Control OBjectives for Information and related Technologies (CobiT) is a rapidly growing framework and set of generic business process for “directing and controlling an enterprise’s information technology.”  As I read through the CobiT Specification it became very clear to me that workflow is (or should be) an essential element of any implementation effort.

One of the nice features of CobiT® is that it provides the framework for control, and leaves the execution of that control to the organization adopting it.  This allows the flexibility of implementation and leaves open the question of just how much an organization will use the framework to its advantage.  Those that invest heavily in it over time, like the Capability Maturity Model, will see great internal rewards (ROI), and help fuel the corporation with information and resources that not only align with the current business strategies and objectives, but lead to further competitive advantage.

For example, it’s one thing to produce a set of documents about the organization of IT assets, policies and procedures (all good unto themselves), but it’s quite another to put those policies and procedures into reproducible, repeatable practice through electronic workflows, which assures control and monitoring of those processes.  So the data managed by the workflows serve the control objectives CobiT® talks about, but the execution of the workflows provides “meta process data” about the efficiency of those workflows that, in turn, provides insight into how to improve those processes.

With a flexible workflow tool, solid data, and an agile corporate governance culture, an iterative and incremental approach to improving the organization (i.e., climbing the CMM levels) can be reached in an efficiently sane manner.

CEOs, CFOs and CIOs of mid- to large-enterprises are now looking at CobiT in order to support COSO as part of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.  While they are looking at this, they should look one level higher to realize that, how they choose to implement CobiT and COSO can have a dramatic impact on the long term agility and competitiveness of the entire organization.  At a lower level, the workflow tools and overall portal technology that holds the information managed by the workflows, are essential to get right. 

SPS Workflow believes that, while there are many good portal technologies and workflow tools, the power of the SharePoint/ShareVis toolset is hard to match.  But what do you think?  Give me some feedback about how your organization plans to implement CobiT, COSO, or Sarbanes-Oxley, and how they fit into the overall strategy of moving your company forward.