IT Governance: An Alignment Maturity Perspective

Aligning Information Technology (IT) and business has been a persistent and pervasive problem for over three decades. Studies show that one of the essential components for organizations seeking to improve their alignment maturity is IT Governance. This paper demonstrates the relationship between IT Governance and business performance. The Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment (SAM) framework is applied as the foundation for relating IT Governance to company performance and to overall alignment maturity. Based on this research model, IT strategic planning, IT budgeting, and IT reaction capacity demonstrate strong contribution to the overall IT Governance maturity score. Furthermore, IT Governance has a significant impact on company performance. Although these results underscore the importance of IT Governance in alignment maturity, there is no silver bullet and the other five SAM components (Communications, Value, Partnership, Technology Scope, and Skills) must also be addressed.