2.3. System governance manager
The system governance manager has day-to-day responsibility for system governance processes. They are responsible for building the body of system governance information, both criteria and assessments, and for leading reviews.
This document refers to the system governance manager as if they are a single person. Most organisations will choose to meet these responsibilities using a small team. One possible team structure is:
- Organiser
- Manage processes, plan and manage workload, manage interaction with other teams.
- Analyst
- Define criteria, perform in-depth analyses such as those in the annual review, and perform quality assurance on assessment, validation and analysis.
- Assessment team
- Carry out assessments, validation and straightforward analysis.
- Assessment lead
- Lead the assessment team. Could be combined with the organiser or analyst roles.
It may be possible to incorporate these responsibilities within an existing team that has a broad perspective across IT, such as IT architecture, standards or project office.
During the initiation and roll out of system governance, it may be appropriate to employ a project manager to act as, or work alongside, the system governance manager. Once system governance is rolled out, it needs to be managed as an ongoing activity, and does not require the same level of project management experience.
The system governance manager should have a broad view across IT. The role should not be an add-on to a specialist technical role (such as a network or database administrator) unless the objectives of systems governance are concentrated in that specialist area.
Because the system governance manager role is very broad, it is worth emphasising what they are not responsible for.
- The system governance manager is not responsible for gaining high-level backing for system governance, or for representing the guidance that comes from the system governance processes to the IT decision makers. These are the responsibilities of the system governance sponsor.
- The system governance manager is not solely responsible for the content of the system governance criteria. These are a joint responsibility with the system governance committee, and accountability rests with the system governance sponsor who recruits the committee. The system governance manager is, however, responsible for ensuring that the criteria are clearly worded and that they effectively represent the direction set down by the committee and sponsor.