In order to maximize IT resources and justify IT expenditures, CIO's and other IT managers must be able to identify meaningful metrics and explain them in a way that management can understand. The Business Value of IT: Managing Risks, Optimizing Performance, and Measuring Results solves this problem by providing practical answers to these questions: What does IT contribute to the business? Why should we care about IT governance? How can we best measure IT performance? How do we mitigate the risks associated with change? Leading consultants Michael D. Harris, David E. Herron, and Stasia Iwanicki share their real-world experiences to explain how you can demonstrate IT's value, and potentially find extra value you didn't know your IT organization creates. They also show how to apply risk management to process improvement and avoid unintended consequences of process improvement programs. The text provides the understanding required to discover the processes necessary to: prioritize your organization's IT activities. identify alternative measurement frameworks, and evaluate the best approaches to outsourcing. Many IT organizations have successfully implemented the techniques described in this book to increase their business value. This work identifies the organizational and cultural obstacles you need to remove to get started along the same path.