COBIT 5 is a strategy based on good IT governance practices. As a globally accepted framework, it allows implementing more comprehensive and efficient IT governance and management, improving quality and safety of IT processes.
Do you have any question about COBIT 5 and how to use it to optimize your IT management? Read this article and use our tips to transform your business.
What is COBIT 5?
COBIT 5 (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) is a management tool based on principles that propose good practices and strategies for IT governance and management.
Therefore, by providing an integrated view of all departments of a company, COBIT 5 ensures efficient IT management. In practice, it aligns the IT strategy with organizational goals, allowing the IT department to effectively contribute to business growth.
For companies that offer technology services or organizations that use technology to develop their businesses, IT is a fast-growing business in the corporate market.
In fact, it’s becoming increasingly important within organizations. Therefore, frameworks like COBIT 5 are extremely relevant for companies that seek to achieve technology excellence.
Read more: Differences between ITIL and COBIT
COBIT 5 principles
COBIT 5 is based on five principles, which are described below:
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Meet stakeholder needs
The framework ensures the IT department is aligned with the other departments of the organization. However, to accomplish that, it’s important to understand how technology-related actions can help a company achieve its goals and vice versa.
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Cover the enterprise end to end
This principle is not restricted to the IT department, as it considers every process in the organization. In other words, all information and technologies are categorized as company assets.
This way, the IT department shares responsibilities with other departments that use technology, generating value from investments in technology and ensuring the best use of these resources to achieve the company’s goals.
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Apply a single integrated framework
Many other relevant frameworks are available for IT governance, such as COSO, ITIL, PMBOK, TOGAF, and PRINCE2. This COBIT 5 principle refers to the integration of all these methods, resulting in a two-layer structure – while governance analyzes, guides, and monitors IT activities to contribute to business goals, management aligns, plans, organizes, deploys, supports, monitors, and evaluates actions.
As a result, it becomes a comprehensive solution for business and IT governance.
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Enable a holistic approach
This principle proposes a comprehensive view of structures, departments, processes, resources, among other interacting components. It recognizes the importance of a cohesive organizational system, where people, structures, and processes act as enablers to help the company achieve its goals.
In COBIT 5, enablers are anything, such as processes; organizational structures; and culture, ethics and behavior; that supports IT governance and management.
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Separate governance from management
The last principle defines and differentiates IT governance from IT management. IT governance is a more strategic level, which defines actions and responsibilities according to the EDM (evaluate, direct, and monitor) process, while IT management refers to a more tactical and operational level. In other words, it is responsible for planning, building, performing, and monitoring IT activities according to the strategy defined by governance.
How to use COBIT 5 to optimize IT governance
In order to implement COBIT 5 and provide the best results to the company, the following key steps should be observed:
Step 1: Diagnosis of current situation
To begin the COBIT implementation process, a company’s IT department must identify flaws and opportunities for improvement.
Step 2: Definition of objectives and goals
Next, it’s time to define the company’s goals and objectives to achieve expected results.
Step 3: Selection of best practices
After the diagnosis, select the appropriate practices for the strategic implementation of IT governance.
Step 4: Implementation and training
Here, an important aspect is the definition of project responsibilities and team training, allowing the staff to perform planned tasks.
Step 5: Monitoring and continuous evaluation
The last step consists of monitoring and measuring the results of the implementation, making improvements and optimizations in IT processes.
Benefits of COBIT 5
This framework can bring several benefits to organizations that want to improve IT management and governance, including:
1. Better decisions
The good practices from COBIT 5 allow managers and directors to understand how IT and IT management can impact the company, helping them identify improvements and adjust investments.
2. Alignment between IT and business
COBIT 5 also enables the integration of departments across the organization, ensuring that everyone is aligned in terms of company goals. It also keeps everyone aware of the results with the definition of practices and strategies under this framework.
3. Risk and cost reduction
COBIT 5 offers good practices and strategies that contribute to information security and enable optimization of IT investments.
4. Increased efficiency and productivity
COBIT 5 defines and standardizes internal processes, making sure they’re aligned with the company’s needs. It maximizes efficiency and reduces expenses, providing a more effective IT team.
5. Improvement in IT service quality
COBIT 5 offers a set of good practices to standardize IT processes, improving service quality. It also encourages continuous monitoring of services, allowing proactive identification and resolution of problems.
Rely on Milvus to transform your IT management
The IT department is becoming more and more relevant to organizations of any size and, if you want to make your team work more efficient and integrated with businesses, we recommend intelligent tools like Milvus.
Milvus platform is an intelligent demand management solution. In other words, it centralizes both customer and internal requests received through different channels, including email, app, form, chat, WhatsApp, and others.
You can also benefit from features such as:
- Comprehensive and dynamic configuration of ticket distribution and request categories;
- Fast and flexible demand management by configuring personalized deadlines for each category, priority, and/or client;
- Possibility to create complex automation that streamlines the routine, avoiding repetitive and manual work.
All these and many other features can be intuitively used by operators for easy handling of demands, providing a clear and comprehensive view for team managers.
Contact Milvus right now and find out how we can transform your IT management. Take a free trial and learn more about Milvus benefits for your company.
