Steven De Haes

An Exploratory Study into IT Governance Implementations and its Impact on Business/IT Alignment

IT governance is one of these concepts that suddenly emerged and became an important issue in the information technology area. Many organisations started with the implementation of IT governance to achieve a better alignment between business and IT. This paper carries interpretations regarding important existing theories, models, and practices in the IT governance domain and presents research questions derived from it. Next, multiple research strategies are triangulated in order to explore how organisations are implementing IT governance and to analyse the relationship between these implementations and business/IT alignment. The major finding is that business/IT alignment maturity is higher when organisations are applying a mix of mature IT governance practices.Abstract IT governance is one of these concepts that suddenly emerged and became an important issue in the information technology area. Many organisations started with the implementation of IT governance to achieve a better alignment between business and IT. This paper carries interpretations regarding important existing theories, models, and practices in the IT governance domain and presents research questions derived from it. Next, multiple research strategies are triangulated in order to explore how organisations are implementing IT governance and to analyse the relationship between these implementations and business/IT alignment. The major finding is that business/IT alignment maturity is higher when organisations are applying a mix of mature IT governance practices.

COBIT 5 and Enterprise Governance of Information Technology: Building Blocks and Research Opportunities

ABSTRACT: COBIT, currently in its fifth edition, is a good-practice framework for the enterprise governance of IT. There is limited academic research that either analyzes COBIT or leverages COBIT as an instrument in executing research programs. Through linking core elements and principles of COBIT to insights from IT-related and general management literature, this paper explores the use of COBIT in future research activities. This paper positions COBIT as a framework for enterprise governance of IT. The major directions and core principles of the framework are described. Connections are made of these directions and principles to the relevant literature. Research questions for future research around enterprise governance of IT and COBIT 5 are proposed and discussed.

Linking the IT Balanced Scorecard to the Business Objectives at a Major Canadian Financial group

Abstract The balanced scorecard (BSC) initially developed by Kaplan and Norton, is a performance management system that enables businesses to drive strategies based on measurement and follow-up. In recent years, the BSC has been applied to information technology (IT). The IT BSC is becoming a popular tool with its concepts widely supported and dispersed by international consultant groups such as Gartner Group, Renaissance Systems, Nolan Norton Institute, and others. As a result of this interest, the first real-life applications are starting to emerge. In this paper, the development and implementation of a departmental BSC within an Information Services Division (ISD) serving a Canadian financial group will be described and discussed. We use an IT BSC maturity model to determine the maturity level of the IT BSC under review.

Analysing the Relationship between IT Governance and Business/IT Alignment Maturity

IT governance is one of these concepts that suddenly emerged and became an important issue in the information technology area. Some organisations started with the implementation of IT governance in order to achieve a better alignment between business and IT. This paper interprets important existing theories, models and practices in the IT governance domain and derives research questions from it. Next, multiple research strategies are triangulated in order to understand how organisations are implementing IT governance in practice and to analyse the relationship between these implementations and business/IT alignment. Major finding is that organisations with more mature IT governance practices likely obtain a higher degree of business/IT alignment maturity.

Exploring the relationship between IT governance practices and business/IT alignment through extreme case analysis in Belgian mid‐to‐large size financial enterprises

Purpose – Many thought leaders are promoting information technology (IT) governance and its supporting practices as an approach to improve business/IT alignment. This paper aims to further explore this assumed positive relationship between IT governance practices and business/IT alignment.Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores the relationship between the use of IT governance practices and business/IT alignment, by creating a business/IT alignment maturity benchmark and qualitatively comparing the use of IT governance practices in the extreme cases.Findings – The main conclusion of the research is that all extreme case organisations are leveraging a broad set of IT governance practices, and that IT governance practices need to obtain at least a maturity level 2 (on a scale of 5) to positively influence business/IT alignment. Also, a list of 11 key enabling IT governance practices is identified.Research limitations/implications – This research adheres to the process theory, implying a limited de...

A Research Journey into Enterprise Governance of IT, Business/IT Alignment and Value Creation

Enterprise governance of IT is a relatively new concept in literature, and is gaining more interest in the academic and practitioner’s world. Enterprise governance of IT addresses the definition and implementation of processes, structures and relational mechanism that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities in support of business/IT alignment and the creation of value from IT-enabled business investments. This article introduces important theories and practices around Enterprise governance of IT based on joint research and practical experience of the authors (and editors-in-chief of this journal) within the Information Technology Alignment and Governance (ITAG) Research Institute (University of Antwerp Management School). The article is based on the authors’ 8-year journey into Enterprise Governance of IT and aims to outline the core themes of interest of this new International Journal on IT/Business Alignment and Governance. In this way, this introductory article paves the way for many more research initiatives within this challenging research domain.

Analysing the Impact of Enterprise Governance of IT Practices on Business Performance

Enterprise governance of IT (EGIT) is about the definition and implementation of processes, structures and relational mechanisms that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities in support of business/IT alignment and the creation of business value from IT-enabled business investments. In this field, practice-oriented guidance like COBIT and Val IT are often promoted as broad frameworks to implement enterprise governance of IT, but very little academic research is available that empirically supports the assumption that implementing EGIT practices, as defined by COBIT and Val IT, improve business performance. This article explores the relationship between Enterprise Governance of IT practices and business performance, and finds little support to identify a direct link between EGIT practices and business performance. However, clear empirical evidence is revealed demonstrating that the implementation of EGIT practices impacts the achievement of specific IT goals, which in turn impacts the achievement of specific business goals. A three-layered cascade is proposed to demonstrate the impact of EGIT practices, through IT goals, on business performance.

How IT Enabled Investments Bring Value to the Business : A Literature Review

Already in the nineties, studies discussed the IT productivity paradox, where no clear correlation could be found between IT spend and the bottom-line impact. On the other hand, other research streams emerged, revealing findings that do illustrate the positive impact of IT enabled investments on firm performance. Several studies concluded that the necessary conditions to overcome the IT productivity paradox are to be found in a better IT value management approach. New IT value management frameworks and models are emerging and promoted by both academics and advisory entities, but while organisations recognise its importance, they are still struggling with getting such IT value management practices implemented into their organisations. This paper investigates prior research on IT value management and the implementation of it using a model of structures, processes and relational mechanisms. By doing so, this paper wants to explore future research opportunities for academics and provide practitioners with an accurate overview of proven governance and management practices described in literature that can be used in their day-to-day operations.

On the Way to a Minimum Baseline in IT Governance: Using Expert Views for Selective Implementation of COBIT 5

Information Technology (IT) nowadays is integral part in most organizations and business models, putting Enterprise Governance of IT (EGIT) in focus of researchers and practitioners. A common approach for the implementation of EGIT in organizations is the use of best-practice frameworks, of which COBIT 5 is a very well-known example. However, recent studies show that COBIT 5, with its 37 EGIT processes, is often perceived as complex and organizations do not know where to start. To contribute to this concern, this papers reports on a Delphi study that was conducted to capture data on the perceived ease and effectiveness of specific COBIT 5 processes. Our results as such identify (perceived) effective and easy processes as a starting point for IT governance implementations. Experts view processes in the more strategic and governance area typical as more effective but less easy to implement. The more operational processes are typically experienced as easier to implement but also less effective. The result also reports that, according to experts, the most important process to start an EGIT implementation is the process around managing the IT related strategy.

Inter-Organizational Governance of Information Technology: Learning from a Global Multi-Business-Unit Environment

There is little research available that specifically looks at how organizations define and implement their inter-organizational governance of information technology. The challenge in such environments is also observed in large organizations where multiple business units and activities often have separate strategies and investment priorities. This paper provides both practitioners and academics with an enriched understanding of how the international airline company KLM introduced IT related governance principles and practices tailored for a multi-business-unit global organization. Insights from this exploratory single case study can contribute to further theory building and practitioner guidance regarding the crafting of both intra-and inter-organisational governance frameworks.