CobiT

Global embedding of good practice

By now you’ve likely at least heard of ITILv3 and CobiT4.1. You may in fact be making related plans in your organization. What about PSP BOK Version 1.0 (August 2005, since revised and released March 26, 2008)? As more and more read 5.1 and other parts, will commonsense principles become more embedded globally? Will reading and applying the document help overcome problems innately within a young profession that potentially has the most pervasive influence within the modern world? It just may be that real quality does exist and that it must increasingly become inherent within each of us, within all interactions, within that which we use, create and imagine. Intrinsically the critical component of continued forward progress just may be each of us increasingly partaking in good personal practices and positive collaborations.

The relationship between CobiT and Val IT

A quick post to share awareness…

There is some potential interesting reading in Volume 3 2008 of CobiT Focus. Articles in the July issue include one on the relationship between CobiT and Val IT; and another on IT Risk Management. There are more however. You can view the newsletter here.

A far reaching edit to the “Value delivery” IT governance focus area of CobiT 4.1

The word “pervasive” can be found within the level 5 (Optimised) wording of the maturity models for P06 (Communicate Management Aims and Direction) and ME4 (Provide IT Governance). Considering what may be a far reaching edit to the “Value delivery” IT governance focus area of CobiT 4.1, “and pervasive” may be implied however could be explicitly stated after the word “intrinsic”. If you have run into resistance suggesting CobiT to an organization feel free to share a related comment or post. Please do so in a positive way and feel free to add whether you believe CobiT 4.1 is applicable to all organizations who utilize IT.

Value delivery is about executing the value proposition throughout the delivery cycle, ensuring that IT delivers the promised benefits against the strategy, concentrating on optimising costs and proving the intrinsic value of IT.

Inherent Quality Simplicity

Excerpt from Inherent Quality Simplicity

“As far back as the days of Juran and Deming, quality products were manufactured efficiently as a result of inherent quality. So why do we all too often ignore the same in software development and systems implementation projects?” Question provided by a Director of IT and Project Management Audit. Remaining anonymous, he adds, “I believe it is due to the fact that construction and manufacturing are older professions than systems development. That said, since the beginning of time man has been developing systems of the non-computer sort, and this makes me think of a great quote by Machiavelli on risk that is so relevant to projects we often deliver. It basically says there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system, for the initiator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old institution.” Looking within the quote, one may begin to better see the present needs for policing and ethics enforcement concurrent with maturing the profession and pursuing various opportunities for innate improvement. As an example for the latter, tying administrative tasks to job performance may be a good idea; however a better idea may be to identify which administrative tasks would benefit by replacement with automation, such as a software program that would eliminate the human data gathering and processing issue, while potentially adding an autocorrecting feature which could respond in AI fashion to the decisions the software program recommends, based on the information the software program generated from the raw data and embedded knowledge—reasoning logic. Making this less extreme, even if a software program was created to gather the data and produce an informative report, the administrative task could be streamlined and replaced with a higher-purpose human task of more value to the organization that could be tied to job, department, and corporate performance.

By the early part of the twenty-first century there were already many examples of, and opportunities for, making quality more inherent or occur more inherently within the industry, within the profession, or within an organization’s products, services, or resources. InherentQuality.Com and the associated Weblog can further help you see this, and I encourage you to acquaint yourself with the related content, which, among other things, states such things as: ITILv3 and CobiT 4.1 are positive examples of industry coming together more as one to reach common grounds for higher purposes. Such efforts result in, and will progressively continue to result in, greater levels of value, excellence, and simplicity for the world, and thereby bring greater and greater joy to the world. These efforts include harmonization initiatives from many perspectives, including relative to the evolving DNA and bodies of knowledge for a profession of general practitioners and emerging specialists. As the world continues to come together, quality continues to evolve. Of course, it will take continual open-minded thinking to continually produce and implement new means. To evolve quality, we will have to think differently. Our generation can ensure progress is continually designed to enhance joy for self and others. To do this we will need to identify and study and grow on mu answers to these and other questions. Is quality inherently part of your organization’s values, your competitor’s values, and your personal values? Likely the answer in each case is yes; however, in the future this must increasingly be the case and to higher degrees. Tom Brokaw says, Three Cups of Tea is, “not only a thrilling read, it’s proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.” From an inherent quality perspective, anyone can have the right combination of character and determination to help change the world. You have the power. Please use it to benefit the world and all within. In fact, use it to grow trust inherently throughout the world, so we can become more one.

Excerpt from Inherent Quality Simplicity

I believe that if one is taking care of details, the end result will come to place by itself. Inherent Quality Simplicity provides techniques for people to manage details for success.— Garry Fong, BSc, PMP, IQA, IQSA. Garry has over thirty years of experience including eighteen years with IBM and five with GE. His prior accomplishments include being a certified ISO 9000 Internal Auditor.

Excerpt from Inherent Quality Simplicity

One means to improve quality is for development teams and test teams to gain knowledge of the business through business requirements provided by business analysts. To support this, business analysts should develop business scenarios for creation of test cases, which can either be manually executed or entered into a test suite for automated execution. Developers and testers can watch for “holes” in the business design, as they consider the business requirements using the business scenarios as a guide.— Blaine Bey, I.S.P., Sierra Systems, CIPS 2007 Volunteer of the Year.