IT Governance Measurement Tools and its Application in IT-Business Alignment

ABSTRACT The purpose of this exploratory research paper is to evaluate the deployment and assessment methodology of the information technology governance (ITG) measurement tools, with the purpose of gaining deeper insight into the ITG initiation process, the nature of tools employed, measurement processes, and the implementation methodology, using case studies. Analysis of the available academic and non-academic literature sources showed measurement issues being the most dominant and ironically the most neglected domain in ITG implementations. We view ITG measurement tools and it subsequent deployment through the two theoretical ITG models namely the Integrated IT Governance model, and the Structures, Processes, and Relational ITG model. To validate these findings and to get a deeper insight into the ITG measurement domain, we conducted four case studies of measurement tools usage and processes in commonly used ITG frameworks in four organisations in New Zealand and United Arab Emirates. The results indicate that the IT governance initiatives differ in the manner of positioning in the integrated ITG framework, and objectivity of measurement is more evident and emphasized in UAE than in New Zealand. The result of these findings provides practitioners with guidance on the contextual usage of ITG measurement practices KEYWORDS: IT Governance measurement, IT business alignment, metrics INTRODUCTION Assessing the measurement and value of IT is a complex challenge and a future research direction (De Haes, Van Grembergen, & Debreceny, 2013). Thus, there is an ever-increasing demand for accountability and objectivity in the measurement of information technology auditing, and IT processes performance (Maria, Fibriani, & Wijaya, 2012). Supplemented, with an ever-increasing demand for compliance in the information domain, organizations have witnessed an increase in the adoption of IT governance (ITG) frameworks. In a highly contextually different, but global organizational structure, ITG implementation however, remains an issue where the theory does not or cannot always deliver to the expectations of practitioners. Globally, IT governance is concerned with two things: that IT delivers value to the business and that IT risks are mitigated and both need measurement (Grembergen, Haes, & Guldentops, 2004), but contextually the subsequent practices may differ. This key issue of aligning IT goals with business goals, which overlap two domains namely IT and business is the primary goal of IT governance. However, this continuous alignment of business and IT in a rapidly changing environment has also been the top concern (Kappelman, McLean, Johnson, & Torres, 2016) and a grand challenge for today's enterprises (Hinkelmann et al., 2016). In this respect, the objective of continuous measurement of IT processes/IT controls to ensure alignment, plays a critical role in IT business alignment success through higher-level measurement models (IT maturity model, balance scorecard); and process measurement tools namely heat map, key performance indicators, and key goal indicators. While organizations worldwide embark on adopting ITG frameworks, the subsequent need to select and integrate overlapping ITG frameworks has presented practitioners with challenges in terms of choice and integration of frameworks (Nicho & Muamaar, 2016). While the most prominent IT governance frameworks include ITIL, COBIT, ITCG & COSO (Benaroch & Chernobai, 2012), COBIT and ITIL are commonly used for IT governance implementations (Stevens, 2011). Hence, assessment of the IT processes/IT controls of these frameworks is not only a continuous process for audit and compliance, but also presents challenges in terms of consistency of audit, compliance, and/or measurement. With alignment of IT with the business being the highest management concern for organizations (Kappelman et al., 2016), IT governance become an important issue on the agenda for many enterprises (Simonsson, Johnson, & Wijkstrom, 2007). …