COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) is a framework created by
ISACA for
information technology (IT) management and
IT governance.
The framework is business focused and defines a set of generic processes for the management of IT, with each process defined together with process inputs and outputs, key process-activities, process objectives, performance measures and an elementary
maturity model.
Framework and components
Business and IT goals are linked and measured to create responsibilities of business and IT teams.
Five processes are identified: Evaluate, Direct and Monitor (EDM); Align, Plan and Organize (APO); Build, Acquire and Implement (BAI); Deliver, Service and Support (DSS); and Monitor, Evaluate and Assess (MEA).
[COBIT 2019 Framework: Introduction and Methodology from ISACA]
The COBIT framework ties in with
COSO,
ITIL,
BiSL,
ISO 27000,
CMMI,
TOGAF and
PMBOK.
The framework helps companies follow law, be more agile and earn more.
Below are COBIT components:
* Framework: Organizes
IT governance objectives and good practices by IT domains and processes and links them to business requirements.
* Process descriptions: A reference process model and common language for everyone in an organization. The processes map to responsibility areas of plan, build, run, and monitor.
* Control objectives: Provides a complete set of high-level requirements to be considered by management for effective control of each IT process.
* Management guidelines: Helps assign responsibility, agree on objectives, measure performance, and illustrate interrelationship with other processes.
* Maturity models: Assesses maturity and capability per process and helps to address gaps.
The standard meets all the needs of the practice, while maintaining independence from specific manufacturers, technologies and platforms. When developing the standard, it was possible to use it both for auditing a company's
IT system
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
and for designing an IT system. In the first case, COBIT allows you to determine the degree of conformity of the system under study to the best examples, and in the second, to design a system that is almost ideal in its characteristics.
History
COBIT was initially "Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies," though before the release of the framework people talked of "CobiT" as "Control Objectives for IT"
or "Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology."
ISACA first released COBIT in 1996, originally as a set of control objectives to help the financial audit community better maneuver in IT-related environments.
Seeing value in expanding the framework beyond just the auditing realm, ISACA released a broader version 2 in 1998 and expanded it even further by adding management guidelines in 2000's version 3. The development of both the
AS 8015
AS 8015-2005: ''Australian Standard for Corporate Governance of Information and Communication Technology'' is a technical standard developed by Standards Australia Committee IT-030 and published in January 2005. The standard provides principles, a ...
: ''Australian Standard for Corporate Governance of Information and Communication Technology'' in January 2005
and the more international draft standard ISO/IEC DIS 29382 (which soon after became
ISO/IEC 38500) in January 2007
increased awareness of the need for more information and communication technology (ICT) governance components. ISACA inevitably added related components/frameworks with versions 4 and 4.1 in 2005 and 2007 respectively, "addressing the IT-related business processes and responsibilities in value creation (
Val IT) and
risk management (
Risk IT)."
COBIT 5 (2012) is based on COBIT 4.1, Val IT 2.0 and Risk IT frameworks, and draws on ISACA's ''IT Assurance Framework'' (ITAF) and the ''Business Model for Information Security'' (BMIS).
ISACA currently offers certification tracks on both COBIT 2019 (COBIT Foundations, COBIT Design & Implementation, and Implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Using COBIT 2019) as well as certification in the previous version (COBIT 5).
See also
*
IT governance
*
Data governance
*
Information quality management
*
ITIL
*
ISO/IEC 38500
References
External links
COBIT page at ISACAChecklist/cheatsheet summarizing Cobit 5A user case of the COBIT Framework: San Marcos, TX
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