy in at the Senior Level (sustaining buy in)– “Why are we doing this”– Establish the mantra “current project volume is
unsustainable”
• It’s a new process for everyone, learn as you go – be ready to tweak and change as required– We tweaked ranking mechanisms
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Lessons Learnt
• It is a journey, not an overnight process
• Forms and processes don’t change behaviors
• You win some, you lose some– Celebrate and make examples of the successes– Roll with the punches – get tougher
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Lessons Learnt
• Learn to use the Governance bodies to your advantage– Raise issues that a project sponsor hasn’t addressed
(e.g. RFID)
• IT staff implications– IT is in the spotlight– behavior and performance expectations– IT staff have to be business focused, even in a small
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Outcomes
• Escalated the level for IT• Corporate priorities defined• Major “business transformation” projects
underway• Restructuring of IT Team allows supervisors
to focus upon improving processes• IT has grown in importance / profile
– Seen as a Corporate success
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Summary
• Good corporate IT starts with good IT governance• Recognise the signs
– Project overload, business IT disconnect, “leave it to IT”, project failures
• Formalize governance and raise the level of business engagement– Educate, engage and involve senior decision makers
(size, impact, opportunity, capacity)– Let them see/share your pain
• More work (transparency + education is two-way)– Leaders, departments and for IT
• Stick the course, the rewards will come
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Questions?
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