G4 - Why Governing IT is a Challenge

If IT is just another tool, why all the fuss about governance? I suppose there are probably entire books on the subject, but here's a few snap reactions:

• Physics does not impose as many limits on IT capabilities as on non-IT capabilities. So, there's more room for morphable tools...leading to a need for more formal and complex governance.


• When compared to non-IT tools, IT is more oriented toward supporting human decisions. Since human decisions are generally more complex than the tasks humans perform with non-IT tools, it's reasonable to expect that governance (control) is more likely to become an issue.

The electronic nature of IT (combined with its decision making orientation) means that multiple individuals often interact with IT across time and space. Coordination of these interactions becomes increasingly challenging as they grow in complexity.

• Non-IT capabilities actually have lots of governance...it's just in the heads/cultures of the individuals/organizations that use those capabilities. Instantiating that same degree of governance in an automated capability is likely to be difficult.

Since our experience has been (until very recently) with non-IT tools with limited formal governance needs/capabilities, we have little understanding of the complex governance needs, principles, or frameworks associated with IT tools.

The most complex governance today is arguably found in the policies & procedures used in running a large modern organization. Not only is this largely manual (and therefore static), it is a relatively recent innovation since the need for it (and the ability to do it) was ultimately driven/enabled by the rise of electronic communications.