IT Governance New product blog

WELCOME to the IT Governance new products blog.

This is where IT Governance staff and authors share their thoughts and views on current and upcoming new products – both those that we publish ourselves as well as those from the host of other companies whose products can be found on our website.

  I wrote the Data Governance Imperative because I saw common recurring questions that arose during discussions about data governance.  How do I work with my colleagues to build better information and a better company? How do I break through the barriers to data governance like getting...read more

  Managing performance is a key aspect of a manager’s role. It is important to agree with each individual a set of objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound. This is the beginning of the performance management cycle that will allow you to ensure high...read more

  Unlike football managers, few managers in business have the luxury of creating a hand-picked team. We cannot always buy in star players and we often inherit players from other sides. However, just like a football manager, managers do have the opportunity to turn a group of individuals...read more

  In today’s difficult economic climate, managers need to demonstrate strong leadership to help motivate and engage team members to give of their best. One definition of leadership is that leadership is about influencing others to achieve organisational goals. The effective leader...read more

  Coaching is a proven way of improving performance in a business setting. There are various definitions of coaching: ‘an on-going professional relationship that helps people achieve extraordinary results’ ‘helping people to unlock their potential’ ‘the...read more

The Insider Threat: Combatting the Enemy Within A disgruntled network administrator installed a hidden modem that he later used for illegitimate access when he left the company in question.  Apart from annoyances such as perusing executive e-mail and disclosing employee bonuses, he...read more

  At first glimpse of Implementing ISO27001 in a Windows Environment I initially placed it in "another Windows Security book for dummies" category mentally. How wrong I was. Brian Honan took the necessary steps to place information in a context which was easy to run with in any environment...read more

  Think about some of the recent change efforts in your organization. Did everyone react the same way to each change? If not, what kinds of reactions did you notice? Change would be so much easier to manage if everyone responded identically — particularly if that identical response entailed ...read more

Hello   The new book series by Alan Calder on green IT and green offices is an outstanding asset for anyone looking to improve the environmental performance of their workplace. Is it equally as informative for office managers looking to set office policies as for the employee interested...read more

Reviewing The Bookshelf – Just Enough Governance for Notes Thomas “Duffbert” Duff Just Enough Governance for Notes Craig Schumann 172 pages IT Governance Publishing ISBN: 978-1-905356-59-1 This month’s book review is a bit different than most, in that you won’t find...read more

  There is a memorable scene in Walt Disney’s ‘101 Dalmations’ film where dogs use a series of barks to alert other dogs across the globe about missing dalmation puppies. Thanks to this network, the puppies, which have been stolen by the evil Cruella, are soon found.   There is...read more

  Thanks for the opportunity to see an early copy of the report; a very thorough and insightful piece of work... This of course is a subject that NCC have spent some time and effort researching - indeed earlier this month we published a short survey focussed on the green...read more

Alan Calder’s book, “ISO/IEC 38500, The IT governance standard” is designed to present the standard at a high level, which is appropriate for discussion at the Board of Directors level. In Alan’s acknowledgment, “This pocket guide is not a substitute for purchasing and reading the standard”. With th...read more

  My "day job" at the John Lewis Partnership involves tracking technology trends and making sure that our IT infrastructure strategy is properly aligned with what the business needs to be able to do. It gradually became apparent to me at the tail end of 2006 that green issues were an area...read more

  In a post-9/11 United States, things are not always what they appear to be. WWW for CCC - or "the digital Wild, Wild West for CyberWar, CyberTerror and CyberCrime" during the information era...Cyberterrorism, is it still a myth? A weapons-grade hype or a nightmare from the near...read more

  The author states that the purpose of the book is: “… to provide security practitioners, managers, engineers, as well as educators, trainers, and others with a companion to guide them through the challenge of using international standards to address security issues in an environment of...read more

Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams   This book describes a business paradigm shift based on the Web 2.0 trends of openness, peering, sharing and acting globally. Tapscott and Williams conducted more than one hundred interviews and discussions with key businesses. The book...read more

The recent US Democratic campaign which finished on June 3rd was one in which “the Web’s connective power has awakened a generation of youthful voters”. Barack Obama won because (amongst other things) he had greater understanding than his opponent, Hilary Clinton, of how to use Internet...read more

The government is to lead the way in “Green IT” by launching a national strategy to cut computer-related carbon emissions as part of their overall target of reducing CO² emissions by 12.5% by 2010.   But how many of us are actually aware of what Green IT means for our organisations and...read more

  A Manager’s Guide to BS25999: I took on the task of writing this guide to help the growing numbers of people in all sorts of organisations understand the practical steps that are required in order to put in place a business continuity management system that is capable of delivering busines...read more

Reports of MRSA infections continue to make headline news.  Despite the government’s £50 million ‘deep clean’, the numbers of new cases of MRSA do not appear to be reducing as speedily as the government would like.  This may be explained in part by research on hand washing carried out by...read more

I recently received an unexpected windfall which as well as offsetting this week’s rise in my food bill also meant an (increasingly infrequent) trip to the bank to pay in my cheque.  As I rejoined the lunch time queue after remembering to write out my paying in slip I wondered about...read more

Having worked with several clients to implement PCI DSS, the one thing I quickly realised was there was lot’s of useful information out there – but none of it really helped me (in the early days) to ensure a PCI compliant environment; yes, admittedly – there where (and still are)...read more

“How can my apps meet global security standards? As an organization, we follow ISO 27001 standards. How do I match my application security with that?” That question from one of my financial sector clients had me thinking. And the search for the answer has amusingly given birth to an entire book....read more

Continuing our series of blog posts from recent ITGP books, Dr Julie E. Mehan speaks on CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime (published yesterday).   "Corporately, and individually, we have evolved to the point where many, if not most of us, rely on an the worldwide information network...read more

Thehendra BS, author of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Second Edition, talks about the title.   Why you wrote it? I know I’ve said some of this before! Toni Morrison, a famous author, once said, "If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been...read more

Thejendra BS, author of Practical IT Service Management: A Concise Guide for Busy Executives, talk about the title.   Why you wrote it? Toni Morrison, a famous author, once said, "If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it." ...read more

I’ve been astonished at the year-in, year-out revelations about corporate failures to protect personal information. I know that the UK’s Information Commissioner doesn’t have the sort of regulatory bite that the FSA has (which is why it’s the FSA, not the ICO, that pursues financial institutions...read more

Lots of people have been asking me about the best place to book courses for Prince 2. Well, I reply, ‘IT Governance is the place’! I have lots of good things to say about this distance learning course - why not give it your immediate attention...read more

I have been lucky enough to attend this course as part of my on-going company training, and can assure you that the Implementation Master Class is a great assistance for anyone whose company is undertaking or about to start working towards ISO 27001certification. ...read more

I wrote Corporate Governance: A Practical Guide to the Legal Frameworks and International Codes of Practice because I couldn’t find, in one place, all the basic texts that tell the director of any company in UK or the US what they are responsible for. If I’m a director or a company...read more

As a mere novice in the world of infosec, I found this pocket guide to be the perfect introduction into the world of Information Security and ISO27001. The reader is guided through the initial steps of performing ISMS (Information Security Management System) without being overwhelmed with...read more

Question: When is a disaster not a disaster? Answer: When you've got disaster recovery and business continuity in your armoury!   Remember the floods which recently hit many areas of the UK causing widespread damage? ...read more