Selecting and Ranking IT Governance Practices for Electric Utilities

Although general literature and several frameworks suggest practices for IT Governance, there is still no consensus about which should be considered “best” or “essential”. It seems reasonable to assume that recommendations of specific practices depend on factors such as the target industry, company profile, culture, and IT organization preferences. The literature on the subject for the electric utility industry seems particularly scanty. We have taken a first step in filling this gap by performing a literature review and then discussing our preliminary findings with top level IT executives from an electric utility in Europe and another in South America. We came up with a list of 83 practices that can be used to address distinct dimensions of IT Governance (leadership, structure, process, social, and relational mechanisms) and with a shorter list of 14 key practices classified into Essential, Important, and Good that are deemed the most relevant for electrical utilities.