IT principles are defined as the firm s operating model and any other directives clarifying the role of IT

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1 Emily Gedert IT Governance Deliverable November 11, 2012 IT Governance Matrix: IT Principles Enterprise architecture Senior Management Development Applications/QA IT Decide Recommend/ Identify IT infrastructure Business Needs and Project Deliverables IT investment and prioritization Project management Notify Decide Notify Consult Decide Recommend Identify Notify Notify Notify Notify Notify Notify Notify Decide Identify Identify/Consult Consult Managers Recommend Consult Notify Consult Consult Decide Financial/Business Consult Recommend Identify Decide Decide Notify IT principles are defined as the firm s operating model and any other directives clarifying the role of IT in that firm (Weill). This describes the major IT principles that the company is responsible for. Enterprise architecture is the design of the firm s digitized platform (Weill). This means that they are responsible for establishing business process, data and technology standards. They are ultimately responsible for deciding upon and integrating the enterprise architecture. IT infrastructure is the shared IT services and networks that are available enterprise-wide. Business needs and project deliverables means a group that is responsible for defining the business case, making sure that it gets implemented correctly as well as delivering the final benefits. This group is responsible for taking a business case for a new system and implementing it. IT investment and prioritization is referring to the financial investment in any infrastructures as well as the prioritizing of the IT infrastructure. Decide means the ultimate decision for the key IT decisions that are listed along the top and were described above. They have the ultimate decision-making power. Decide is required to have at least one group for every IT decision. Consult means that that group or individual is consulted before the final decision is

2 made. This means that they are heavily involved in the decision-making process and has a say in the final decision. However, they do not have the final overall say; they are only part of the discussion. Identify means that group is responsible for identifying the beginning of the project and problem. They are the ones who will lay out the project and get the project going. Notify means they are simply notified of the changes or what has happened with the project. They have no say in what decisions are being made. Recommend means they are able to recommend something to a decision-making party. This does not mean that the decision-making party is consulting them, rather they can interject their input. Whether or not it is used depends upon the deciding party. The senior management group refers to the CEO/president of FeneTech as well as the CEO/president of our European company (FeneTech Europe). There is also another member who is the vice-president of the company in both the U.S. and Europe. They are ultimately responsible for every single business and IT decision that would be made by the company. The three work closely together in every project and every decision. The senior management group are responsible for any IT spending as well, and they work with our sister company in those decisions. We share the building and IT infrastructure with our sister company but ultimately the decisions are up to our senior management group. They are the final say in any financial projects and the investment in IT. They are also the final deciders for enterprise architecture because they know best what works and what best describes our company. They know the business in and out and know our architecture. They are also the group to consult when business needs and project deliverables come into play as well as IT infrastructure. Since they are the ones who are in charge of the success of the company, it is important for them to be included in those decisions. They are only to be notified in the case of IT principles because this is simply not there area of expertise. They all know much about IT but the IT group is much better suited for those decisions. They are also able to recommend for the project management decisions because they know the employees and how project schedules work (because they have all been in a project manager position before!).

3 The Development group is not as involved in decision-making processes as the senior management group, but it is still important that they are notified in the case of many of these IT decisions. They are the primary developers of our software and are greatly impacted by any IT change. They are able to identify IT principles and IT infrastructure because they might have some needs that are not being met currently. There are many things that can impact their success, and they are able to identify those. The other areas such as business needs and project deliverables and project management they are simply to be notified so they are aware of any big changes that will be happening that could impact them. The Applications and QA group has no decision-making power or any say, but it is still important that they are notified of all the changes. The QA group is responsible for testing any changes and ensuring that everything is working properly for all the employees and our customers. The Applications group rolls out any changes to our customers and employees. The IT group is mostly comprised of our sister company s employees. Since we share some of the IT services, they work for FeneTech as well. They are responsible in our big new project, which is developing an infrastructure for our new building that we are moving to in a few months. They work closely with the senior management group in every big decision that is made and follows the specifications for any new project that the management group may give them. They are also solely responsible for any network problems and any computer support that an employee might come across. The IT group is responsible for deciding upon IT principles because they are the group with the most expertise in this area. For the enterprise architecture, they are able to recommend and identify. They are best suited to identify for this decision because they are aware how the IT infrastructure works but may not know as much how the business works and affects everything. They are also able to recommend because they might have some insight that the senior management group may have overlooked. They have the ultimate IT infrastructure decision while working closely with the senior management group. They know this part of the business the best of all the groups and this is the area that they have full control over, with help from other

4 groups. They only have the power to identify in the business needs and project deliverables decision because they can help identify the problems and maybe offer some insight from the IT side of things. With IT investment and prioritization, they are able to be consulted with the final decision resting in the senior management group. This is because they cannot control the money but at the same time they still have a say in finding cheaper alternatives. They are also able to be consulted for project management because that is a large part of our organization and the IT group might know something about the way the infrastructure works that other employees may not know or understand. The group managers are in charge of the individual groups. They are another management group that is lower than the senior managers, but also have some say in the decisions. They are the individuals that are leaders of the development, applications, QA, and IT group. One member of this group is also a senior management member (the business group leader). They are heavily involved in many decisions because it impacts them directly. They are able to be consulted for the enterprise architecture decision because they are all heavily involved in the business aspect of things (financial decisions, keeping track of hours and invoicing, etc.). They are only to be notified when it comes to IT infrastructure because they are not as knowledgeable about that aspect of the company. It does impact their work though (as well as their groups), so it is important that they are notified. They are to be consulted with business needs and project deliverables because they are the sole managers of this aspect of the company. They are knowledgeable of what is going on in the business side of things and can be a great resource for the final decision. They are also to be consulted for the IT prioritization and investment because they are in charge of making sure that the company is under budget. They are ultimately in charge of project management because they are in charge of the project managers that are dispersed throughout the groups in our company.

5 The sales/business group is in charge of everything that relates to the business side of things. They are the sales people that go to manufacturing companies and try to sell our software. They are also in charge of invoicing hours to the various companies and ensuring that everything is getting paid on time. The sales/business group is to be notified in the case of any IT infrastructure changes or decisions because it impacts how they do their business and it might impact how we communicate with our customers. They are to be the ultimate decision making group in the business needs and project deliverables because they are the most knowledgeable on the business side of things. They know the business in and out more than any other group and are able to make this decision. They are to be consulted for the IT investment/prioritization because they are in charge of the financials of the company and need to have a significant say in that decision. Accountability Framework Our company is rather small, so many of these decisions impact the company in a large way. Project management is actually evident of how much business we have going on in our company. If there are projects being created, project managers are being assigned and work is being done. This is actually a huge indicator of the success of our company because it is showing how many projects are going on at once. Our IT infrastructure does not change much, but there is a large project underway to establish the infrastructure for our new building. This will not change much from how we operate currently, but there is still a lot of decision making with how everything is going to be supported and functional at our new building. We are aware everything works while we are in this building, but sometimes with VPN or other programs we do not get good service. This is a large concern in this project and many things that have to be thought of during it. This does not necessarily measure our performance, but it definitely is important to our company performing well for our customers. Without a solid infrastructure, we cannot operate. Our Internet went down a few weeks ago and we were unable to do practically anything during that time. That is how critical the

6 Internet and network is to our jobs. IT principles are important to our company because it does measure our progress and our performance. We have solid principles set in place and we are able to really keep progressing and keep growing as a company. We are constantly making IT decisions that I do not see often, but it impacts how all the employees work. These also go with IT investment and prioritization. When we are able to spend some more money on IT, we know that we are doing better in other areas of the company. When we are able to prioritize our IT and really realize what our needs are, we can be assured that other areas of our company are working and going well and we are able to have the ability to spend more time on IT. Enterprise architecture is a tough decision because I do not believe we have a solid foundation to have one just yet. We are well on our way, and I think that in several years as we keep growing we will keep building and building and will be able to be big enough to have these decisions to be made. And once we do, this will definitely show how much our company has progressed throughout the years. We are still technically in our beginning stages and we are still dependent upon our sister company. I do believe when our company gets to the point where we are independent and as we continue to grow, we will have the grounds to be able to really envision our future state. Enterprise architecture really does help develop a company but I believe that companies need to have a more solid ground before they can start integrating that into their business. The business needs and project deliverables are showing how other areas of our business are doing. If there are more business needs, that generally means that we are selling a lot of our software to companies and we need to have more employees to take on the extra work. It is always a good thing if there are more business needs because that means our company is doing very well with sales and more customers are coming on board.