Application of COBIT when developing an IT strategy

Some time ago, I had to deal with the issue of developing an IT strategy for one financial organization. I want to share my experience.

It is known that an IT strategy should harmoniously fit into a business strategy and help it achieve its business goal. When developing a business strategy, they often use balanced performance indicators and Norton-Kaplan strategic maps, which are surprisingly similar to the approaches described in COBIT. In my work, I used materials from COBIT version 5.0. COBIT explores goal cascades that show the relationship between business and IT. Using the methodology for constructing a cascade of goals and a reference model of processes described in the framework of the COBIT methodology, one can trace the relationship between an organization’s individual business goal and IT processes.

Figure 1 depicts the process of identifying IT Goals and impact factors for COBIT 5.0. This methodology offers business goals defined in the organization to lead to 17 typical business goals defined in COBIT. Then, using the compliance matrix, 17 typical business goals are converted to 17 standard IT goals. In turn, to achieve 17 typical IT goals, COBIT5.0 proposes to use 37 typical IT processes. The maturity level of processes is evaluated according to the criteria defined in COBIT. This allows you to identify the processes that need to be improved and select actions and metrics that will achieve the desired results.


Fig. 1 Cobit Goal Cascade

Table 1 shows the correspondence between the wording of the organization’s business goals and COBIT 5.0 in the format of the Norton-Kaplan strategic map.

Table 1.

Direction			Cobit5
			-
			- -
			-
			- — - -
			-
			- - -
			- - -
			-
	-		-
			- -
			— -. - -
			- -
,	.		-
	Attracting and supporting qualified professionals		- Qualified and motivated staff
	Motivation system development		- Qualified and motivated staff - Operational productivity of staff
	Development / IT Infrastructure		- Qualified and motivated staff - Operational productivity of staff - A portfolio of competitive goods and services

The next step is the prioritization of business goals with an indication of weight.

Example of prioritizing Business Objectives by COBIT5.0

Table 2.

Target Number	Business goal	Weight	Rating
BG01	Return on investment for stakeholders	2	2
BG02	Portfolio of competitive products and services	2	2
BG03	Managed Business Risks (Asset Protection)	1	1
BG04	Compliance with external laws and regulations	1	1
BG05		1	1
BG06		2	2
BG07	-	3	3
BG08		1	1
BG09		1	1
BG10		3	3
BG11	-	3	3
BG12	-	3	3
BG13	-	1	1
BG14		3	3
BG15		1	1
BG16		1	1
BG17		1	1

The next step is to determine the list of IT goals in accordance with their impact on business processes (see table 3). COBIT offers a ready-made dependency matrix of Business goals and IT goals, which is described in COBIT5's book “A Business Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT”, but it can be adjusted depending on the specifics of the organization. In this case, the weight of the influence of each position should be taken into account.
We can calculate the rating of business goals (BG) based on the following rule:

Communication	Weight
Primary (P)	3
> Secondary (S)	1

Table 3. Dependence of IT goals on business goals.



Based on these goals, it is already possible to build an IT strategy. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the maturity of the IT processes available in the organization. The COBIT5.0 book “Enabling process” offers a methodology for assessing the maturity of IT processes, which objectively shows the real picture.


Fig. 2 Typical IT processes

Thus, the COBIT methodology, together with the SWOT analysis of the current situation in the infrastructure, software and organizational structure, makes it possible to draw up an understandable, explainable and provable IT development strategy.

For convenience, you can use the model prepared, for example, in Excell, in which to prescribe all goals, priorities and dependencies. An example of such a model can be found here .