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DOI: 10.1145/2660765
What was once centralized or federated
technology governance is increasingly
participatory.
BY STEPHEN J. ANDRIOLE
IN THE 20 TH CENTURY, technology governance was
largely about standards and centralized management.
Moving into the 21st century, things began to change,
first from centralized to federated technology
governance models, then to “participatory” models.
Commoditization, consumerization, and alternative
technology-delivery models changed the way
governance is defined and managed in many, though
not all, companies. For many of them, the number
of technology stakeholders has increased as the
importance of technology has expanded to include
at least three categories of governance: operational,
strategic, and emerging technology. For many
companies, the governance mission is evolving toward
a shared, participatory model that
recognizes the roles of all internal
and external stakeholders, espe-
cially as companies acquire, deploy,
and support technology through the
“cloud” and supply chains globalize
and integrate.
Our survey and interview data suggests governance now involves more
stakeholders than ever before, many
living way beyond the corporate firewall. The data reported here suggests
participatory governance is emerging
as a major technology governance
model for the 21st century, and, for
companies that increasingly satisfy business requirements through
adoption of cloud computing, the
participatory governance model is
accelerating. Conversely, the companies that avoid cloud deployment and
other alternative deployment models
will likely stay within more-tradition-al centralized/federated governance
structures. Our survey and interview
data describes how technology governance is changing. As new technologies and technology-delivery models
emerge, technology governance is
evolving in ways quite different from
the dominant models of the 20th and
early 21st centuries. Based on the
data, this article describes a new participatory governance matrix that recognizes the role internal and external
stakeholders play in the technology-governance process.
Technology Governance
Peterson14 defined information technology governance this way: “IT governance describes the distribution
of IT decision-making rights and re-
Who
Owns
IT?
key insights
˽ Technology governance was often tightly
controlled but is now loosening.
˽ There are many internal and external
technology “governors” today, something
no one would have predicted five years ago.
˽ Governance is now about productivity
and partnerships, not just standardization
and control.
