IT Governance: The Path to IT Governance for World-Class Performance Enterprises

Author: Peter Weill, David Ross
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Prudent IT management has become a fundamental factor in corporate success. Weill and Ross have written a compelling book for non-technical managers, clearly explaining how top-performing companies manage IT and derive winning value from it. —Michael F. Frechette, Chairman and CEO, Gartner Group
IT faces immense pressure to deliver tangible and sustainable value. Managers must address five key decisions to ensure effective governance and achieve desired outcomes. In this book, Weill and Ross distill insights from numerous organizational successes and failures to help you improve decision-making mechanisms and find models that drive your entire business to success. Can you clearly articulate your organization's IT governance? Can your peers do the same? If not, you need to seriously read this monumental work to imprint effective governance on your organization. —Shafin Sarnia, Business Value Manager, Microsoft
This book is a wise, insightful, and actionable masterpiece that provides a breakthrough framework for our IT governance. All CIOs and senior managers who want to realize true strategic value from IT investments must read it. —Andrei Spasov, Chief Information Officer, UNICEF
In real-world examples, we can see the pervasive issues of IT governance. Weill and Ross have identified sound technical governance mechanisms to guide us toward better business value. Many CIOs of large enterprises would hope their CEOs carry this book with them on their next business trip. —Stephen Norman, Chief Technology Officer, Merrill Lynch
There are too many companies whose IT projects fail to even meet their expectations. In this heavyweight work, IT experts Peter Weill and Jenny W. Ross reveal why and how businesses can derive true value from IT investments. Based on research involving 250 companies worldwide, the authors argue that the business value of IT directly stems from effective IT governance—the mechanism by which organizations allocate decision-making authority and responsibility for IT. Their research shows that among companies with the same strategic goals, those with strong IT governance generate 20% higher profits than those with weaker governance. However, only 38% of senior managers can accurately describe their IT governance. So, how can other managers develop effective IT decision-making for their businesses? In this book, the authors demonstrate how to address three key questions by designing and implementing an IT decision-making authority system: What decisions need to be made? Who should make these decisions? How should these decisions be made and monitored? Additionally, through case studies of top IT governance organizations like DuPont, UPS, UNICEF, Fidelity Investments, Motorola, and Swiss Re, the book vividly illustrates governance systems and provides a framework and tools for customizing IT governance systems.