The corporate steering committee is a group of managers and
staff representing various organizational units that is set up to
establish IT priorities and to ensure that the IS department is
meeting the needs of the enterprise. The committee’s major
tasks are:
• Direction setting. In linking the corporate strategy with the IT
strategy, planning is the key activity.
• Rationing. The committee approves the allocation of resources
for and within the information systems organization. This
includes outsourcing policy.
• Structuring. The committee deals with how the IS department
is positioned in the organization. The issue of centralizationdecentralization
of IT resources is resolved by the committee.
• Staffing. Key IT personnel decisions involve a consultation-andapproval
process made by the committee, including outsourcing
decisions.
• Communicating. Information regarding IT activities should flow
freely.
• Evaluating. The committee should establish performance
measures for the IS department and see that they are met.
This includes the initiation of service-level agreements
(SLAs).
The success of steering committees largely depends on the
establishment of IT governance, formally established statements
that direct the policies regarding IT alignment with organizational
goals and allocation of resources.