The recent high profile failure of public sector projects again raises the issue of governance of Information Technology, as discussed in a Standards Australia thought leadership paper
Information technology is essential, it organises, communicates and creates the life-blood of a modern organisation – business critical data. Governance of an organisation is the system by which organisations are directed and controlled. Governance of IT is not a readily accessible issue for consumers yet the decisions made by all kinds of organisations about IT can have great later significance for consumers. For example service levels for customers and profitability for shareholders.
Standards Australia Technical Committee IT-030 Governance and Management of IT is developing documents that encourage, support and enable efficient governance and management of IT in Australian organisations. Efficient and effective governance and management of IT allows organisations to improve their performance, enable their strategies and reduce risk including curbing immense financial over-runs occurring in IT projects.
AS/NZS ISO/IEC 38500:2010 Corporate governance of information technology is a high level principle based advisory standard. Adopting a standard approach to governance of IT enables recognised best practice, improved effectiveness, addressing emergent issues and economic opportunity.
CFA representative Paul Loney is a member of IT-030 which is developing AS/NZS 8016 – Corporate governance of IT – Enabled projects; and contributing to relevant ISO/IEC information technology standards.
To find out more about becoming a CFA representative on the CFA Standards Project contact the Standards Coordinator on standards@consumeraction.org.au