Making The Right IT Investment Decisions

IT capabilities are increasingly embedded in the core business processes of organizations today, and for a growing number of organizations, they are also enabling new products and services and contributing to competitive differentiation. Given IT's importance, making the right IT investment decisions is critical to organizational success. Yet our research indicates that many do not have formal IT investment processes, do not use consistent and robust business cases, and do not measure actual benefits delivered. Good IT governance is about making the right IT investment decisions to maximize business value, and executive-level IT steering committees are the key governance structures to make these decisions. By following a set of best practices, IT steering committees can increase the quality of their IT investment decisions and ensure that they are "doing the right things."