Globalization calls for new governance structures. “Headquarters” must decentralize. Standards must become architectural and procedural, not based on brands, models, or vendors. Our data suggests enterprise CIOs and CTOs should focus on infrastructure optimization, alternative technology-delivery models, and architecture—and not much else. Business units should focus on requirements, application development (within architectural standards), and deployment of fast/cheap technologies like those in social media. If companies do not adjust their governance around these activities, the business-technology partnership will collapse. There will be major pushback from the business units that want to move quickly, cheaply, adaptively. If central IT organizations provide roadblocks to these operating principles, the lines of business will end run the IT organization.

Participatory
Technology Governance

Consider this essential finding of our analysis: Where technology governance was essentially something defined and implemented by technology and business professionals in their own companies, the new participatory governance reflects the distribution of decision rights across multiple internal and external participants.

The concept of “participatory governance” emerged from informal discussions validated through formal interviews and surveys with business-technology managers and business executives across the globe (for the surveys) and the U.S. locally/region-ally/nationally (for the interviews) on the state of technology governance. The data was collected from both the technology and business sides of multiple companies. Segmenting the groups indicates technology professionals are somewhat less likely to endorse participatory governance, while business professionals are much more likely to endorse it. There is, however, general agreement that cloud and supply-chain computing are the major drivers of participatory governance and that technology vendors and business suppliers should be part of the governance process.

ment is a change from the past, but the prominence of the Web as the emerging dominant transaction platform has changed everything.

Globalization is another major driver
of new governance models. As more and
more companies expand their global
reach, they must adjust the author-
ity they exercise over the business units
they encourage to grow. Decentraliza-
tion and federation are necessary to
enable agile decision making; business
units expanding around the globe need
the authority to make local and regional
decisions. Extending corporate IT from
headquarters around the world makes
sense infrequently. Servicing an army
of technology ex-pats is expensive and
inhibiting. Local talent, providers, and
local/regional/country support makes
sense as companies build sustainable
footprints around the world.

Figure 2. Governance participants.

Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders
The
Enterprise
Corporate
Functions
Business
Units
Hardware,
Software,
and Service
Providers
Partners
and Supplies The Crowd

The corporate entity that defines the corporate mission and overarching reporting structure of the organization, including technology leaders

Specific activities that define corporate organizations (such as marketing, finance, accounting, human resources, and information technology)

Specific lines
of business
that focus
on specific
customer sets
with products
and services
that generate
sales and
profits and
that require
information
technology
Vendors
that provide
hardware,
software,
networks,
and other
services to
the enterprise
and business
units,
increasingly
delivered
through
cloud service
providers
Business partners
and suppliers that
enable business
functions, as well
as product and
service definition,
manufacturing,
and delivery,
along with
other activities
All those
outside the
enterprise,
business
units,
providers,
partners, and
suppliers
that might
contribute in
any way to the
success of the
company

Figure 3. Findings from business (B) and technology (T) professionals.

Questions for Business (B) and Technology (T) Professionals
BT
Yes Yes

Do you have a governance policy? 71% 91% Is your governance policy effective? 43% 61% Are the lines of business active governance partners? 44% 15% Is a central I T group in control of operational IT assets? 67% 82% Is “Shadow IT” larger because of your governance policies? 89% 42% Should central IT organizations own operational technology? 76% 86% Should the lines of business own strategic technology? 89% 59% Should the lines of business own emerging technology? 69% 44% Is governance still about standardization and control? 54% 91% Should the lines of business have more governance power? 88% 32% Does the cloud represent a governance “game changer”? 92% 69% Should vendors be part of the governance process? 87% 49% Should consultants be part of the governance process? 89% 51% Should suppliers be part of the governance process? 71% 47% Should the crowd be part of the governance process? 86% 39% Should the lines of business define governance processes? 87% 37% Should corporate IT define governance processes? 41% 76% Should technology governance be more “democratized”? 81% 58% Is technology “governance” an obsolete concept? 43% 52%