What is the primary goal of IT governance in aligning IT with business strategy?

• A. To ensure IT investments and services enable business objectives while managing risk and optimizing value through formal decision rights, policies, and performance monitoring.
• B. To minimize IT spending regardless of business needs.
• C. To centralize all data in the data warehouse.
• D. To accelerate project delivery without governance controls.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that IT governance ensures IT resources and actions are directed to support business objectives while balancing value and risk. It does this by establishing formal decision rights, policies, and performance monitoring so IT investments and services clearly align with strategy, enable desired outcomes, and are held accountable for results. Frameworks like COBIT exemplify this approach by defining who makes decisions, what rules guide those decisions, and how performance is tracked, ensuring value realization and risk management across the organization.

The other options miss the mark: simply cutting IT spend ignores value and risk; centralizing all data in a data warehouse is an architectural goal, not governance alignment; and pushing projects through faster without governance controls increases risk and can misalign efforts with strategic priorities.