Who makes the call, or whose decision is it? In healthcare information technology, there still continues to be a rift in some organizations between IT direction and Business Strategy. It is disconcerting when everyone is doing something unique in a silo. There is no re-use, customization rages across systems like a Californian wild fire, and knowledge resources become viewed as clerical resources. Most HIT structures are a federalize resource. There may be the Laboratory IS, Pharmacy IT, Clinical Engineering, Departmental System Administrators, IT department, and outsourced vendors. These many pieces and parts are needed to successfully implement projects. Nothing is a 30 minute job anymore.
Managing everything on a granular micro-managerial level is just not practical in today’s day and age. What does work? A governance structure.
Governance is about specifying who has the decision rights, and who should be accountable for the decision. A decision should not be made in a vacuum. The first step is to assure proper information or input is given to help the decision maker, by providing clarity to the problem and the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions.
What decisions are needed in IT? The book, IT Governance, clarified them quite well as indicated below:
| IT Governance Decisions | ||
|---|---|---|
|
IT Priniciples High level statement about how IT is used in the business |
||
|
IT Architecture Organizing logic for data, applications, and infrastructure captured in a set of policies, relationships, and technical choices to achieve desired business and technical standardization and integration |
IT Infrastructure Centrally coordinated, shared IT services which provide the foundations for the enterprise’s IT capability |
IT Investment and Prioritization Decisions about how much and where to invest in IT including project approvals and justification techniques. |
|
Business application needs Specifying the business need for purchased or internally developed IT applications |
||
As a leader of your department, if an IT governance process is not in place, or not functioning adequately take a minute to fill out where your are. Then in your opinion organizationally, where you think you should be. Interesting isn’t it? Now the question is how to lead the change to get there? Be sure it is aligned with the organization’s goals so the outcomes are desired.
| IT Governance Arrangements | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Decisions |
|||||||||
IT Principles |
IT Architecture |
IT Infrastructure Strategies |
Business Application Needs |
IT Investment |
||||||
Input |
Decision |
Input |
Decision |
Input |
Decision |
Input |
Decision |
Input |
Decision |
|
Business Monarchy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IT Monarchy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feudal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Federal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Duopoly |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anarchy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unknown |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just in case you need it, there are the governance archetypes.
| IT Governance Archetypes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Style |
Who has decision or input rights? |
|||||||||
Business Monarchy |
A group of business executives or individual executives (CxOs). Includes council of senior business executives (may include CIO). Excludes executives acting independently |
|||||||||
IT Monarchy |
Individuals or groups of IT executives |
|||||||||
Feudal |
Business unit leaders, key process owners or their designees |
|||||||||
Federal |
C-level executives and business groups; may also include IT executives as additional participants. |
|||||||||
IT Duopoly |
IT executives and other group (IT liaison structure) |
|||||||||
Anarchy |
Each individual user |
|||||||||
Subscribe and Share!
Did you enjoy this article? Your feedback is very important! I'd like to invite you to keep up to date with the latest posts from Anticlue. We offer several venues. If you have some questions, help can be found here.- Become a Facebook Fan
- Subscribe to Anticlue
- Follow me on Twitter
- Add to Technorati Favorites
- Digg this post
0 Comments to “IT Governance, who makes the decision?”
Please share your thoughts and suggestions
-
Receive Our eNewsletter
The latest Project Management and Healthcare IT practices
-
About Me
Welcome to the Healthcare IT Project Management Blog of Elyse Nielsen. This is the place where I share the ideas I have learned, the things I’d like to remember, and my thoughts for a brighter future. Find out more.
Subscribe to Our Tips
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.