World first IT governance standard launched in Oz

Feb 22, 2005: The first ever national standard on IT governance for the information technology industry has been launched by Standards Australia, as a reaction to high profile IT failures that have cost billions of dollars.

The Chief Executive of Standards Australia, Mr John Tucker, said the problem in the past has been that investments in IT systems have not met timetables, budgets or have realised expected benefits.

He hopes that this new standard will mean that organisations will have a framework to work with for first time to help them avoid the pitfalls of the past.

"This standard outlines a framework of responsibility for Board Directors in dealing with IT strategy and projects. It offers six simple principles for evaluating, directing and monitoring IT acquisition, performance and delivery.

"The standard is designed to help Directors ask the right questions of their IT departments, contractors and vendors, and to understand the answers. It is strongly aligned with the AS8000: 2003 Corporate governance standards and AS4360: 2004 Risk Management."

The six governance principles involve: establishing clearly understood responsibilities for ICT governance; plan ICT to best support the organisation; acquire ICT validly; ensure ICT performs well at all times; ensure ICT conforms with formal rules such as relevant legislation and ensure ICT use respects human factors.

These standards will be launched on February 28th.

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