Governance is one of those areas much like a Business Plan; everyone knows exactly what it is and can identify it easily when they see it, but no one can easily apply a universal definition. 

Even Wikipedia listed multiple definitions that could not easily be distilled.  The more regulated your organization, the more important the role of Governance becomes.  In business, the role of Governance takes on many different names.  IT Governance seems to be more consistent across the industry.   In my last organization, the corporate governance functions were provided by Compliance, Internal Audit, and Budget Oversight.  The truth is, if we discuss Governance with a group of different people, it’s always a good idea to get a working definition before you get too far down the road. 

A working definition for this article will be that Governance makes decisions that define expectations, grant power, and/or verify performance.  It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes.  In the case of a business or of a non-profit organization, governance develops and manages consistent, cohesive policies, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. The term Governance also occurs in industry - especially in the IT sector - to describe the processes to follow in a successful department, team or project.

As Governance Chair for itSMF USA, my first order of business was to establish a committee.  For 2007 they were Jenny Geisler, Cassius Downs, Sue Majerus, Steve Romero, Mike Walter, and Nick Schneider.  We owe this group of people a great deal of thanks for working tirelessly to identify, research, and develop better strategic processes for our organization.  Clearly there is more than strategic governance that needs to be done; this next year, the focus will be on identifying and defining operational processes that support our mission and vision.  

Among the accomplishments for this year has been the establishment of Bylaws that are flexible enough to serve as a good basis for supporting an organization that is scalable to 20,000 members.  The committee tried to address processes that needed to be in place to manage the organization effectively.  We eliminated language that was designed to address specific issues with a global solution and  established an Ethics Process that would allow for specific issues to be considered in a more appropriate way.  We now have our first Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct. 

As a way to keep you informed about governance activities for the organization, The Forum e-newsletter will include an itSMF USA Governance Update in each issue.

As an itSMF USA member, we encourage you to take an active role in the governance of your organization.  Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Sallie Kennedy at kennedy@bigplanet.com.

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