Benefits of the COBIT 4.1 Framework

Week 2

“The use of COBIT 4.1 (or any other IT Governance framework) simply creates a great deal of work for an organisation and yet may provide little benefit. (In light of what you have learnt, intuitively know, and/or have read to date on the four domains of ITG and the online environment businesses operate in, discuss this statement.)”

I have been thinking about the importance and application of the COBIT 4.1 framework in light of the Brisbane floods of 2011. Van Grembergen and De Haes (2008), have identified that COBIT provides a generic criteria which can be applied to any organisation. COBIT 4.1 recommends four domains which are universal and the set of control objectives provide an outline of procedures for any organisation. However Rudman (2008) highlights that COBIT can be resource intensive and costly to implement.

For those businesses affected by the floods, many were struggling after their IT systems were destroyed (Rasmussen, 2011). Contingency planning could have minimised the loss as a result of the floods. Control objective DS4 – Ensure Continuous Service, (COBIT 4.1 2007) can be applied by businesses to prepare for disruptions to their daily trading. DS4 highlights the requirements of contingency planning in case of natural disaster and backing up. My mother’s workplace was affected by the floods and while only minor damage occurred, they had to cease operations and evacuate their IT equipment to ensure the safety of their data. In contrast other affected businesses suffered losses on average of $834,992 in lost inventory, income and productivity (Moore, 2011). Therefore a framework for governance should be implemented as I believe the consequences are costly compared to the costs of implementation.

Reference List:

COBIT 4.1. (2007). COBIT 4.1: Framework, control objectives, management guidelines and maturity models. Retrieved from www.isaca.org

Moore, T. (2011, February 3). Flood losses batter Brisbane businesses. Brisbane times. Retrieved from: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/flood-losses-batter-brisbane-businesses-20110203-1aff9.html

Rasmussen, D. (2011, January 19). Free and discounted IT gets flood-hit Queensland businesses back online. Intrapower.com.au. Retrieved from: http://www.intrapower.com.au/IntraPower_Flood_Press_Release.html

Van Grembergen, W., & De Haes, S. (2009). Enterprise governance of information technology. doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-84882-2_5