IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results [Hardcover]

Peter Weill (Author), Jeanne Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Firms with superior IT governance have more than 25% higher profits than firms with poor governance given the same strategic objectives. These top performers have custom designed IT governance for their strategies. Just as corporate governance aims to ensure quality decisions about all corporate assets, IT governance links IT decisions with company objectives and monitors performance and accountability. Based on a study of 250 enterprises worldwide, IT Governance shows how to design and implement a system of decision rights that will transform IT from an expense to a profitable investment.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Weill is the Director of the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and a Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Jeanne W. Ross is Principal Research Scientist at CISR.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591392535
• ISBN-13: 978-1591392538
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Management Title With A Groundbreaking Framework, October 15, 2004

By 

Coding Genius "CG" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results (Hardcover)

This is the book that corporations have needed since the Dotcom bust. Having painfully learned that throwing copious amounts of money at IT professionals does not always result in effective information systems, many companies are confused as to the next plan of attack.

Not a simple "how-to-run-your-IT" cookbook, Weill and Ross have studied how over 200 corporations manage their IT. There is no quick fix, no "silver bullet" that will solve all managerial angst. What emerges instead is a deeper understanding of the strategic role of IT for a wide range of large companies.

By classifying IT decisions into 5 types, and then classifying the way decisions are made into several catchy "pop-psych" groups (such as IT Monarchy, Business Monarchy, Duopoly, and Federal) the authors have formulated a very succinct framework. This framework could act as a touchstone for those companies whose current governance is ineffective or unclear.

Companies who are struggling with IT, and those of us who advise them, really need to read this book and consider the research conducted. Whether or not you are as enamoured of the framework as I, you should certainly be aware of it because it will be very important in future work.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fills in blanks left by CObIT, June 20, 2004

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results (Hardcover)

This book is not consistently aligned to CObIT (Control Objectives for IT), which is an IT governance standard set forth by the IT Governance Institute (paste the ASIN, B0001F8V14, into the search all products box on this page). However, it does provide a realistic approach to governance that reflects successful practices developed and employed by 250 companies surveyed by the authors. The key differences between CObIT and the approach in this book is the stakeholder model presented versus the control model CObIT incorporates. More importantly, the authors approach more effectively aligns IT to business goals and objectives, with IT in a supporting role more than as the primary decision maker.

Among the points the authors make is that IT is a strategic asset, and effective governance links IT to strategy and performance. I fully agree with this approach, and especially like the recommendations the authors make for implementing and managing IT governance, as well as the resources in the appendix which show which companies were surveyed.

If you are following CObIT you may have issues with this book; however, if you read through it with an objective mind you will find that the approach will work effectively, and does come closer to IT-business alignment than the CObIT approach.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent discussion about who should manage what in IT, September 25, 2004

By 

Amrit Tiwana "www.bus.iastate.edu/tiwana" (Decatur, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book on the topic of IT governance. There are no answers to be found, only a compass to finding the answers that are right for your company. It goes to the heart of the painful question of what part of the corporate IT function should be handed to the corporate geeks and to the bean counters in accounting. The book expands on an article in Harvard Business Review by the same authors. The book is well written, although overly droning and long in some parts. Overall, it is one of the most original and understandable discussions of the topic. Highly recommended if your interest is in controlling IT expenditures without losing sight of the strategic opportunities that it offers. Buy--don't borrow--a copy. You'll want to dogear some pages that alone justify the thirty dollar price tag.