IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 288 pages
• Published by: Harvard Business School Press
• Edition: 1st Edition June 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1591392535
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1591392538
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

Product Description


Firms with superior IT governance have more than 25% higher profits than firms with poor governance given the same strategic objectives. These top performers have custom-designed IT governance for their strategies. Just as corporate governance aims to ensure quality decisions about all corporate assets, IT governance links IT decisions with company objectives and monitors performance and accountability.

Based on a study of 250 enterprises worldwide, IT Governance shows how to design and implement a system of decision rights that will transform IT from an expense to a profitable investment.



About The Author


Peter Weill is the Director of the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and a Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Jeanne W. Ross is Principal Research Scientist at CISR.



Reader Reviews
This is the book that corporations have needed since the Dotcom bust. Having painfully learned that throwing copious amounts of money at IT professionals does not always result in effective information systems, many companies are confused as to the next plan of attack. Not a simple "how-to-run-your-IT" cookbook, Weill and Ross have studied how over 200 corporations manage their IT. There is no quick fix, no "silver bullet" that will solve all managerial angst. What emerges instead is a deeper understanding of the strategic role of IT for a wide range of large companies. By classifying IT decisions into 5 types, and then classifying the way decisions are made into several catchy "pop-psych" groups (such as IT Monarchy, Business Monarchy, Duopoly, and Federal) the authors have formulated a very succinct framework. This framework could act as a touchstone for those companies whose current governance is ineffective or unclear. Companies who are struggling with IT, and those of us who advise them, really need to read this book and consider the research conducted. Whether or not you are as enamoured of the framework as I, you should certainly be aware of it because it will be very important in future work.