IT Governance: Guidelines for Directors

This important book cuts through the hype that surrounds IT governance to provide directors, executives, managers and professional advisers with clear, pragmatic guidelines for ensuring that IT and the business work together to ensure enterprise success in the highly competitive, global information economy. Aligning IT with the business is a key objective for boards and executives. Organizations with effective IT governance consistently generate better returns for their shareholders than equivalent organizations with ineffective IT governance, and the directors of companies that effectively govern their IT are significantly less exposed to compliance and shareholder challenges than others. It links IT governance to today's corporate governance environment and assesses the corporate impact that the convergence of financial, accounting and governance frameworks will have on organizations competing in today's economy. Whether it's protecting the organization from cyber-criminals, avoiding privacy protection failures or getting IT projects to come in on time, to budget and to specification, this book has the answers. The proper role of the CIO, appropriate IT departmental structures and the relationship between business strategy and IT strategy are all examined and pragmatic, new approaches proposed. It is not a technology book. It is written specifically for directors, executives and senior business advisers - a high level guide to the business-critical subject of leveraging IT to compete more effectively in the information economy.