COBIT - Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology

Introduction:

COBIT stands for Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology.  It is a framework created by the ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) for IT governance and management. It is a tool which supports managers and allows balancing technical issues, business risks and control requirements. It is a control model that guarantees three control objectives – confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information system. It delivers a great value to the organization and helps business managers to practice better risk management practices associated with the IT processes.

Today, COBIT is used globally for the IT business processes by all managers. It is a thoroughly recognized guideline that can be applied to any organization across industries. Overall, COBIT ensures quality, control and reliability of information systems in organization, which is also the most important aspect of every modern business especially software development companies for which IT management is a vital process. 

COBIT Framework:

The COBIT business orientation includes linking business goals with its IT infrastructure by providing various maturity models and metrics that measure the achievement while identifying associated business responsibilities of IT processes. The main focus of COBIT is on following four specific domains:

1. Planning and Organization
2. Delivering and Support
3. Acquiring and Implementation
4. Monitoring and Evaluation

COBIT  has a high position in business frameworks and has been harmonized by several successful custom software development companies. COBIT is being used by all organizations whose primary responsibilities happen to be business processes and related technologies. This is for all organizations and business hat depend on technology for reliable and relevant information. COBIT is used by both the government departments, federal departments and other private commercial organizations. It helps is increasing the sensibility of IT processes to a great extent.

Components of COBIT:

• Framework:
• IT helps organizing the objectives of IT governance and bringing in the best practices in IT processes and domains, while linking business requirements.
• Process descriptions:
• It is a reference model and also acts as a common language for every individual of the organization.
• The process descriptions include planning, building, running and monitoring of all IT processes.
• Control objectives:
• This provides a complete list of requirements that has been considered by the management for effective IT business control.
• Maturity models:
• These accesses the maturity and the capability of every process while addressing the gaps.
• Management guidelines:
• It helps in better assigning responsibilities, measuring performances, agreeing on common objectives and illustrate better interrelationships with every other process.

Latest version of COBIT – COBIT 5.0:

The COBIT 5.0 framework has been able to bring about a collaborative culture within the organization and this better met the needs, risks and benefits of all IT initiatives. A COBIT 5.0 Certification not just prepares professionals for the global challenges to the business IT process but also delivers substantial amount of expertise information on:

• IT management issues and how they can affect organizations
• Principles of IT governance and enterprise IT while establishing the differences between management and governance
• Accessing the ways in which COBIT 5.0 processes can help the establishment of the basic principles along with other enablers
• Discussing COBIT 5.0 with respect to its process reference model and goal cascade

COBIT will be majorly beneficial to:

• CIOs / IT Directors
• Risk committee
• Process owners
• Audit committee members
• IT professionals

Conclusion:

COBIT aims to research, develop, publish and promote an authoritative, up-to-date, international set of generally accepted information technology control objectives for day-to-day use by business managers, IT professionals and assurance professionals.