Expert: Susan Hodges - 8/31/2005

Question
What is the difference between IT governance and IT management? I am interested in IT governance in government/public sector, have you come across many studies in that area? If you have seen some, can you send me references I can look up?

kind regards

Answer
IT Governance is the rules and regulations under which an IT department functions, and the mechanism to ensure compliance with those rules and regulations. IT governance software is available to help ensure corporate standards are followed, and includes working with government regulations (HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.). IT standards cover many areas including development, change management, and project management so reference to, e.g., "project governance" is now common. SCM (Software Configuration Management) programs are usually part of IT governance systems.


IT Management is the overall management of the IT function and includes planning, scheduling, people management, resource management, etc. IT governance is part of overall IT management.

IT management is, of course, a necessity in any company with an IT function. IT governance is not - and the importance of it depends on the company. Many companies (even many industries) are highly regulated while others are not.

Certainly, IT governance is very important in the government/public sector.

Sorry, I don't know of any specific studies.

Hope this helps.