Governance is currently a key topic for many IT functions. Its definition varies, but its key themes are true for all companies: effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability. Business value and risk mitigation are also at its center and represent a significant part of enterprise governance overall. Due to the horizontal nature of IT, where almost everyone in the enterprise uses IT assets to complete their responsibilities, the impact of effective IT governance is quite visible throughout an organization.

IT governance defines a structure of relationships, processes, and measurements to direct and control IT assets (e.g., people, finance, infrastructure) to achieve the enterprise’s goals by adding value while balancing risk with return. It helps to define roles and responsibilities and specify an accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in IT and accountability for using IT assets. IT governance also helps to standardize best practices and define monitoring methods.

Among the various components of an IT governance framework, service management and enterprise architecture (EA) are key techniques used to reach a high level of quality and excellence through continuous improvement.

Service Management
For many years, service management and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) have been the drivers for improving the quality of services for end users. Many companies’ IT functions deployed the ITIL v2 processes covering both service support and service delivery.

The purpose was to:

• Increase customer satisfaction with IT
• Enhance communication with clients
• Achieve higher reliability in mission-critical systems and infrastructure
• Improve the cost benefit of services
• Create “common sense” among staff

Many people have recently jumped on the ITIL bandwagon. All software and IT consulting companies claim to have mastered service management. ITIL is now a given and every single IT data center is now embracing the framework that has become an IT governance pillar.

But how can we achieve so-called IT/business alignment if service management contributes but isn’t as visible, despite what the IT industry claims?