We are taught from a young age about rules. Kindergarten is chock-full of rules that are supposedly all you really need to know. Rules apply to every segment of life thereafter—school, dating, taxes, meetings, the workplace. Follow directions. Wait your turn. Keep your hands to yourself. Clean up your own mess. File on time.

The fact is, all IT departments have rules. Whether posted on the company intranet, embossed on a coffee mug, or unspoken yet understood, rules are meant to set expectations, influence behavior and promote team play. Just as in kindergarten.

Many CIOs today have created their own set of IT rules, written them down and pushed them out to their staffs. Some lists are very specific—targeting governance, alignment, capital expenditures and vendor selection. Some are more conceptual—translating the CIO’s vision for IT into concrete, actionable principles. Others use humor to sort out serious subjects such as network security, technology standards and risk management.

Regardless of what they call their IT rules or how they publish the rules, these CIOs consider their rules a critical piece of their leadership strategy. The 10 rules that Bill Vass, senior vice president and CIO of Sun Microsystems, has promulgated guide his IT staffers in both their day-to-day work and long-range planning. "IT is very complex, and people need a predictable environment to work in," he says of his CIO Essentials, which he developed while working at the Pentagon. His not-so-subtle message to Sun’s IT staffers: If you follow these rules, you’ll never be in trouble.

The 13 Golden Rules that Ron Bonig, executive director of technology operations at George Washington University, wrote for his department use straight talk and a bit of humor to allow staffers larger parameters in which they can make decisions on their own. "I can’t be there all the time," Bonig says. "You have to empower them with a set of rules."

Rules help Dow Jones CIO Bill Godfrey close the gap between IT and the business. "I needed to have some mechanism, some framework to promote ongoing alignment," says Godfrey, who rolled out his Big Rules in 2004. "All of the rules in one form or another are there to sustain, protect and foster alignment."

Some CIOs, however, take a different view of rules for IT. "I have seen other CIOs who have done these rules," says one longtime CIO who requested anonymity. "They tend to be mocked by their employees." It’s very hard to write effective rules, says this CIO, and they tend to decompose into just another company policy or manual that is soon forgotten.