"Copyright 2008 by James N. Bradley. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for

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1 "Copyright 2008 by James N. Bradley. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author."

2 If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. Charles Kettering

3 Good Morning. I m Jim Bradley and this is my new interim title. Before this I was working on Enrollment Services IT issues, helping the CIO and working with the UH Information Technology and Computing Committee to address governance issues. Please note TWO things. First, everyone starts planning a presentation thinking they are Steve Jobs and Edward Tufte rolled into one. You get the reality that I m neither. Also, that I stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a chronicle of what happened at UH and a lot of work and great ideas by a lot of other people. I was present, helped and participated a little. But others did the heavy lifting. Recommending an IT Governance Structure Jim Bradley Interim Executive Director Information Technology Support Services University of Houston

4 Abstract Going from a group of advisory committees with no relationship structure to a formal governance structure with decision rights requires a significant amount of work. This presentation will cover the process and results of creating the recommended structure at the University of Houston from 2006 to These are the words that got you here. I m going to go over some basics of what governance is, talk about what we did at UH last year, talk about the conclusions in the ITCC report and then share a few final thoughts.

5 How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world Anne Frank This is one of my favorite quotes. Governance is about improving our little world in IT.

6 So, let s talk about governance. What is IT Governance?

7 From The Gartner Group the mechanism for assigning decision rights and creating an accountability framework that drives desirable behaviors. ensures that IT is aligned with business goals and delivers maximum value "generally about the "what," not the "how." ensuring the overall IT value proposition, and making IT investments responsive to the needs of the... organization Governance is less about structure than it is about strategy and execution. Gartner defines governance in terms of power such as rights and in terms of accountability. It focuses on ensuring that where funds are invested (and investment is an important term to use in redefining IT budgets) that the business gets back strategic value.

8 From the IT Governance Institute IT governance is an integral part of enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization's IT sustains and extends the organization's strategies and objectives. ITGI, like Gartner focuses on strategy but also seems less interested in value and more in how governance works. Source: ITGI.org

9 From Educause the structure and process of authoritative decision making across issues that are significant for external as well as internal stakeholders within a university. Source: EDUCAUSE Educause also focuses on structure and process but brings up stakeholders. Predictably, this is a little more academic definition and is seems more focused on the traditional concept of shared governance than issues like value and investment that you see in the more commercially-oriented Gartner definition.

10 From Wim Van Grembergen: the organizational capacity to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy and in this way ensure the fusion of business and IT Van Grembergen s definition focuses is on the alignment issue. Source: Strategies for IT Governance

11 Common Definition Themes agreed upon systematic approach decision making with accountability align IT to the business deliver value on focused IT investments integral to overall governance strategic what should IT do, not how futuristic strong planning focus Taking all that as a whole, we can see some themes emerge. While no one definition is perfectly in tune with another, key phrases like Alignment, Decision, Accountability, Value, Investment and Strategic seem to come up more often than others. Another issue is the futuristic nature of governance. We are not talking about how to manage the organization - which is a function best left to the IT staff - but rather what the IT staff should be working to achieve strategically and in the future to come. Governance is about where to go not how to get there.

12 Involving Stakeholders Need to secure the involvement of key stakeholders outside of of IT Faculty Business Process Owners Federated IT Executive Management Source: Gartner Group It is critically important to a governance system that a wide variety of stakeholders participate in the process. If participation is lacking, those left out can end up with us vs. them thinking which undermines the whole effort.

13 Barriers to involvement Lack of perceived technical expertise Avoiding conflict over priority settings Unclear/Unsure of governance role Source: Gartner Group People who are not experts in IT tend to push off IT decisions on those they consider to be experts. The key to countering that is to explain that governance is not about what technology meets the need but the clarification and focus on the business need. Academia is conflict-averse and collegial by nature which also causes cultural issues when trying define who exactly is the business owner. And a large and complex governance structure can make it difficult to have clear roles since interests and needs tend to overlap.

14 Strategy Core Questions Strategy core questions: How much should we spend on IT for the types of needs that we have? Which critical, priority business processes should receive IT investment dollars? Which IT capabilities need to be enterprise-wide rather than unit-specific? Source: Gartner Group There are a few core questions I wanted to review before moving to more academic issues. These questions focus on strategy and execution. The important thing to note in these questions is that they are enterprise-focused in terms of spending, priority and centralization rather than having the questions come from within IT.

15 Execution Core Questions: What levels of maturity do our IT services need to have? for example, through assessment tools such as ITIL and CobiT. Which security and privacy risks can we accept? Who is accountable if a major IT initiative falls short of defined success, and who is responsible for approving corrective actions? Source: Gartner Group Note that even in the execution set of questions we are not concerned with how to implement ITIL or what security system to use but how we can determine what the overall level of acceptable performance we require. Accountability is a key component of governance. If the governance group is making the decisions, they also need to be accountable for the consequences of those decisions. One of the core values of governance from the IT perspective is in recognizing that as a service entity we do not control the strategic decisions. This also means we should not be held accountable for direction - but we still must execute on our commitments and be accountable for the decisions we do make.

16 Academic Organizations Highly decentralized organizations pose specific challenges for effective IT governance. Issues of authority, autonomy, decision rights, process flexibility and reporting are common. Federated governance structures generally result from required statutory or executive policy requirements for broader representation and accountability. These structures are also byproducts of the inclusive participatory nature of academia. Source: Gartner Group Academia has unique challenges in implementing an effective governance structure. The academic culture is deliberative which can lead to slow decision making but the upside is that it is also collaborative so stakeholders are used to participating. Decentralization and the tendency of smaller units to choose to go off on their own if the central decisions are perceived negatively (such as being too slow, too complex, too cumbersome) or even if good working relationships are not in existence.

17 Academic Organizations Research conducted by Weill and Ross discovered several distinct governance patterns for public and not-for-profit entities More top-executive-level decision rights in all IT decisions except architectures. Significantly fewer cases in which IT executives make all governance decisions. More federal arrangements in all decisions. More senior executive business-side (non-technology managers) input to all decisions Source: Gartner Group Predictably, research backs up the differences. Where the decisions are strategic (as opposed to architectural), there is a tendency for executives beyond the CIO to be involved in the decision making. And the distributed nature results in federalism being an intrinsic part of IT

18 Steering Committees The traditional IT steering committee is no longer adequate to ensure the continuous flow of information throughout the volume of IT components and stakeholders. Maintaining the status quo is rapidly becoming more risky than changing the ways IT-related issues are governed. Only by implementing an IT governance approach that includes interlocking groups addressing strategy, operations and infrastructure will UH be positioned to ensure that its IT investments adequately and economically serve the organization. Source: Gartner Group

19 Where to start?

20 UH 2006 About two years into a restructuring that moved the CIO under the Provost Nearing completion of our PeopleSoft student implementation CIO recently made a permanent appointment IT & Computing Committee (ITCC) provided advice from faculty

21 How we got started There had been discussions about ongoing need for a governance strategy for some time and research and discussion had occurred in academic year Our faculty advisory committee triggered a formal process by requesting clarification from the faculty senate s committee on committees

22 Response to ITCC In this spirit we ask that ITCC take this academic year to reexamine its mission, organization, charter and membership... ITCC committed to spending the year on governance

23 Methodology All meetings dedicated to substantive sessions on governance and alignment Committee met ten times during the year Brought yours truly in to help

24 Local Existing Structure Committee reviewed all existing governance structures Important to note what has already been done There was a significant amount of business unit and stakeholder involvement in IT decision making but it was in silos

25 Pre-Existing Structure Academic Advisory Faculty Senate (ITCC) Admin Advisory (ERP Owners/Leaders) UHS CIOs Research Instruction In!astructure HR Student Financial UHS IT Security IT Federation Co'ege and Division Technology Managers UH IT Security Council (DISOs) Original graphic developed by D. Fouty 2006 Credit for the design of this slide (slightly adapted for projection purposes) goes to my talented boss and colleague Dr. Dennis Fouty who is the CIO at the University of Houston.

26 Presentations Began with a Faculty Senate representative speaking to committee about focus The initial formality gave credence to the committees work They were not off on their own Report was due back to the Faculty Senate

27 Reading material Committee members were provided two books IT Governance; How Top Performers Manage Decisions Rights for Superior Results by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross Strategies for Information Technology Governance by Wim Van Grembergen Article titled What Decisions IT Should Not Make by Weill and Ross

28 Recommended Reading EDUCAUSE Publications Achieving Alignment Through Strategic Information Technology Management at the University of Memphis (ECAR Case Study 2, 2004) Improving IT Governance in Higher Education (Research Bulletin, Volume 2006, Issue 18, August 29, 2006) Information Technology Alignment in Higher Education (ECAR Volume 3, 2004) Reflections on a Career as a Four-Time CIO (Research Bulletin, Volume 2006, Issue 21, October 11, 2005) Using an IT Governance Structure to Achieve Alignment at the University of Cincinnati (ECAR Case Study 4, 2004)

29 Recommended Reading Gartner Publications Addressing the More-Intractable Issues of IT Governance (G ) CIOs Reveal Their Issues With IT Governance (G ) Update (G ) Creating an Effective IT Governance Process (COM ) Delivering Business Value Through Effective Governance (TU ) Find the Sweet Spot for IT Governance, Strategy and Value (G ) Frequently Asked Questions About IT Governance (G ) IT Governance in Government Agencies: Frequently Asked Questions (G )

30 EDUCAUSE Data Committee reviewed a significant amount of information from Educause. Aligned review to focus on schools with similar environments formerly Urban 13 schools were initial focus area Research Fellow Toby Sitko was kind enough to visit with IT staff and provide advice and guidance

31 Key Institutions Focused in on three schools Iowa State University of Cincinnati University of Memphis

32 Key Institutions Each school had a major focus on governance Each had significant similarities to UH Case studies, research and/or papers existed on each school CIOs at each school were willing to visit with ITCC

33 Similarities All had top level decision making bodies Each had a variety of second level groups focused on specific functional areas CIO reported to President or Provost. All attended cabinet meetings.

34 Video Conferences Were able to meet by video conference with two CIO s who were kind enough to be interviewed Jim Davis, Iowa State Doug Hurley, Memphis Fred Siff of Cincinnati agreed to be interviewed as well but the committee had scheduling issues that prevented a meeting Tremendous thanks goes to these three individuals for being willing to talk to us.

35 Retreat To reach consensus, the committee conducted a full day retreat with a professional facilitator Final recommendations were developed after almost a year of research and discussion Report was drafted and unanimously approved The retreat is a great idea and one of the things I highly recommend as a way to bring closure to the process.

36 Report Recommendations

37 It doesn t work to leap a twentyfoot chasm in two ten-foot jumps American proverb Not all IT projects can be done in phases.

38 Key Issue 1: Relationships A significant effort must be made by the CIO to build relationships Shared governance depends on the people more than the structure Structure gives clarity to role, relationships can make structure transparent

39 Key Issue 2: CIO Location Who the CIO reports to is not as important as who they interact with Must have regular and direct interaction with all senior leadership Committee said The consensus of the ITCC is that the CIO position would best serve the institution if included in the President s cabinet. However, organizational reporting relationships are not as crucial as access and participation.

40 Key Issue 3: IT Federation Technology organizations typically are dispersed throughout a university Many different shapes and sizes Often isolated Must embrace all of them as IT Achieve as many efficiencies as possible Empower them to align with their customers without attempting external controls Goal is partnership, not control...coordination not centralization

41 Proposed Structure

42 Proposed Structure Large Council at top with decision making authority and responsibility with broad, formalized representative membership All VPs & Deans + CIO Advisory Committee Chairs All college IT managers* Authority to speak for and responsibility to communicate with and for

43 Proposed Structure Four advisory committees representing academic, administrative, student and research areas Broad, stakeholder representation Each College to form own IT Committee with faculty chair Research VP to appoint entire research committee Ad Hoc Task Forces and Committees formed as needed

44 A few other observations about governance

45 Us vs. Them Sharing governance, planning and resource allocation, can made things more we There will never be complete agreement on everything but all stakeholders need to know they get a say and have appropriate decision rights. Need to recognize that coordinating and working with an elaborate committee structure does require quite a bit of time

46 Centricity Must end the IT-centric view of technology Must create the university-centric view of mission and goals and projects that support them Must focus on managing information and not managing technology

47 IT must evolve IT must evolve to a full partner in helping the university meet its goals Must become more familiar with the things that matter to the customer Must be focused on the end result Must be able to understand the business need Must be able to do more than just generic IT, must deliver business value that can help transform the enterprise

48 Customers must govern IT Clarify and focus IT s contribution to the success of the enterprise Ensure that architectural and technical decisions will meet the needs of the university within overall expenditure levels Increase the likelihood that business requirements can be honored by the systems and services provided by IT, and will help prioritize IT spending and effort Source: Gartner Group

49 Questions? AIM: uhjbradley