ctw07: Information Technology Governance
Jack McCredie reports out on an ECAR study and shares his Top Ten Tips for IT Leadership.
Campus Technology Winter 2007
Technology Leadership in Practice
John W. (Jack) McCredie
Keynote
Their Title: Placing Yourself at the Forefront of Change: Inside the IT Governance Findings, and More
His Title: Governance and Leadership in Information Technology in Higher Education
What makes IT hard to Govern?
- Independent research projects
- Departmental computing organizations
- Colleges & professional schools
- Campus wide organization
- System wide coordination
- National & regional networking organization
- Complex committee structures
- Distributed budgetary process
Symptoms of Governance Problems
- Lack of understanding of how governance works
- Significant gaps and overlaps
- IT security breakdowns
- Low measures of IT effectiveness
- Ineffective involvement of faculty
- Decisions take forever
- Lack of alignment
ECAR http://www.educause.edu/ecar IT governance study 2007
- 438 responses from CIOs
- 216 responses (shorter survey) from executives who are not in technology offices
- Qualitative interviews & case studies
- How many of these institutions (esp. the more detailed data) from two-year colleges?
(I was unable to copy all of the listing of results; however, his results were listed from highest result to lowest. So the listings below start with the “most important” elements identified by the survey participants.)
Top 3 Primary Driver for IT Governance
- Aligning IT goals w/institutional goals (73.5%)
- Promoting an institutional-wide view of IT (50.7%)
- Encouraging/collecting community input (38.1%)
- Transparence in decision making
- Cost reduction/increased efficiencies
- Coordinating separate decision processes
Top 3 Primary Barriers for IT Governance
- Decentralized/informal culture (41.6%)
- Lack of participation from necessary parties (40.4%)
- Governance insufficiently coordinated (30.8%)
- Lack of adequate funding (28.3%)
- Difficulty developing policies/procedures
CIO vs. Executive Alignment
Not statistically different, no real disconnect
Managers (vs. CIOs) think governance actually being effective (slightly more, not statistically different)
What are things associated with good performance
- Inclusiveness in decision making
- IT alignment with business and academic goals
- ITG is “actively designed”
- Relevant parties can accurately describe ITG
- CIO is a member of the executive cabinet
ITG success: people, not process
- Support of executive leadership (63.9%)
- Skills/personalities of key individuals (61.4%)
- Inclusion/participation of stakeholders (59.4%)
- Informal relationships among concerned parties
Indicators of unsuccessful ITG: people, not process
- Non-inclusion/participation of stakeholders
- Skills/personalities of key individuals
- Lack of support of executive leadership
- Failure to communicate
Preliminary findings
- Respondents generally have positive views about IT alignment with institution strategic goals
- Alignment and institution view of IT trump “practical politics” among ITG drivers
- But when asked what produces good ITG outcomes, CIOs favor relationships and personalities
- A majority say ITG is effective overall
- Where CIOs and executives disagree, execs appear to be slightly more optimistically
Relationships are important; however, dangerous…we need structures in place!
McCredie’s 10 leadership pointers (purely his):
- Learn as much as possible about leadership as a discipline that can be analyzed and taught.
- Choose an environment culture that fits your skills.
- Develop a skill that is important to this culture. Build upon strengths and working around weaknesses.
- Organize your ideas in written form (even short position paper) before meetings.
- Volunteer for follow-up actions (remember, you are building leadership here!
- Identify a few key goals for you and organization, stick with them over time. Important goals get lost in day-to-day activities.
- Be decisive after studying the alternatives.
- Prepare your successors and yourself for change.
- Be determined and confident.
- Build TRUST in every way possible.
December 10 2007 | Posted in Campus Technology
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