Practices in IT Governance and Business/IT Alignment

n many organisations, information technology (IT) hasbecome crucial in the support, sustainability and growth ofthe business. The pervasive use of technology has created acritical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on ITgovernance, which consists of the leadership, organisationalstructures and processes that ensure that the organisation’s ITsustains and extends the organisation’s strategy and objectives.Today, IT governance is high on the agenda in manyorganisations and, as a result, high-level IT governance modelsare being created. However, developing a high-level ITgovernance model does not imply that governance is actuallyworking in the organisation. The development of the ITgovernance model is the first step and the implementation of it,at a sustainable level, is the next. Once a specific ITgovernance model is chosen and implemented, it should enableIT to sustain and extend the business goals or, in other words,ensure that IT is aligned to the business needs. The challenge ofthe IT governance implementation and the subsequent impacton business/IT alignment are the core aspects of the researchthat is the subject of this article. Looking at Belgium as the example, researchers at theUniversity of Antwerp Management School asked: How aremid-sized to large financial service organisations implementingIT governance to achieve a better alignment between thebusiness and IT? To break this question down further (see