Information Technology Strategies & Best Practices; Practical Steps to Improving IT Governance in Africa

The book comprises of 7 chapters as outlined below. 

Chapter 1;  Gartner outlook on the IT organisation Agenda from African perpective compared to the global stage and how organisations can drive the digital agenda for complete transformation.  The findings are: Efficiency and effectiveness remain top two managerial focus on growth and innovation. Few African organisations have a Chief digital officer.  The key technology priorities are similar to global ones namely, BI/Analytics, ERP, Infrastructure, Cloud and Mobile topping the list. Africa is putting more emphasis on mixed model delivery approach to sourcing.  At 17% public cloud adoption in the African continent is behind the global aggregate. Africa is ahead of the global aggregate in bimodal capability.

Chapter 2; is on top IT management concerns in Africa. 

The chapter lists critical concerns including immature IT governance, gaps in Business-IT alignment, Security and cyber-security threats,  Business productivity and cost management, Business agility and speed to market, Skills among other concerns.

Chapter 3; is on IT human Resources Considerations in Africa.

Some of these HR concerns are ethics and morals of IT staff, inadequate skills on business functions, collaboration/teams, leadership, emotional intelligence, change management and lack of business acumen in IT staff.

Chapter 4; is on IT Change Management Challenges in Africa.

Change is inevitable. Whether driven by internal or external forces, IT staff need to know how to handle change in order to help organisation navigate the turbulence that is today's business climate.  Whether it is education, participation, persuasion, facilitation, negotiation or manipulation, Employees need to have skills on how to cope with change.  Organisation culture plays a great role in effecting change.

Chapter 5;  is on IT strategic Alignment Maturity levels in Africa.

The five levels of alignment maturity are Initial/Ad hoc, Committed, Established, Managed and Optimised. The maturity levels are derived from Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) model developed by Carnegie Mellon university software engineering group. Prior research has depicted a relationship between Business-IT strategy alignment maturity and business performance. Most African organisations are on level 3 or below of maturity.

Chapter 6; is on IT Process practices in Africa.

Organisations in Africa have adapted IT processes to improve service deliver to end users and customers.  The processes are embedded in frameworks and standards namely, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), IT service management (ITSM), Control objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) and Organisation for International standadisation (ISO), (ISO 27001,ISO 38500, ISO 20000) and Six Sigma.  Organisations that leverage these frameworks are more efficient and effective than those that do not.

Chapter 7; is on the evolving role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO)in Africa

The CIO can also be referred to Head of IT,  Director of IT,  VP of business Technology, IT manager depending on the industry or organisation.  This is a critical function and require exceptional leadership with business acumen and emotional intelligence.  The CIO must align to the CEO as much as possible otherwise his/her career is over. the function must generate value for the organisation.