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Six IT decisions your IT people shouldn't make.

Jeanne W Ross1, Peter Weill

  • 1Center for Information Systems Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's, Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Harvard Business Review
|November 9, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Senior managers can improve information technology (IT) investments by actively leading six key IT decisions. Strategic and execution-focused leadership ensures IT aligns with business goals and delivers value.

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Area of Science:

  • Business Administration
  • Information Systems Management

Background:

  • Senior managers often express frustration with information technology (IT) investments, citing a lack of perceived business value.
  • Managers frequently lack the technical expertise to guide IT decisions, leading to suboptimal outcomes and strategic misalignments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify the critical IT decisions that distinguish companies achieving substantial value from their IT investments.
  • To highlight the role of senior management leadership in effective IT governance and strategic decision-making.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of factors differentiating high-value IT investment companies from others.
  • Identification of six key strategic and execution-related IT decisions requiring senior management involvement.

Main Results:

  • Senior management leadership in six key IT decisions (IT spending, business process prioritization, company-wide IT capabilities, service level requirements, security/privacy risk acceptance, and accountability for IT failures) is crucial.
  • Lack of senior manager involvement leads to overloaded IT departments, misaligned projects, and poor investment returns.

Conclusions:

  • Establishing robust IT governance structures is essential for assigning responsibility for critical IT decisions.
  • Active senior management participation ensures IT initiatives strategically support organizational goals and maximize business value.

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