Reccan - IT Management - IT Governance - Best Practise Guidelines

These CobiT 3.0 base IT management reviews have now been superseded by our CobiT 4.0 based reviews but because CobiT 4.0 does not replace CobiT 3.0 and many organisations are still committed to CobiT 3.0 we have retained the CobiT 3.0 based reviews.

This Reccan series of IT management reviews, based on CobiT 3.0, has been designed to help you consider which IT management processes might be limiting your business success.

Maturity	helps establish the process maturity for each IT management area
Risk	a portfolio view of risks
Priorities	focuses on which IT management processes are inhibiting business success
Improvement	asks where IT management improvements are currently taking place
Dependencies	explores the relationship between IT management processes
Focus	looks at the type of improvement needed

To use the management reviews, first explore each review framework to understand the purpose of the review and the classification of framework positions. When you are comfortable with the purpose of the framework, move the CobiT defined IT management area into its appropriate framework position to show the status for your organisation at this time.

The value of using the review frameworks is in the analysis you make of the current status of each IT management area within your organisation. For all frameworks, consideration should be given to how well the IT management commitment is performed across the whole of your organisation and if required, extend the review scope to include the performance of your IT service partners.

After each review session we recommend you print the framework results (in landscape format) before moving onto the next review framework. The maturity level review is probably the best starting point because this establishes a base line position for your organisation's IT management capability.

These reviews are provided as IT governance development aids and are not intended as an alternative to professional IT governance development or IT auditing services. They are provided to help you consider the benefit of using the CobiT IT Governance framework within your company's IT governance commitment.

Because of the number of IT management areas provided by the CobiT framework, you may find it helpful to initially select no more than 12 areas to explore within any review session or consider taking each lifecycle stage as a separate review exercise. If you organization has limited experience of formal IT governance is would be better to build the commitment to core IT governance areas (such as IT organization & relationships, manage IT investments, managed human resources, manage change, manage problems & incidents and monitor the processes) than to take on the full CobiT framework in a single IT governance initiative.

We would recommend that you also consider using the CobiT 4.0 IT management review tools available at ITM reviews (CobiT 4.0) because this revision of CobiT has moved the focus towards IT governance (with less emphasis on IT auditing) and improved the relationship with other best practise IT management guidelines.

We do hope that you find these review frameworks useful. The frameworks can help visualise your perceptions of which IT management areas are working well and where some attention is needed. We would like your feedback on the review frameworks and any ideas you have for improvement. We would also be pleased to help you take this analysis further with a short investigation that will help you identify the root cause of some of your IT management concerns. Either way please do contact us at