The Outsourcing of IT Governance

For the last 50 years, IT researchers have investigated IT governance; the apparatus of structure, processes, and relational capabilities needed to ensure expected benefits are generated from IT resources. This include looking at the structure of IT departments, the use of outsourcing, the role of overseers, etc. Notwithstanding accumulated knowledge, IT governance as an object of study is changing and this is challenging our understanding of governance. Recent changes in the environment have created a context where an increasingly large part of the decisions related to IT governance are now made by instances outside the firm. These changes include outsourcing, offshoring, growth of platforms, IT services evolution, as well as new regulations and standards. We argue that focusing on governance structures may lead to being concerned with only a small portion of the IT resources used by an organization. In contrast, a focus on governance processes is likely to offer a broader reach for governance purposes.