Latest Reports

• Disaster Recovery Plan Testing Best Practices 2024

  In today’s unpredictable business environment, there is an increasing reliance on data and digital systems to operate efficiently. With this comes the need for robust disaster recovery (DR) plans and testing to reduce the impact of unforeseen events. The effectiveness of a DR plan can only be truly validated through routine testing. However, while this practice is growing, few organizations are testing their DR plans formally and consistently. This Research Byte summarizes our full report on disaster recovery plan testing as a best practice.

  January, 2024

• Policies for Personal Use of IT Resources Best Practices 2024

  Policies for personal use of IT resources are policies that explicitly restrict or permit use of the organization’s IT resources for personal reasons. The good news is that 90% of survey respondents have adopted personal-use policies, at various levels of commitment. However, despite high adoption, not all companies consistently and formally practice them. This Research Byte summarizes our full report on policies for personal use as a best practice.

  January, 2024

• Project Management Office Best Practices 2023

  To improve project success, companies often establish a formal project management office (PMO) as a center of excellence for project management disciplines. In some organizations, the PMO operates as an advisory group to project managers, who report directly to business units. In other organizations, project managers report directly to the PMO and are assigned to projects as needed. However, in recent years, the use of PMOs has grown significantly, especially for organizations that use them for all projects.

  December, 2023

• Enterprise Architecture Adoption and Best Practices 2023

  While large IT project failures generate headlines, an even larger risk may be the incoherence that comes from developing new systems and capabilities without an overall plan. Enterprise architecture is an IT best practice that provides a description of the organization in its desired state. This allows developers to build an infrastructure, data model, systems, and process that are aligned with that organizational architecture.

  October, 2023

• IT Strategic Planning Best Practices 2023

  With digital transformation well underway, organizations of all sizes and across multiple industry sectors are increasingly viewing information technology as essential in supporting business strategy. Organizations in these sectors face digital disruption, and it is difficult to see how they can respond without an IT strategic plan.

  September, 2023

• Clinical Services Business Process Transformation 2023 Market Insights™

  The Clinical Services Business Process Transformation 2023 Market Insights™ assists organizations in identifying important demand-side trends that are expected to have a long-term impact on any clinical services project. The report also highlights key challenges that enterprises face today.

  May, 2023

• Cloud Governance Best Practices 2022

  Cloud governance is a set of policies and practices governing an organization’s use of cloud computing to enable new capabilities and optimize cloud cost, scalability, security, compliance, and interoperability. Cloud governance should be top of mind for several organizations because it provides a complete overview of an organization’s cloud resources and how they should be managed. It is not surprising that many organizations see the vital role cloud governance plays in their daily operations, and practice rates are high compared with most best practices in our annual study.

  November, 2022

• Insider Security Risk Assessment Best Practices 2022

  Most organizations are aware of the IT security threats posed by outsiders. Countermeasures such as firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems are all aimed at these threats. Yet these measures do little to counter insider threats within the organization.

  September, 2022

• IT Vendor Governance Best Practices

  IT vendor management is a function and set of practices that guide the selection, management, and assessment of IT suppliers to ensure that all parties comply with the terms of their contracts. IT supplier management has been a best practice for many years, but the disciplines have evolved. Traditional IT vendor governance practices are now inadequate to navigate the changing business ecosystem. The upshot is that most organizations need to transform their vendor governance programs. This Research Byte summarizes our full report on IT Vendor Governance Best Practices.

  August, 2022

• IT Management Best Practices 2023

  The best-run IT organizations not only focus their process improvement efforts on those of other departments, they also seek to optimize their own IT management processes internally. In this study, we examine the growth and maturity of 35 IT management practices, which we have grouped into five major categories: IT governance practices, IT financial management practices, IT operational management practices, IT security and risk management practices, and application development practices.

  March, 2023

• IT Management Best Practices 2022

  The best-run IT organizations not only focus their process improvement efforts on those of other departments, they also seek to optimize their own IT management processes internally. In this study, we examine the growth and maturity of 33 IT management practices, which we have grouped into five major categories: IT governance practices, IT financial management practices, IT operational management practices, IT security and risk management practices, and application development practices. (196 pp., 178 figs.)

  March, 2022

• Data Classification and Retention Adoption and Best Practices 2021

  Creating a formal classification scheme is an important element in managing data for security, disaster recovery, and retention purposes. Yet, many organizations—even those that profess a commitment to protecting corporate and customer information—fail to implement data classification. This report begins by defining data classification and retention. We next study the adoption and practice levels and examine those by organization size and sector. We conclude with best-practice recommendations.

  July, 2021