Enterprise Governance of IT: It's Not Just Wordplay

by Wim Van Grembergen, Steven De Haes

In many organizations, IT has become crucial in the support, sustainability, and growth of the business. To overcome the IT productivity paradox described by industry analysts Paul Strassman¹ and Erik Brynjolfsson² -- that is, there is no clear correlation between IT spending and bottom-line impact -- this pervasive use of IT calls for a specific focus on enterprise governance of IT (EGIT).^{3, 4} EGIT is an integral part of enterprise governance and addresses the definition and implementation of processes, structures, and relational mechanisms in the organization that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities in support of business-IT alignment and the creation of business value.⁵