How can you make sure your IT governance policies are inclusive of all stakeholders?

IT governance is the set of policies, processes, and structures that ensure alignment between your IT strategy and your business goals. It also helps you manage risks, optimize resources, and deliver value to your customers and stakeholders. But how can you make sure your IT governance policies are inclusive of all stakeholders, especially those who are affected by or involved in your IT decisions and operations? Here are some tips to help you create and implement IT governance policies that are fair, transparent, and collaborative.

Key takeaways from this article

Identify stakeholder interests:

Conduct a thorough stakeholder analysis to understand each party's influence and needs. This ensures your IT policies are tailored to address the specific expectations of all stakeholders.### *Communicate clearly and consistently:Use diverse channels like newsletters, webinars, and workshops to share your IT governance policies. Tailoring messages for different audiences builds trust and ensures everyone understands their role and responsibilities.

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1 Identify your stakeholders

The first step to inclusive IT governance is to identify who your stakeholders are and what their interests, needs, and expectations are. Stakeholders can include internal and external parties, such as senior management, IT staff, business units, customers, suppliers, regulators, and auditors. You can use various methods to identify and categorize your stakeholders, such as stakeholder analysis, stakeholder mapping, or stakeholder engagement matrix. The goal is to understand the level of influence, interest, and impact that each stakeholder has on your IT governance.

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Ilkka Kautto

M.Sc. Tech, MBA. Strategy and Digitalization Leader, Innovation and Development Advisor, Agile and Lean Business Improver, Transformative Projects
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Important thing about identifying IT stakeholders is thinking it through business value streams. I.e. Identifying the key processes and the right value adding parts in them, where IT must deliver some form of boost. Be it faster process, automation or completely substituting business logic. When the actual justification for the existence of IT is clearly indentified by that business value, it is much easier to identify the related organizations and the relevant stakeholder persons in them. I mean in the way, where the IT’s focus truly will be for the benefit of the stakeholder. That’s when it will becomes much easier to concentrate on targeted stakeholder management with the right mindset and all the important psychological intricacies.

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2 Communicate your policies

The second step to inclusive IT governance is to communicate your policies clearly and consistently to your stakeholders. Communication is essential to build trust, awareness, and understanding of your IT governance objectives, principles, and practices. You can use different channels and formats to communicate your policies, such as newsletters, webinars, workshops, or dashboards. The key is to tailor your messages to your audience, use simple and concise language, and provide feedback mechanisms.

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Ilkka Kautto

M.Sc. Tech, MBA. Strategy and Digitalization Leader, Innovation and Development Advisor, Agile and Lean Business Improver, Transformative Projects
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Continuing my ideas on stakeholder identification by value streams and why it eases focus, message, mindset and psychological efficiency in IT policy communication too. I wise person once said, communication aways fails, except by accident. There is lot to be done in improving the chances for that “lucky accident”, though. It is possible to see the stakeholders’ own perceptions clearer and ultimately target the communication most influentially. That has a lot to do with understanding why IT is truly serving the stakeholder. I.e. where in the stakeholder’s value stream IT is delivering it’s crucial value add, where it is a matter of life and where not so important. This gives targeted focus for policy communication.

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3 Involve your stakeholders

The third step to inclusive IT governance is to involve your stakeholders in the design, implementation, and evaluation of your policies. Involvement is crucial to foster participation, collaboration, and ownership of your IT governance outcomes. You can use various techniques to involve your stakeholders, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, or co-creation sessions. The aim is to solicit input, feedback, and suggestions from your stakeholders, and to incorporate them into your policy decisions and actions.

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4 Align your policies

The fourth step to inclusive IT governance is to align your policies with your business strategy, culture, and values. Alignment is vital to ensure coherence, consistency, and relevance of your IT governance across your organization. You can use different tools and frameworks to align your policies, such as balanced scorecard, SWOT analysis, or maturity models. The objective is to assess the current and desired state of your IT governance, identify gaps and opportunities, and define goals and measures.

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5 Monitor and review your policies

The fifth step to inclusive IT governance is to monitor and review your policies regularly and systematically. Monitoring and reviewing are important to measure performance, identify issues, and implement improvements. You can use various indicators and methods to monitor and review your policies, such as KPIs, benchmarks, audits, or reports. The purpose is to track progress, evaluate results, and report findings and recommendations to your stakeholders.

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6 Adapt your policies

The sixth and final step to inclusive IT governance is to adapt your policies as needed to respond to changes in your business environment, stakeholder expectations, and IT capabilities. Adaptation is essential to maintain alignment, effectiveness, and value of your IT governance. You can use different sources and triggers to adapt your policies, such as feedback, best practices, lessons learned, or emerging trends. The goal is to update, modify, or revise your policies to reflect the changing needs and realities of your IT governance.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Jori Kosonen

Coach | Advisor | Project Excellence Asessor and Judge | Change Leadership | Accelerating Projects for Better Results | Program and Portfolio Management
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The AI supported article, demonstrate it’s wisdom of knowledge of a good and solid practices. However action implemented in real cases will make the difference.

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How can you make sure your IT governance policies are inclusive of all stakeholders?

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3

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1 Identify your stakeholders

2 Communicate your policies

3 Involve your stakeholders

4 Align your policies

5 Monitor and review your policies

6 Adapt your policies

7 Here’s what else to consider

IT Operations Management

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How can you make sure your IT governance policies are inclusive of all stakeholders?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Identify your stakeholders

2 Communicate your policies

3 Involve your stakeholders

4 Align your policies

5 Monitor and review your policies

6 Adapt your policies

7 Here’s what else to consider

IT Operations Management

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