8 INTRODUCTION TO IMPLEMENTATION

There are two elements that need to be considered carefully when implementing an IT governance framework. The first element is whether the proposed framework will work in the organisation, and the second is the organisational change management required to support an effective implementation.

I have been privileged to review proposed IT governance frameworks for a number of organisations ranging from companies of tens of staff through to companies of thousands of staff. The same basic principles apply whatever the size of the organisation. Generally, I am looking for areas where things can go wrong – where the decision-making model doubles up, where authority and responsibility are assigned unevenly, where there is inherent ambiguity or where the decision policies and process are out of step with the organisational culture (for example where a formal process is being applied to an informal culture and vice versa). So really, what I am applying is a ‘sanity check’ and that can only be done successfully by somebody outside the organisation.

The second element should be addressed by somebody internal to the organisation. I have witnessed a situation where an external change consultant was brought in to lead the change programme and the result was mutiny and despondency. By all means use the services of a professionally qualified change consultant, but take their advice from behind the scenes. Do not let them front up to the troops unless you are positive that the impact and outcomes will be positive. In the early days of implementing new IT processes, policies or systems, any failure was blamed on the IT team or the IT system. Thanks to John Kotter, and other distinguished authors of change management books, there is now a far greater and wider understanding of organisational change management and an understanding that different people within the same organisation might have varying appetites for change. Implementing an IT governance framework across an organisation is just like introducing any other business change and needs careful thought and planning. There will always be those who are threatened by change and, whether their fears are real or completely ungrounded, they need to be addressed. There will also always be people in the organisation whose baseline mood is grumpiness. Sometimes they get caught up in organisational change surveys and they incorrectly become an indicator for project failure. In truth, they were always going to be grumpy, whether you made a change to their working environment or not.

It is my experience, that change is more readily and rapidly accepted if all staff understand the need for the change and where enthusiastic and, more importantly, respected change champions are appointed to lead the adoption charge. If you cater for the fastest adopters and the slowest adopters, and the senior management team lead from the front rather than grumble and throw stones from the back, things will go well. I do not recommend moving at the pace of the slowest or the fastest, and I am not a huge advocate of the ‘big bang theory’ unless a phased approach is too messy, confusing and complicated.

The final big thing to remember as we introduce the notion of implementing an IT governance framework is that language is important. IT people are fluent speakers of a language consisting only of acronyms. Much fraught energy has gone into emphasising the need to translate IT speak into business language, but, honestly, plain English will suffice. And you know the rest of the mantra from the revered change management books – communicate across multiple channels and check that your audience is listening and understanding. Be imaginative and identify where your audience is a captive audience. Once you have your audience captured, you just need to be careful what you say and how you say it. Fear travels quickly, so try to write in a positive tone. Have an experienced ‘spin-doctor’ on hand to translate potentially negative messages into positive ones.