James Governor has a number of interesting posts over at his blog (I like his recent one about UDDI).

One post that makes me reflect on how IT projects and efforts really get run in the trenches is James' post, "Time To Set Up An 'IT Boardroom'". A key passage from his blog:

We are all corporate governance experts now, post Sarbanes-Oxley.

So my question is: why don't we have IT Boardrooms, which mimic the governance structures and best practices of businesses?

This post isn't so much intended as a question as a recommendation. You want to be taken seriously by the business? You want to implement some more effective decision-making approaches around IT?

Set up an "IT Boardroom"

Why not use the boardroom metaphor, with its mix of executive and non-executive directors for your own processes.

Insiders would be the network, security, Windows and Unix managers, dev and ops. Some "outsiders" should also be included, playing the role of non-execs- "have a line of business person on the IT board? But they don't know IT."

The key thing I like in James' concept is that it recognizes that while people are always trying to bridge IT and business units together, there is an inherent separation of concerns between the two that should be actively monitored (as with corporate governance where there are managers [controllers] and shareholders [owners] that need to be balanced). Check out James' post.

P.S. If you are into IT Governance, another group blog to check out is Mercury's blogs.

Steve Shu