What is the purpose of KPIs and a balanced scorecard in IT governance?

• A. To limit measurement to financial metrics only
• B. To replace IT governance entirely
• C. To translate strategy into measurable targets and track progress across multiple perspectives
• D. To increase the number of projects without regard to outcomes

Answer: (C)

KPIs and a balanced scorecard in IT governance translate strategy into measurable targets and provide a way to track progress across multiple perspectives. By defining specific indicators, KPIs quantify how well IT initiatives deliver the desired outcomes, such as service quality, uptime, cost efficiency, security, and customer satisfaction. The balanced scorecard adds a structured view across four perspectives—financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth—ensuring IT performance is evaluated beyond just money and that strategic goals are connected to day‑to‑day operations. This combination helps governance prioritize investments, allocate resources wisely, monitor risks, and demonstrate value to the business. Limiting metrics to financials ignores important non‑financial outcomes; these tools don’t replace governance, and simply increasing the number of projects without regard to outcomes misses the goal of delivering real value.