Tag Archives: Robert E Stroud

April 15, 2012 · 2:09 pm

Common Objectives for the Business and IT

COBIT 5 was officially launched on Tuesday the 10th of April.

The evolution from COBIT 4.1 shifts focus away from “Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology” to Governance and Management of Enterprise IT.

My take on the evolution of the COBIT 5 framework is that we now have a way of defining and agreeing “Common Objectives for Business and IT“.

The following number of downloads of the COBIT 5 Framework have been processed in just 4 days.

I wonder how many of these downloads have been made by individuals in the Business, Consultants and Trainers rather than IT folk.

Here is the LINK to the COBIT 5 Product Family.

The fresh guidance provided in COBIT 5  will make it possible to align Enterprise (Business) and IT related goals by defining and agreeing common objectives.

Common objectives are required to close the communication / expectation gap between IT and the Business.  In this video the CEO is talking with the CIO.

How are you helping the Business drive revenue?

Is IT focussing on driving our strategic initiatives?

How are you enabling innovation within the Business?

How is IT aligning to the Business and adding value?

Looks like they both could use some help

So how should you address the gap in perception and reality?

A good place to start is to read the new Evaluate, Direct and Monitor processes for the Governance of Enterprise IT, specifically:

  • EDM02 Ensure Benefits Delivery and
  • EDM05 Ensure Stakeholder Transparency

these processes will help the Business and IT to develop a shared understanding of stakeholder needs and value realisation.

The spring issue of ServiceTalk dropped on my mat this week and contained an article by Robert E Stroud entitled COBIT 5 : Delivering Value Through Governance and Management.  The 2 page article, tucked away at the back of the magazine, provides an overview of the COBIT 5 Framework, Enabler Guides and Professional Guides.

You have to a member of itSMF in order to view the article online. LINK

Stroud states that “Value can only be realised when COBIT is adopted and adapted to fit a particular environment.  The implementationmust ddress the specific business challenges, including mnaging changes to culture and behaviour”.

WHY ARE COMMON OBJECTIVES FOR THE BUSINESS AND IT SO IMPORTANT?

There is an expectation gap between the Business and IT because Enterprise and IT related goals are not aligned.

The purpose of Internal or External IT Service Providers is to serve the Business.  A successful relationship can only work if there is a set of shared goals and common objectives. COBIT 5 practical guidance is a great place to start in order to address communication gaps and have the right conversations.

The COBIT 5 framework enables the Business and IT to talk about the same things in the same way.  Tighter integration is required between the Business and IT in order to drive solutions and lay the foundations for a Transformation journey. (from 37 seconds in)  

We are operating in  a Multi Sourcing environment and COBIT 5 will jump start the ability of Service Integrators to implement the right governance processes.

Failure to act and demonstrate value to Business Executives will open the door for the Consulting firms / Independent Consultants who sit at the intersect between the Business and IT.

Making excuses that the IT organisation is too busy to carve out time to understand, plan and implement the COBIT 5 guidance is not acceptable.

Get involved or you will be bypassed and become irrelevant.  

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February 12, 2012 · 1:23 pm

COBIT 5 is now approaching the finish line

 

Robert E Stroud

 

00:40 – Drive Business value and Business success

01:17 – Technology is at the centre of everything we do

02:05 – COBIT 5 helps organisations drive Business value

  

 

COBIT 5 Executive Summary 

Dr. Derek J. Oliver  (co-chair COBIT 5 Task Force at ISACA)

Summary powered by Brightalk 

COBIT 5 provides a comprehensive framework that assists enterprises to achieve their goals and deliver value through effective governance and management of enterprise IT.

 

The new processes definitions of COBIT 5 are based on the principles in ISO 38500 and the ISO 15504 Process Capability Assessment Model.

Rob England states that COBIT 5 is muddying governance and management.

I recommend that you read the responses made  by Peter Hill to this blog post

Far from muddying the water the COBIT 5 framework makes a clear distinction between governance and management.  COBIT 5 is based on five high level principles and Principle 5 is about the separation of  Governance from Management. 

Governance ensures that enterprise objectives are achieved by evaluating stakeholder needs, conditions and options; setting direction through prioritisation and decision making; and monitoring performance, compliance and progress against agreed direction and objectives [EDM]

Management plans, builds, runs and monitors activities in alignment with the direction set by the governance body to achieve the enterprise objectives [PBRM]

 

Overview of COBIT 5 Public Exposure Commentary

The COBIT 5 Development Team has digested all of the feedback from the public exposure and has been working diligently to incorporate the significant observations.

The completion of the Framework and Process Reference Guide are on schedule and both will be published in March or April 2012, along with COBIT 5:

The Implementation Guide, which is intended to assist stakeholders in implementing COBIT 5 for governance and management of enterprise information and technology assets.

 

The COBIT 5 Implementation Guide is being finalised for release in March.

There are seven phases in the implementation lifecycle which describe how to establish an approach to deliver a sustainable set of governance and management processes for the enterprise.

Phase 1 starts with recognising and agreeing to the need for an implementation or improvement initiative

Phase 2 is focused on defining the scope of the implementation or improvement initiative using COBIT’s mapping of enterprise goals to IT‐related goals to the associated IT processes.

During phase 3, an improvement target is set, followed by a more detailed analysis leveraging COBIT’s guidance to identify gaps and potential solutions.

Phase 4 plans practical solutions by defining projects supported by justifiable business cases.

 The proposed solutions are implemented into day‐to‐day practices in phase 5.

Phase 6 focuses on the sustainable operation of the new or improved enablers and the monitoring of the achievement of expected benefits.

 During phase 7, the overall success of the initiative is reviewed.

 

A practical COBIT 5 and IT governance seminar is scheduled for London (23rd Feb) this seminar provide delegates with an understanding of COBIT 5, how to implement IT governance and management processes, measure capability and manage performance.

 

In my experience the implementation of a governance framework enables strategic decision making and ensures IS investments are optimized, aligned with business strategy, and deliver required value within acceptable risk boundaries.

The governance framework sets out the hierarchy of forums that should be in place to allow IS leadership to monitor, measure and drive IS alignment to business priorities.

Decision making in the governance hierarchy takes place at the right level – i.e. empower people

The new COBIT 5 governance processes [Evaluate, Direct,  Monitor] provide guidance on how to define and deliver Business value for identified stakeholders.

The role of IT is to serve the Business and the guidance provided in COBIT5 will help internal / external Service Providers take an Outside In approach. 

This can be achieved by aligning Governance objectives and mapping Enterprise related goals with IT related goals.

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January 29, 2012 · 12:51 pm

Do metrics / KPIs help deliver real Business benefit?

This week Robert E Stroud posted a message asking whether #itil or #iso20000 metrics were more important in your organization.

RT @wdgll @RobertEStroud ITIL KPIs too broad. ISO20000 reqs are too easy. My choice is COBIT 5 where you are on the ISACA board so u know
@wdgll I am looking forward to #Cobit5 – it will assist business and IT to drive value whilst effectively managing #risk  
So what does the ITIL 2011 Edition have to say.  Continual Service Improvement core volume states that the treatment of service measurement and service reporting has been clarified. Because all processes have an element of measurement and reporting embedded within them, service measurement and service reporting are not considered to be processes.
 

Metric definition – (ITIL Continual Service Improvement) Something that is measured and reported to help manage a process, IT service or activity.

[youtube http://youtu.be/z5N-vPPP8SQ]

Malcolm Fry talks about the power of metrics. IT measures what we can do rather than what we can achieve.  IT must set targets that make sense to the Business.

KPI definition – (ITIL Continual Service Improvement) (ITIL Service Design) A metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity. Key performance indicators are used to measure the achievement of critical success factors. Many metrics may be measured, but only the most important of these are defined as key performance indicators and used to actively manage and report on the process, IT service or activity. They should be selected to ensure that efficiency, effectiveness and cost effectiveness are all managed.

Achieving ISO/IEC 20000. Making Metrics Work – Jenny Dugmore and Shirley Lacy.  This book gives a practical view of metrics and service reports and explains their importance in delivering an effective service and to service improvements.

COBIT 5 describes Enterprise Goal Metrics and IT Related Goal Metrics.  Here is an example of the goals and metrics:

Enterprise Goal – Agile response to a changing businesss environment.

Enterprise Metric – Level of Board satisfaction with enterprise responsiveness to new requirements

IT Related Goal – Adequate use of applications, information and technology solutions

IT Related Metric – Percent of business process owners satisfied with supporting IT products and services

Regardless of whether a service organisation is measuring performance using metrics (efficiency, effectiveness) or KPIs the metrics that matter most are those that are aligned to Business outcomes.  A business metric is any type of measurement used to gauge some quantifiable component of a company’s performance, such as return on investment (ROI), employee and customer churn rates, revenues, and so on.

When a service organisation has identified and deployed the right capabilities major transformation is possible.  Here is an example: 

[youtube http://youtu.be/Ny5S8Kt7Txw]

The key stakeholders for any Transformation programme must be the CFO and the COO.  GBS has freed up $560-$690m of value

It is recommended that a service provider take an “Outside In” approach in order to define and agree the metrics that matter most to the Business. 

To all you Business Relationship Managers or Business Partners, I recommend that you become familiar with the Goals and Metrics set out in the COBIT 5 Process Reference Guide.  This will better enable you to focus on delivering real  benefits to the Business.

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October 8, 2011 · 5:18 pm

ITSM, ITIL, Cloud and Virtualization

Robert E Stroud knows ‘What Good Looks Like’

[youtube http://youtu.be/75Et_qajrxE]

at 1:30 We need to be closer to the Business

at 02:20 Cloud [Based Services] enables us to change to get closer to the Busines

at 3:19 we need to become Business Centric

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