Governance frameworks are generally created to provide new capability for decision-making in organizations. As more and more governments are organizing programs and service areas in terms of enterprises, it becomes necessary to create new enterprise governance structures. Information technology is one of those areas where governments around the world are adopting enterprise orientations as a way to coordinate activities and to leverage investments.

New York State is one of the governments investing more regularly in information technology enterprise perspectives and, as a consequence, is finding itself in greater need of an Enterprise Governance Framework for IT. In this project, CTG will bring together key stakeholders in the NYS IT enterprise to work collaboratively on the creation of an IT Enterprise Governance Framework for New York State government. The framework will draw on insights from current enterprise-wide IT governance structures within New York State, other U.S. states, and the private sector, as well as exploring frameworks developed in the academic literature and from individual government practitioners through a series of workshops. The project is being carried out in partnership with the New York State CIO Council and the NYS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and closely supports one of the goals of the CIO’s Plan 2010, which calls for the “creation of an inclusive and collaborative decision-making process for future IT investments.”

The main activity of the project is an identification of the range of issues involved in comprehensive IT governance for NYS and designing a statewide framework to resolve them. Other activities will include a systematic consideration of the public value of IT enterprise governance structures to NYS agencies as well as a review of New York’s current capability to create and sustain a new enterprise governance.

The main work of the project will focus on three core design questions:

• What is the most effective enterprise IT governance structure for New York State government?
• Does New York State government have the capability necessary to implement and sustain such a structure?
• If not, how should New York State create the necessary capability?

The project will culminate in a set of recommendations about the enterprise IT governance structure design and implementation.