21st Century CIO

IT Governance - Why Before How

IT Governance often represents a new way of doing business: An IT Governance training strategy must incorporate change management.

An initiative as impactful as an IT Governance Solution typically requires an organization to implement new roles, processes and automation. The changes can appear daunting for many employees whose first experience with the new techniques is in a training class.

Training must be planned with the recognition that it is a critical mechanism for getting employees to adopt change. Given the extent of change that can come with IT Governance, planning the training must start with something that many organizations overlook: a training strategy.


A thoughtful training strategy defines the desired end results, and identifies risks and issues –including change management issues. Creating a training strategy helps create a training plan that addresses change and delivers the desired end results through the training curriculum and classes.

An IT Governance training strategy that addresses the changes facing an organization helps ensure the changes are adopted when the training is complete. It is well understood that employees are more motivated to support an initiative when they understand the goals of the initiative. The goals for the PPM initiative should be defined well in advance of the training, when the business case for the initiative is developed. The business case is the basis for describing why the changes associated with a PPM initiative are occurring.

In addition to knowing the high level goals of the initiative, goals should also be defined by role, so each person knows how his or her function supports the project. Every person should be educated on the goals of every role – with the “whole picture,” employees will understand their roles better, and will collaborate more effectively with their peers after the training.

What does your organization do?  How do you handle change management?