In a sense, governance is the human side of a business network. It is about how people come together and structure the decision-making process to ensure that all relevant parties are either consulted or responsible for the decision. Governance needs to cover a wide spectrum of topics.

Technologists might be less enthused about the topic than others, but having a basic view of what it entails is useful to understand our working environment.

To sum things up, in this chapter, we have explored how business models can have a profound impact on governance. Using these models, we then looked at how we can derive structures that meet business needs by addressing the key business processes. We have seen how organizations need to consider the approach of a centralized versus decentralized governance model. Finally, we learned that governance is required to support IT solutions, but in turn, IT solutions need to support the governance process.

A final point to keep in mind is that business models can be fluid things. While an initiative might start as a founder-led network, it can evolve into a consortium or a community-based project. This is important to note, because while we looked at each model in isolation, the reality is that they are bound to evolve over time, but need to remain aligned to the business value the network provides.