IT Toolkit: By James Stapleton

What is IT Governance?

The purpose of IT governance is to understand the issues and strategic importance of IT so the company/business can sustain operations and implement the strategies necessary to extend its activities into the future. IT governance is the responsibility of the board of directors and executive management. It is an integral part of enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organisational structures and processes that ensure that the organisation’s IT sustains and extends the organisation’s strategies and objectives.

"At the heart of the governance responsibilities of setting strategy, managing risks, delivering value and measuring performance are the stakeholder values, which drive the enterprise and IT strategy. Sustaining the current business and growing into new business models certainly are stakeholder expectations, and can be achieved only with adequate governance of the enterprise’s IT infrastructure."    -IT Governance Using COBIT