Segmenting
the groups indicates
technology
professionals
are somewhat less
likely to endorse
participatory
governance,
while business
professionals
are much more
likely to endorse it.
The discussion here contrasts the
way corporate leaders have governed
technology in the past and where
technology governance is likely to go.
Participatory governance is a response
to the relatively closed governance
structures and processes prevalent
in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It
is also described by interviewees as a
response to the general diffusion of
digital technology within and beyond
corporate firewalls. The whole notion
of governance has expanded. Our data
confirms emerging trends in the acquisition and control of technology
assets, as well as in the administration
of technology processes and services.
Companies routinely look outward
to make technology decisions; that is,
they find they must consult stakehold-ers/participants outside their companies to make important technology
acquisition, deployment, and support
decisions. We consolidated the results
from multiple surveys, supplemented
by interviews used to (anecdotally) vali-date/invalidate what the survey data
told us.
Figure 2 outlines the governance
participants identified in our data.
The survey and interview questions
focused on governance participants,
models, and processes. The result
of the surveys and interviews filled a
new RACI-based governance matrix
presented here. The number of participants in the emerging governance
process has increased, and nearly
all growth is outside the proverbial
corporate firewall. Some new participants are the result of changes in the
way technology is acquired, deployed,
and supported (such as the vast number of cloud computing providers
under contract today). Similarly, integrated supply chains have increased
dependency among technology providers. Finally, since many customers are glued to their social networks,
companies today must engage them
through communication and content
networks they do not control in any
way, shape, or form. How do they “
govern” this activity?
Survey and Interview Data
The data was collected from surveys
conducted by the author at Villanova
University through the Cutter Consortium ( http://www.cutter.com) 2008–
2014 and from interviews the author
conducted 2004–2014 with CIOs and
CTOs who were part of the Villanova
University CIO Technology Advisory
Council, a rotating group of more
than 50 local, regional, and national
technology executives. The surveys
and interviews involved more than
500 technology managers and executives. Data was collected through
surveys and face-to-face interviews
repeated every two years. Survey instruments and questionnaires were
developed for both data-collection
processes. General technology-adop-tion questions, as well as specific
questions, were asked about technology governance and alternative
organizational structures. The data
reflects input from both the technology and business sides of companies whose participants were asked
to identify their roles in technology
management. The data reported here
represents the combined percentages for the period 2008–2014.
Figure 3 outlines very different governance perceptions and attitudes from
those expressed in surveys conducted
in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Note first the distinctions among operational technology, strategic technology, and emerging technology. Note, too,
the range of referenced stakeholders.
There are the usual suspects—the corporate and business-unit clients—but
there is also a new cast of characters,
including vendors, providers, partners,
and even “the crowd,” or the random
actors who gather on social-media
sites. The full cast is why the range of
governance and number of governance
stakeholders is dramatically different
today, and why the whole notion of control will yield to what might be called
“participatory” or “shared” control.
Also note the differences between
technology and business professionals. While business professionals
hold strong views about governance
trends, the technology professionals also acknowledge the changes in
technology management and acquisition, even though their opinions are
measurably different from those of
business professionals.
Our interviews with CIOs, CTOs,
and senior executives and managers
from the business side say participatory governance is inevitable, endors-