IT GOVERNANCE COURSES FOR CIO

In figure below, a generic IT Balanced Scorecard is shown (Van Grembergen & Van Bruggen, 1998). The User Orientation perspective represents the user evaluation of IT. The Operational Excellence perspective represents the IT processes employed to develop and deliver the applications. The Future Orientation perspective represents the human and technology resources needed by IT to deliver its services over time. The Business Contribution perspective captures the business value created from the IT investments.

Each of these perspectives has to be translated into corresponding metrics and measures that assess the current situation. These assessments need to be repeated periodically and aligned with pre-established goals and benchmarks. Essential components of the IT BSC are the cause-and-effect relationships between measures. These relationships are articulated by two key types of measures: outcome measures and performance drivers. A well developed IT scorecard contains a good mix of these two types of measures. Outcome measures such as programmers’ productivity (e.g., number of function points per person per month) without performance drivers such as IT staff education (e.g., number of educational days per person per year) do not communicate how the outcomes are to be achieved. And performance drivers without outcome measures may lead to significant investment without a measurement indicating whether the chosen strategy is effective. These cause-and-effect relationships have to be defined throughout the whole scorecard: More and better education of IT staff (future orientation) is an enabler (performance driver) for a better quality of developed systems (operational excellence perspective) that in turn is an enabler for increased user satisfaction (user perspective), that eventually will lead to higher business value of IT (business contribution).

The proposed standard IT BSC links with business through the business contribution. The relationship between IT and business can be more explicitly expressed through a cascade of Balanced Scorecards.