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An effective governance audit begins with a shared meaning of what governance is. For some that meaning can be a descriptive definition while other require governance to be define in more operational terms. Which one of these approaches is most appropriate depends on the type of audit you intend to perform.

Governance refers to the decision making rights and responsibilities within an organization. Who can make which decisions under a given set of circumstances. Governance is often expressed from the top down beginning with the organizations charter,authority of the board of directors the policies which apply to the board. governance extends downward to the organizations executives from the board again usually through formal policies and procedures covering most aspects of operations and decision making such as with the creation of specific IT governance policies.

Audits of governance begin by validating the governance model exists and defines some the relationship of board governance on down to departmental and functional governance as with IT governance. This initial review is looking for consistency and sufficiency in the governance model.

Next the audit should seek to determine if governance as it is applied is working as the model intended. That means looking for evidence that decision making is occurring in a top down manner and within the authority granted to the individuals or entities by the policies. Most of ten this s done by selecting a sampling of decisions in a particular area and examining them for evidence the governance model was followed.

There are governance frameworks developed by professional organizations which help set standards of practice for sound governance including IT governance. Similarly, there are established standards for conducting audits and specific for auditing governance in an organization and for audits of IT governance.

In audits of IT governance the focus is on making sound IT investments decisions, allocating and managing resources for projects and operations, and technology risk management. Each of these governance areas can be strengthened with formalized policies and procedures. Sample IT governance committee charters along with templates can be found at the related links provided.

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