System governance is a response to the problems of managing IT in the long term.
IT systems are never static: they are frequently changed, and the environment around them changes constantly.
As systems are changed, the design and good practices in place when the system was first implemented break down.
Changes external to systems are even more significant. Changes in one system have a ripple effect on others: either they must change, or risk being out of step. Technology changes frequently. Regulations change. Business priorities change, and system fall in and out of the focus of management attention.
These changes inevitably lead to problems. Systems become badly structured and difficult to maintain. Documentation and tests become out of date. Systems do not comply with changing regulation and standards. The technology on which the systems run becomes obsolete. Support costs and risks increase. Systems decline into “legacy”.
System governance is a management framework for tackling this decline.
At its core, system governance involves building, and subsequently maintaining, a body of high-level information:
- The management objectives for IT, such as the business priorities, technical standards and risk mitigation that IT should achieve.
- An inventory of existing and proposed systems. Systems governance defines “system” very broadly, as all the application software, system software, hardware and human support procedures required to provide a defined area of IT functionality.
- A measure of how well each system meets objectives.
Analysis of this information is the key to tackling the problems of decline. It identifies which systems and which areas are priorities for management attention, and provides the facts needed to make the business case for investment. The end result is that decline is contained or even reversed, which results in lower risks, lower support costs, longer system life span, better compliance, and a better basis for responding to new business needs.
System governance is a coherent formalisation of many of the activities that already take place within a typical IT organisation, such as setting policy, reviewing systems, and planning preventative maintenance. System governance has been developed with the following objectives:
- Simplicity. System governance is as simple as it can be, but no simpler. It takes a high-level view of IT that focuses on information relevant to management, and does not delve into technical details.
- Independence. System governance does not rely on other initiatives, such as IT governance, process maturity, IT architecture, or detailed technical inventories. It can work alongside these, or work without them. Any organisation can adopt system governance, irrespective of its adoption of other techniques.
- Early delivery of value. As well as providing value across the entire portfolio of systems, system governance provides immediate value back to individual systems and projects.
These objectives make system governance easy to adopt, efficient, and cost effective.