IT governance framework PDF best practices and guidelines

• 02 September, 2020
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IT governance framework PDF best practices and guidelines

Why is it significant?

Demand for better return from IT governance framework PDF investments and concern over the generally increasing amount of IT governance framework PDF expenditures. The need to meet regulatory requirements for IT governance framework PDF controls in financial reporting and healthcare areas. The selection of service providers and the management of service outsourcing and acquisition.

IT governance framework PDF best practices

• Having complex IT-related risks, such as network security.
• IT governance framework PDF help monitor and improve critical IT activities to increase business value and reduce business risk.
• The need for enterprises to assess how they are performing against accepted standards and against their peers (benchmarking).

The guidelines for good IT governance framework PDF

1. Strategic Alignment: Alignment of IT goals align with the enterprise goals
2. IT Value: It delivers value to business, increase Org. profits.
3. Performance Measurement: Its performance is measured // no guessing here
4. Resource Management: IT resources properly allocated
5. Risk Management: How the risks being managed

IT governance framework PDF is a continuous life cycle that can be entered at any point. Usually, one starts with the strategy and its alignment throughout the enterprise. Afterward, implementation occurs, delivering the value the strategy promised and addressing the risks that need mitigation. It recommended that strategy be monitored continuously, and the results must be: a. measured, b. reported, and c. acted upon.

Strategy must be re-evaluated and realigned annually, if needed. This life cycle operates in an environment that is influenced by:

• Stakeholder values
• The mission, vision and values of the enterprise
• The community and Co. ethics and culture
• laws, regulations and policies
• Industry practices

IT governance framework:

• Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT)
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
• Val IT

1. COBIT

Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) was designed as an IT governance framework PDF model, and it tells you what you should be doing. It is a framework created by ISACA for (IT) and IT governance framework PDF. It is also a supporting toolset that allows managers to bridge the gap between control requirements, technical issues, and business risks.

For COBIT to govern IT effectively, it is important to appreciate the activities and risks within IT that need to be managed. These can be summarized as follows:

COBIT Framework subdivides IT into four domains

• Plan and Organize, PO: Provides direction to solution delivery
  • Ask the questions: Is IT and the business strategy aligned and is the usage of resources optimized? Does everyone in the organization understand the IT objectives and the risks? Are these properly managed?
• Acquire and Implement, AI: Provides the solutions and passes them to be turned into services
  • Ask the question: Will the new projects deliver solutions that meet business needs in time and within the budget?
• Deliver and Support, DS: Ask the questions: Are IT costs optimized and employees using IT efficiently and safely? Are Security measures such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability in place?
• Monitor and Evaluate, ME: Ask the questions: Is IT performance being measured to detect problems before it is too late? Are risks, control, compliance, and performance being measured and reported?

Also read: How to Write an Effective Privacy Statement for Websites

COBIT uses two types of metrics

Outcome measures, key goal indicators (KGIs) What is measured here: Is the information needed available all the time to support the business needs? Are integrity and confidentiality risks Absent? Is the information & resources reliable?

Performance Indicators, Performance indicators, or key performance indicators (KPIs), indicate whether goals are likely to be met. This can be through the Sales Target Measure, taking the number of wins over a specific time period and compare it to a future target and past performance to motivate your sales team.

2. ITIL

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of guidance developed by the United kingdom’s office of Government Commerce (OGC). ITIL does not doc how to do things but tells you what you could and should be doing. It shares with us what other people found to be the best way to approach IT as a service provider.

ITIL consists of 5 core strategies

1. Service Strategy volume: Provide guidance in developing a strategy for IT service management. This involves understanding your market, your customers, your capabilities & resources & financial constraints under which services must be delivered and supported.

Processes Within Service Strategy Are:

1. Service Strategy

• Service portfolio management: It is the process of maximizing the ROI while managing risks.
• Financial management: Evaluates investments in services to assist with strategic decision-making.
• Demand management: Works closely with the business to identify & understand patterns of business demand.

2. Service Design volume: Service Design begins with a set of business requirements and ends with a solution designed to meet these business needs.

3. Service Transition: Looks at managing change, risk and quality assurance during the deployment of service into operation.

4. Service Operation volume: It is concerned with daily activities, and it provides guidance on the effective & efficient operation of the service. It’s where the value of the service is realized & strategy of the organization is executed.

5. Continual Service Improvement volume (CSI): Provide guidance to improve the overall process and how its executed. This should be integrated into all the other life cycle stages. This is a continual activity Based on this report, org strive for improvements.

Benefits of ITIL

• Improve Resource Utilization
• Be More Competitive
• Decrease Rework
• Eliminate Redundant Work
• Improve upon project deliverables and time
• Improve availability, reliability and security of critical IT services
• Justify the cost of service quality
• Provide services that meet business, customer and user demands
• Integrate central processes
• Document and communicate roles and responsibilities in service provision
• Learn from previous experience
• Provide performance indicators

COBIT vs ITIL

ITIL was designed as a service management framework to help you understand how you support processes, and how you deliver services .

COBIT was designed as an IT governance framework PDF model, particularly and initially with audit in mind to give you control objectives and control practices on how that process should behave

The difference between the two is, COBIT tells you what you should be doing, while ITIL tells you how you should be doing it. Put them together, and you have a very powerful model of what you need to be doing and how to do it.

None of these frameworks are in competition with each other, in fact, it is best if they are used together.

• ISO 17799 outlines security controls, but does not focus on how to integrate them into business processes
• ITIL focuses on IT processes/services, not on security
• COBIT focuses on controls and metrics, not as much on security So, a combination of all three is usually the best approach.

How can they be used?

COBIT can be used to determine if the company’s needs (including security) are being properly supported by IT. ISO 17799 can be used to determine and improve upon the company’s security posture. And ITIL can be used to improve IT processes & services to meet the company’s goals (including security).

Toolkit

Start investigating possible tools for strategic planning and aligning IT with the organization’s strategic plan for toolkit. If you don’t know where to start, do a web search on SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), metrics, analytics and the balanced scorecard. Describe what you find and share as appropriate on the D2L discussion topic for IT Toolkits.

3. Val IT

While ITIL was designed as a service management framework to help you understand how you support processes and how you deliver services, and COBIT was designed as an IT governance framework PDF model, Val IT, on the other hand, talks about the strategy for your services (how well it is aligned), and its value. It talks about how to do the right things for the organisation (including security) in the right way and in doing them well.

Also read: Top 10 Reliable IT Companies in Singapore