Governance has, recently, become a major topic as companies are under pressure to comply with recent waves of new legislations. Although IT governance has become a hype, widely associated with ‘SOX’ (or Sarbanes Oxley Act) or ‘CobiT compliance’, the theme in itself is as old as the application of IT.
IT governance is the mechanism that assures right decisions with regard to IT investments are made, in the right way, by the right people and that these decisions are monitored effectively.
Looking at IT investments from a business perspective, any investment made should be based on a business case where each project should be judged on its added value to the business.
What makes life so difficult is that this rational approach demands for vision, a clear goal orientation, and consistent
communication, battling biases and handling politics. Adopting IT governance practices is not just about ‘implementing
CobiT’ or having a ‘portfolio management tool’ but it is about changing people’s skills, attitudes and behaviors.
CobiT
Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (CobiT) helps meet the multiple needs of management by bridging the gaps between business risks, control needs and technical issues. It provides good practices across a domain and process framework and presents activities in a manageable and logical structure.
The CobiT Framework provides a tool for the business process owner facilitate the discharge of the managerial responsibility.
The Framework starts from a simple and pragmatic premise: “In order to provide the information that the organization needs to achieve its objectives, IT resources need to be managed by a set of naturally grouped processes”.
CobiT processes for managing IT resources
Course Outline
During this awareness session, we will investigate why IT Governance has become such an important topic, as well as the impact it will have for your organization. You will become familiar with the most important tools, models and techniques used in the industry. You will also learn that IT Governance is much more than the next step in Service Management!
We will present an executive overview, in order to establish a solid, high level, understanding of IT Governance and its
consequences.
Attention will be paid on how to arrive from Business and IT Strategy at setting objectives for the IT organization. Moreover, the translation of these objectives into action will be elaborated. These concrete actions may result in changes in the infrastructure, in software solutions and in IT organization /processes. In other words, how does the project look to establish control, and what are the risks and pitfalls.
Weill & Ross (2004) define IT Governance as the specification of the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in the use of IT. You will understand how management instruments impact human behavior.
The participants will receive selected reading materials and the IT Governance Pocket Guide (ITSM, 2004).
Objectives
· Have an overview of Information Technology Governance
· Understand the relationship between IT Governance and CobiT
· Understand the relationship between CobiT & ITIL
Duration
1/2 -day session.
Target Audience
· (IT) executives who are interested to know the basics and essentials of IT Governance.
· IT managers who are interested to learn about the impact of IT Governance in their department
and processes.
Prerequisites
Participants:
· Have a good insight in all business aspects of how to run an IT organization
· Know and understand the business goals
· Preferably have experience in a management position
Curriculum
· Executive introduction IT Governance
· IT Governance Awareness
· Corporate and IT Governance
· From Business strategy to IT control
· IT Governance and the IT Balanced Scorecard
