Industry improves upon best practice frameworks

Industry analysis by Beth Schultz, plus the latest news headlines.

The rate of change in today's enterprise companies demands even best-practice frameworks evolve to keep up with business needs.

That is the thinking behind updates to process guidelines within the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and last week's update to the Control Objectives for Information and related Technology, or COBIT.

The creators of ITIL will later this month reveal updates to the set of best practices around IT service management and delivery. In fact, ITIL Version 3 is expected to provide more prescriptive advice based on real-world use scenarios of the best practice framework, yet remain vendor agnostic.

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The rate of change in today's enterprise companies demands even best-practice frameworks evolve to keep up with business needs.

That is the thinking behind updates to process guidelines within the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and last week's update to the Control Objectives for Information and related Technology, or COBIT.

The creators of ITIL will later this month reveal updates to the set of best practices around IT service management and delivery. In fact, ITIL Version 3 is expected to provide more prescriptive advice based on real-world use scenarios of the best practice framework, yet remain vendor agnostic.

Separately, COBIT -- often used alongside ITIL processes to ensure the proper controls are in place -- last week was upgraded to further the framework's abilities to ensure business and IT are properly aligned. The COBIT standard was designed with business accountability in mind, making it a perfect fit for businesses' compliance efforts around the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The IT Governance Institute (ITGI) last week published COBIT 4.1, an incremental update to the IT governance framework which "ensures that IT is aligned with business goals, its resources are used responsibly and its risks are managed appropriately."

Among the updates in this release are enhanced performance measurement, improved control objectives and better alignment of business and IT goals, ITGI officials say.

“COBIT is the only management framework that addresses the complete life cycle of IT investment. The framework supports IT’s achievement of business objectives, ensures business IT alignment, and improves IT efficiency and effectiveness,” said Roger Debreceny, chair of ITGI’s COBIT Steering Committee, in a press release. “COBIT 4.1 is built upon practical guidance from managers around the world who use the framework to improve IT governance in their organizations, so it has been road tested and validated.”

The new version of the framework is available as a free download here.

Read more about infrastructure management in Network World's Infrastructure Management section.

Schultz is a longtime IT journalist. You can email her or find her here.