Aligning COBIT and ITIL with an IT Academic Courses

Vanco Cabukovski1 and Vase Tusevski2

1
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
University Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
cabukv@hotmail.com
2
MIT University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
vase.tusevski@mit.edu.mk

Abstract. In this paper a COBIT framework was discussed as a part of IT

academic courses at the MIT University in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
MIT Faculty of Information Technologies develops unique and professional
standards into the higher education. It offers modern faculty premises and
facilities with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, research and academic
collaboration with Universities around the globe and affiliation with many
industry partners. Aligning COBIT courses with academic subjects, will make
COBIT framework understandable to students and can prepare them to
successfully attend professional COBIT courses and take the COBIT
Certificates.

Keywords: COBIT framework, ITIL framework, IT academic courses.

1 Introduction
Many organizations rely on IT to support business operations and meet strategic
objectives. They are faced with many challenges like:

- keep IT running - any technical failure produces IT systems become unavailable

and consequently the business to become unavailable;
- value - ensuring that IT provides value;
- costs - manage IT costs as carefully as other business costs;
- mastering Complexity;
- align IT with Business;
- regulatory Compliance;
- security - keep adequate security in their IT environment.

IT governance is a structure of relationships and processes. It helps achieve

business goals by adding value, balancing risks and gaining returns of investments. IT
governance comprises: principles ( responsibility, accountability, activities); internal
and external stakeholders (suppliers, customers, general public, users, governments);
scope (strategic alignment - aligning IT with business, value delivery, risk
management, resource management, performance management).

Y. Wang (Ed.): Education Management, Education Theory & Education Application, AISC 109, pp. 933938.
springerlink.com Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
934 V. Cabukovski and V. Tusevski

Some benefits of IT governance are:

- confidence of the top management - top management has a clear picture of how IT
is performing. It increases its trust and confidence in investment decisions;
- responsiveness of IT to business - IT is more responsive to business needs;
- higher Return of Investments (ROI) - effective IT governance helps reduce projects
failures, optimize IT infrastructure and increase the efficiency of IT processes;
- more reliable services - lower risk, better quality of services and greater customer
satisfaction
- more transparency - right information is available to the right level of decision
makers.

The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a set
of best practices (framework) for information technology (IT) management created by
the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the IT
Governance Institute (ITGI) in 1996 [2],[3],[4],[5].
COBIT provides managers, auditors, and IT users with a set of generally accepted
measures, indicators, processes and best practices to assist them in maximizing the
benefits derived through the use of information technology and developing
appropriate IT governance and control in a company.

2 The COBIT Framework

COBIT is a proven set of standardized processes that businesses can use to ensure that
information technology is effectively and securely integrated with business goals.
COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) was developed
by ITGI/ISACA in the early 1990's and has evolved into a global standard for control
over IT processes. COBIT is a framework and a knowledge base for IT processes and
their management. This framework is built with references to existing standards and
practices. It is a practical management tool rather than a definitive standard which
enables IT personnel, business people and audit and control specialist to relate to
COBIT easily.
The COBIT Framework has three components:

- Business Requirements / Information Criteria - What stakeholders expect from IT;

- IT Resources - a means to identify the resources required to execute processes;
- IT Processes - how IT is organized to meet requirements.
The short description of each of these components follows.

The Business Requirements comprises: Quality Requirements (Quality, Delivery,

Cost), Security Requirements (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) and Fiduciary
Requirements (Effectiveness and efficiency of operations, Compliance with laws and
regulations, Reliability of financial reporting).
 Aligning COBIT and ITIL with an IT Academic Courses 935

The Information Criteria is based on:

- Effectiveness deals with information being relevant and pertinent to the business
process as well as being delivered in a timely, correct, consistent and usable
manner;
- Efficiency concerns the provision of information through the optimal (most
productive and economical) usage of resources;
- Confidentiality concerns protection of sensitive information from unauthorized
disclosure;
- Integrity relates to the accuracy and completeness of information as well as to its
validity in accordance with the businesss set of values and expectations;
- Availability relates to information being available when required by the business
process, and hence also concerns the safeguarding of resources;
- Compliance deals with complying with those laws, regulations and contractual
arrangements to which the business process is subject, i.e., externally imposed
business criteria;
- Reliability of information relates to systems providing management with
appropriate information for it to use in operating the entity, providing financial
reporting to users of the financial information, and providing information to report
to regulatory bodies with regard to compliance with laws and regulations.

IT Resources are managed by IT processes to provide information that organization

needs to achieve its objectives: Applications, Information, Infrastructure, People.
The IT Process are defined and classified in four domains: Plan and Organize,
Acquire and Implement, Deliver and Support, Monitor and Evaluate. There are 34
processes across the 4 domains and activities (actions required to achieve measurable
results).
ISACA offers following COBIT courses:

- COBIT Foundation Course: 2 or 2,5 day classroom training course or 8 hour online
training
- COBIT Foundation Certificate: 40 multiple choice questions, To pass the exam
correct answers on 28 or more questions (score of 70% or higher)

The audience for COBIT Foundation Courses and Certificates are: IT auditors, IT
managers, IT quality professionals, IT leadership, IT developers, process practitioners
and managers in IT service providing firms.
The COBIT Foundations Course is consisting of the following topics:

- Module 1 Responding to IT Challenges

- Module 2 Introducing COBIT
- Module 3.1 What Does COBIT Provide Part 1
- Module 3.2 What Does COBIT Provide Part 1
- Module 4 Applying COBIT in practice
- Module 5 Products and supports from ITGI.
936 V. Cabukovski and V. Tusevski

3 The ITIL Framework

The IT Infrastructure Library is a set of books comprising an IT service management
Best Practices framework [1]. ITIL is created by and for the British government, later
expanded for use in all organizations. It gives a detailed description of important IT
practices, with comprehensive checklists, tasks, procedures and responsibilities. And
can be tailored to any IT organization. IT service providers use ITIL concepts and
practices to:

- Increase satisfaction of customers / users with

- IT services
- Enhance communication with customers
- Achieve higher reliability in mission-critical
- systems and infrastructure
- Improve the cost/benefit of services
- Create a common sense among staff
The IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) is an independent and internationally-
recognized forum for IT Service Management professionals worldwide. This not-for-
profit organization is a prominent player in the ongoing development and promotion
of IT Service Management "best practice", standards and qualifications and has been
since1991. The itSMF is concerned with promoting ITIL (the IT Infrastructure
Library), Best Practice in IT Service Management and has a strong interest in the
International ISO/IEC2000 standard. ITIL is a documented set of processes designed
to define how a companys IT functions can operate. ITIL contains a series of
statements defining the procedures, controls and resources that should be applied to a
variety of IT related processes. ITIL covers all the major areas of interest that
concern todays IT executive. ITIL is an excellent starting point from which to build
your IT service management system. ITIL allows for job specialization.
IT Service Management is consisting of the following subject topics:

- Introduction to IT Service Management

- Designing, developing and consulting IT services
- Service design
- Configuration management
- Service operation
- User training and education services
- System's administration services
- End user support services
- Maintenance services
- Customer.
 Aligning COBIT and ITIL with an IT Academic Courses 937

4 The under Graduate Study Programme at MIT Faculty of

Information Technologies
MIT Faculty of Information Technologies develops unique and professional standards
in the Macedonian higher education. It offers modern faculty premises and facilities
with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, Research and academic collaboration with
Universities around the globe and Affiliation with many industry partners in
Macedonia.
Some faculty strengths:

- Vocational relevance (employability)

- Practical teaching(assignments and case studies)
- Facilitating learning
- Interactive/active learning and creative thinking
- Online course management systems
- Teaching quality assurance
- Student portfolio
- Proactive on student feedback

The general MIT development premise is: No academic programme can stand
alone. It is important to form value-added alliances in a number of areas that include
other academic programs, top management from leading corporations in industry, and
trade associations.
Following this premise last year MIT University (MIT Faculty of Computer
Sciences and Technology) aligned ITIL Foundation Course and ITSM (IT Service
Management) subject. More than 50% of students were prepared to attend ITIL
Foundation Course and take the certificate. This percentage could be higher if ITSM
Subject was in the fifth semester (not in the third semester). It is too early for the
students to successfully connect this experience with the theory and practice of the
subjects in the first and second semester.
A subject aligned to COBIT Foundation Course could be introduced in a curricula
in the sixth semester.
Aligning COBIT Foundation Course with Academic subject, will make COBIT
understandable to students and can prepare them to successfully attend COBIT
Foundation Course and take the COBIT Foundation Certificates. MIT University has
the experience in this kind of alliance and can make it successfully.

5 Conclusion
COBIT is a proven set of standardized processes that businesses can use to ensure that
information technology is effectively and securely integrated with business goals.
COBIT is a framework and a knowledge base for IT processes and their management.
The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of books comprising an IT service
management Best Practices framework. These two frameworks are worldwide
recognized for professional certification. Aligning these frameworks with IT
academic courses can move forward the students in understanding and preparing them
938 V. Cabukovski and V. Tusevski

to successfully attend professional COBIT courses and take the COBIT Certificates.
Last year MIT University (MIT Faculty of Computer Sciences and Technology)
aligned ITIL Foundation Course and ITSM (IT Service Management) subject from
third semester. The results obtained shown that it is too early for the students to
successfully connect this professional experience with the theory and practice of the
subjects in the previous semesters. Better results could be obtained if the alignment
was done with subject in the fifth semester. A subject aligned to COBIT Foundation
Course could be introduced in a curricula in the sixth semester.

References
1. Aligning COBIT, ITIL and ITIL 17799 for Business Benefit: Management Summary, IT
Governance Institute (2005)
2. Ridley, G., et al.: COBIT and its Utilization: A framework from the literatute. In:
Proceedongs of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE, New
York (2004)
3. Weill, P., Ross, J.W.: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for
Superior Results. Harvard Business Scholl Press, Boston (2004)
4. Cobit Mapping, Mapping of ITIL v3 with Cobit 4.1, IT Governance Institute (2008)
5. Cobit 4.1, IT Governance Institute (2007)