In 2020, What is Good IT Culture? (Part One)

In 2020, the challenges for effective IT governance are different than at any time in the past. The rate of change of technology and threats and the shifting world of governance are particular challenges to developing and maintaining good IT culture.

So, what is good IT culture in 2020? I’m glad you asked.

The key issues are:

A strategic, rather than technical, focus
Governance: information governance; security governance; operational governance
Accountability and transparency.

Having a strategic focus

It’s a common problem: people who are focused on the technical rather than the strategic.

The draw to get down into the technical layer is very strong. To fix and fuss and perfect. It needs to be resisted at all times. A good illustration is the trap of falling in love with the solution, rather than keeping the problem at the centre.

We’ve done it ourselves. There’s a great widget for Office 365. It makes the whole platform more manageable and effective for every organisation. And it’s something whose value 99% of clients will disregard.

Keeping that strategic focus is an everyday challenge. It keeps you looking at the organisation’s broader goals and how IT supports them:

What are the strategic imperatives of the organisation?

What are the challenges to achieving those imperatives?

One major challenge is ensuring that there is a clear IT roadmap that aligns the strategic focus to the operational. In turn, that roadmap should be underpinned by governance.

Governance, governance, governance

Governance is a set of authorisations, policies and processes to ensure that your organisation’s IT operates as it should.

There are three aspects to governance:

1. information,

2. security and

3. operational.

We will cover off information governance today and then next week look at security and operational governance.

Information governance is a framework for how data is secured and handled within your organisation. Indeed, it needs to balance the security of information and its use. Information governance is not records management – at least, not in isolation. It is a coordinated approach to managing information across an organisation to support outcomes.

The National Archives of Australia produced an excellent table that highlights why information governance is important:

Benefits of information governance	Consequences of poor information governance
Enhances information quality and authenticity	Data quality issues
Improves integrity and reliability	Unreliable information
Improves findability and accessibility	Information is difficult to find Information is difficult to interpret
Improves accountability and reduces risk	Non-compliance with regulations and legislation Reputation damage
Enables appropriate controls	Security breaches
A holistic approach for information needs that encourages opportunities and efficiencies	Information silos, which exposes the agency to risk and limits opportunities
Enables whole-of-government collaboration and innovation	Difficult to implement machinery of government change and stifles whole-of-government innovation

Next week: security governance, operational governance and the importance of accountability and transparency.

Until then, stay safe.

Managed IT

How to implement good IT governance

January 30th, 2020

You’re an IT manager. It is very likely that your awareness of the importance of IT governance is not be matched by the board and senior executives within your organisation.

How to protect IT governance through the IT budget

November 12th, 2019

In many organisations, the IT budget is regarded as a cost centre. Something that adds little value and diverts budget from other more ‘deserving’ or ‘important’ areas. While the specifics of IT vary between organisations, IT provides the information systems that support service delivery. It is an investment in the organisation’s ability to do its ‘job’ – it enables the rest of the functions.

IT Governance

Demonstrating the value of IT governance

October 23rd, 2019

More than ever, the modern IT department needs to demonstrate its value to all stakeholders – proving IT’s place as an enabler, rather than a cost centre. A well-developed IT governance framework is one of the best tools to highlight this value. IT governance is about responsibilities and consequences.

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