Companies with high maturity IT governance programs focus efforts more on agility and supporting customer facing business initiatives than lower maturity peers. They score higher on performance measures that indicate the effectiveness of governance efforts in the areas of strategic alignment, value delivery, risk management, resource management, and performance management. They also score higher on measures that gauge business value-add in the areas of improved information management, business process efficiency, customer retention, and product enablement.

A 2008 study of 389 IT organizations in North America, United Kingdom, and Australia assesses impact of governance practices on governance performance. We interviewed 11 IT governance experts to find out what practices are recommended to optimize governance efforts. We then collected and analyzed data from 389 organizations to find out which of 66 practices tested have the biggest impact on performance.

This 40 page report layers high-impact practices in a three-tier maturity model that can help IT executives optimize governance improvement initiatives. Specific practices shown to impact performance can be staged in increasing levels of maturity and performance.

Study highlights:

• 40 of 66 practices studied impact performance at a statistically significant level.
• 9 practices predict more than 25% variation in performance.
• Specific practices optimize governance efforts at different levels of governance maturity.