COBIT provides enterprise governance of IT to organizations. It helps to streamline governance processes across the technology framework of a company. However, business leaders and organizational owners are a bit confused about what COBIT actually does. In this article at ISACA, discover what COBIT really is and how it brings visibility to effective IT governance.
Understanding COBIT
COBIT is a framework that senior management can use for governance and management of IT across their enterprise. However, governance and management are “two disciplines,” per the author. They need different action plans and organizational arrangements and have different motives.
Governance is about ‘stakeholder needs, conditions and options are evaluated to determine balanced, agreed-on enterprise objectives’. Meanwhile, management means that a leader ‘plans, builds, runs and monitors activities that are in alignment with the direction set by the governance body to achieve enterprise-level objectives’.
Here are some fundamental things you must keep in mind to leverage COBIT more sensibly and bring more visibility for effective IT governance:
Realities
- COBIT defines the elements that creates your governance framework. For instance, you need procedures, framework, principles, workflows, culture, protocols, skills, etc., for it to work.
- COBIT creates a model on which an enterprise can build a customized governance template.
- COBIT categorizes issues based on governance and management goals for better problem-solving.
Myths
- COBIT does not define the entire IT makeup of your enterprise.
- You cannot use it to arrange business processes.
- It can manage all technologies because, basically, it is not a technical structure.
You have to understand the nuanced differences between what COBIT is and is not. You cannot solely depend on it for IT decision-making, strategy, or cost estimation. Per the author, “COBIT defines all the components that describe which decisions should be taken, how and by whom they should be taken.”
To view the original article in full, visit the following link: https://www.isaca.org/resources/news-and-trends/newsletters/atisaca/2021/volume-19/3-things-cobit-is-3-things-it-isnt
