SEC-592 Week 3 Paper: Transparency and IT Governance - Paper Graded An A+

Document Content and Description Below

SEC-592 Week 3 Paper: Transparency and IT Governance Transparency is an important factor of IT governance, but what is IT governance? IT governance defined in simple words is the rules and regulat... ions defined in a business for information technology. As mentioned in my last paper IT governance consists of policies and standards that are implemented to carry out the IT execution. “the goal of IT governance is achieving a better alignment between the business and IT.” (Grembergen, Wim Van & De Haes, Steven. 2008) In the last paper we were talking about the difference between IT governance and IT execution. IT Governance is the procedure to protect and control the arrangement of activities, changes, or capacities for appropriate execution. The key elements of it are responsibility and communication. IT governance additionally incorporates policy and control systems to make sure the performance is up to date with the applied regulations. Following up on the standards and policies is essential. Transparency is an important part of the IT governance, it helps set the goals clear for execution. And the goal for IT governance is to check on how much money has been spent on IT part of the business and is it worth it? “Modern definitions of IT governance focus on business value and benefits versus what IT is or is not delivering. It is about alignment, shared priorities, and coordination with the business.” (Braly, Jake 2017) According to the article by Braly, Jake about the importance of IT governance, nowadays the IT governance is about people more than the process, and to make the people governance it must be built on transparency. So that people can have “shared context and mutual trust” (Braly, Jake 2017) Transparency begins with the capacity to comprehend costs in an acceptable framework. It displays the right cost structure and developments of IT services. Also, the kind of projects that help business grasp its full ramifications ventures. Transparency is also important since it helps build better trust with the business partners. It’s possibly a very significant aspect in an effective IT governance project. Transparency is one of the four factors that helps make the IT governance successful. (Braly, Jake 2017) The factors after transparency are accountability, measurement and alignment. Accountability helps with the clarity of responsibilities, “aligning with the business is a never-ending exercise that, if anything, needs more touchpoints these days, not less. IT governance helps businesses and IT coordinate their activities and resources in order to make the outcomes of these efforts successful.” (Braly, Jake 2017) Measurement factor is linked to transparency, for communication between IT and business. "For performance measurement to be successful, it is important to understand who the stakeholders are and what their specific requirements and drivers are so that the performance measurements will be meaningful to them.” (Braly, Jake 2017) IT governance helps the business to understand that IT is returning valuable outcomes to the business. It’s helping the business understand their IT is being used in right places with the right goals. But as we talk about it IT governance is evolving and for businesses to achieve their goals and success it is important to keep them updated with the evolving nature of it. As I described COBIT in my first paper; Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is utilized for IT Governance maintenance. It sets the structure for a business to guarantee that the IT is working viably and limiting the risks while augmenting execution. COBIT is not just a framework but it helps IT users to minimize technology risks and to perform audits. COBIT also helps the business to meet its goals. According to Lahiti, C.B “The COBIT framework centers on compliance and audit ability of IT processes, in general. Simply put COBIT is about “Saying what you do”, “Doing what you say” and “Proving it”. Even though COBIT and ITIL intents were different they do indeed align at a level that by which Sarbanes-Oxley can be achieved with ITIL with few modifications.” According to Information Systems Audit and Control Association http://www.isaca.org “audit reporting—COBIT provided a way of matching IT processes to IT goals and IT goals to business goals. This matching has been used to present the benefits of taking corrective actions to senior management more efficiently. In the case of the security configuration management audit, IT audit management was able to present, in the same context, technical issues, compliance issues and contractual obligations that needed to be observed.” COBIT has provided a lot of benefits in IT audit like, standardized methodology of implementing IT, and better alignment of IT business goals. Reference: Braly, Jake. (2017, March 29). Does your IT governance have transparency? Retrieved from: https://www.apptio.com/blog/does-your-it-governance-have-transparency Grembergen, Wim Van & De Haes, Steven. (2008). Analyzing the Relationship Between IT Governance and Business/IT Alignment Maturity. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a4f4/9c8a97f63e51e02e13e793add96bbd982113.pdf Lahti, C. B. (2007). Sarbanes-Oxley IT Compliance Using Open Source Tools, 2nd Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780080557274/ Information Systems Audit and Control Association. Retrieved from. http://www.isaca.org [Show More]

Last updated: 2 years ago

Preview 1 out of 5 pages