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Email ManagementMy kingdom for a scrammer
Getting to grips with governance, risk and compliance
Published 16:00, 05 June 09
Every builder knows tools are not the goal they are just the means to an end. After talking to his customer the builder knows what the goal is.
He looks over the situation,
decides what the solution should be and if he needs screws he reaches
into his toolkit and picks up a screwdriver, and if a nail does the
trick… you guessed it, a hammer.
Models are like tools: not the
goal, just the means. In the past if you needed to implement IT
control, get a copy of CobiT; if you were working on operational IT
processes, ITIL was the answer. Life was so nice and simple in those
days.
Over time CobiT developed from just
control objectives into a more comprehensive model including domains,
processes, control objectives, maturity, etc. It became clear that
slowly but surely an overlap started building with that other well
established model for IT Organisations (ITIL).
So the first mapping table was
created and it became obvious that certain differences in definition
were going to create problems for organisations wanting to adopt both
models (the different definitions of problem management according to
CobiT 3 versus ITIL v2 is a clear example here).
The introduction of CobiT 4 cleared
the way of further alignment of both models and the new mapping table
shows that the alignment of both models is now indeed more straight
forward.
Enter ITIL v3. ITIL, which has its
origin as a model for operational run-and-maintain processes, sees
the light and introduces new material looking at full-lifecycle
management of services (including strategy).
Furthermore ITIL introduces
thoughts about business - IT alignment intended to ensure maximum
value of IT services. Topics such as strategy and business-IT
alignment were considered the domain of IT Governance (i.e. CobiT) so
the models come even closer together.
To get back to our example of the
builder and his screw and nail. What would happen if new developments
in building technology led to a new way of fixing things that
integrate the best functionality of screws and nails (let’s call it
a “scrail”)?
Do you think the producers of
screwdrivers would keep pushing the use of their tool to use when
working with scrails while the producer of hammers advertises hammers
as the better tool?
I hope not. I would hope the
producers come to the conclusion that if screws and nails can merge
into a product that combines the best of both designs, so should the
tools designed to work with them. The new tool could be a ‘scrammer’!
So ISACA
and itSMF, can we have a
joint taskforce with the assignment to create ‘COTIL’?
By Arno Kapteyn
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