EARP WORKING PAPER MS103 DEFINING IT GOVERNANCE- A CONSOLIDATION OF LITERATURE-.pdf

1 EARP WORKING PAPER MS103: DEFINING IT GOVERNANCE - A CONSOLIDATION OF LITERATURE - M?rten Simonsson and Pontus Johnson, Ph.D. Department of Industrial Information and Control Systems Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Osquldas v?g 12, 7tr S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden {marten, pj101}@ics.kth.se http://www.ics.kth.se Abstract. A shared definition is lacking within the field of IT governance. This is unfortunate, since a clear and uniform definition of IT governance would make assessments more accurate. This paper provides an IT governance definition based on a consolidation of literature. The definition is based on analysis of 60 different articles. According to the definition, IT governance is about IT decision-making: The preparation for, making of and implementation of decisions regarding goals, processes, people and technology on a tactical and strategic level. A classification of the statements was carried out according to the dimensional units mentioned above. In literature, “Strategic”, Monitoring”, “Goal” and “People” were most frequently used. Finally, the Cobit framework for IT governance was mapped to the definition. Compared to literature, Cobit emphasized “process”, and “technology”, while providing less information on “goal” and “people”. Keywords: IT Governance, Definition, Cobit ? Dept. of Industrial Information and Control Systems - Royal Institute of Technology 2 1 Background to Research Messen ist Wissen, (measuring is knowing) as the German industrialist and electrical engineer Werner von Siemens (1816-92) once stated. Knowledge about the current situation, so be it the assembly line of a car factory, the strength of a stainless steel wire or the performance of an organization, is the basis for virtually any kind of enhancement or improvement. IT governance is a topic that has been increasingly discussed since the mid nineties. The topic has inherited much from the discipline of corporate gover