IT Governance is the responsibility of the board of directors and executive management. It is an integral part of enterprise governance and consists of the leadership, organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategies and objectives.

On one hand, IT must now comply with new rules and legislation and continually demonstrate their compliance through successful independent audits by external organizations. On the other hand, IT is increasingly being called upon to do more with less and create additional value while maximizing the use of existing resources.
These increasing pressures dovetail perfectly with the basic premise of ITIL: IT is a service business. Existing internal IT organizations must transform themselves into effective and efficient IT service providers or they will cease to be relevant to the business and, soon after, cease to exist.