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Journeys in it governance v2
- 1. Journey’s in IT Governance MISA Ontario Conference June 14 th 2010 [email_address]
- 2. 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
- 3. About us Founded in 1980 Public-sector focus A history of IT Strategic Planning (1989)
- 4. 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
- 5. Everyone wants to be … … a technology leader in municipal services
- 6. 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%)
- 7. 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
- 8. “ 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
- 9. 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?
- 10. 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
- 11. Define IT Governance “ Specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behaviour in the use of IT” Weill & Ross, IT Governance You must know and be able to articulate what desirable and undesirable behaviors are
- 12. 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)
- 13. 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) desirable behaviors
- 15. IT governance is about The need to engage… involve… and educate
- 16. “ A problem shared is a problem halved”
- 17. 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 Communication senior management announcements, portfolio reporting, formal decisions,
- 18. 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 strategic
- 19. 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
- 20. 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
- 21. IT governance model © MIT Sloan School Centre for Information Systems Research
- 22. 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)
- 26. Steering Committee Effectiveness The Bad, The Ugly The Good Sometimes 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)
- 27. 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
- 28. Aurora: What we did IT Strategy May 2009 One of central themes focused upon establishing governance and processes to support IT governance
- 30. 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
- 31. Additional Strategy Outcomes Re-organized IT into functional groups Added 2 new staff – 1 Application Analyst, 1 Network Analyst
- 32. 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
- 33. 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
- 34. 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 shop
- 35. 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
- 36. 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
- 37. Questions?
- 38. Book recommendations IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results Peter Weill & Jeanne W Ross Managing IT as a business : A survival guide for CEO’s Mark D. Lutchen IT Portfolio Management : Step by Step Bryan Maizlish, Robert Handler
Editor's Notes
- #3: Why “Journeys” – because implementing governance is never “done” – it’s organic, it grows, morphs, improves – and you need to learn as you go … Other sub-text of this discussion – is you are never too small to implement governance concepts and principles … If you read the books – it’s all about how FedEx or GlaxoSmithKline or the Australian Government implemented Governance. Karen and I are here to tell you that it applies to your organization too. Karen’s experience has been transformative for her as IT Manager, her team and for the Town of Aurora as a whole … and we’ll tell you all about that in a moment.
- #4: Our strengths Extensive public sector experience Extensive experience in the development of information technology & GIS strategic plans Multi-disciplinary skills in integrating organizational design, process re-design, technology and change management Significant experience conducting organizational & operational reviews Major change management experience Enthusiasm, pragmatism and leadership skills
- #5: IT Governance is a huge trend in the IT industry period … Through the course of our work we do a lot of environmental scans Everyone is tackling or re-tackling governance again Ottawa Edmonton Halifax Peel
- #7: Expectation vs. Delivery All municipalities have similar expectations Large or small – similar outcomes - too slow vs. not enough resources Small organizations have Big City expectations / comparisons Demand/project overload (all organizations) Basic commodity infrastructure works – Business Applications is the key area Senior managers feel IT is out of their control “ We know we are failing – what do we need to do differently?” “ Are we getting value for our IT investments?” – how would we know? IT is still a black box (lack of transparency) Senior Managers on SMT represent IT poorly Operating & maintaining existing technologies consume a large % of resources (industry around 70%) Same resources delivering projects are maintaining operations