Historically, IT within ABC Co has been driven as an enabler for the business, with a strong focus on cost management, IT being one of the largest components of costs within the organisation. The three divisional CEOs run investment committees at which all capital investment decisions are taken and progress is tracked, including IT$.$ The IT Steering committee$$s focus is mainly on infrastructural matters, operating costs and operational risk.

ABC Co$$s recently appointed IT Manager has sought to modernise the management of IT within ABC Co and has recently defined a strategy to support the strategy of the business as a whole. This initiative has met with some resistance from the CEOs within the business, as they feel that the business should be led by the divisional business leaders, who will set the direction for IT based on their defined business needs.

ABC Co$$s business leaders are highly critical of IT$,$ claiming it delivers unreliable, costly solutions. Projects in the ABC Co environment have tended to exceed budgets and deadlines and have resulted in a highly complex environment. Turnover of IT staff is high and ABC Co finds it difficult to attract the best talent in the market. The turnover is partly based on what are perceived to be unreasonable expectations of IT operating within tight constraints, with little objective data to substantiate the effectiveness of the IT team. As a result of this IT is heavily dependent on third party service providers to deliver its services.

Internal and external auditors have been critical of the IT control environment. Weaknesses in service continuity management and IT security regularly feature in the findings of both, and many in the organisation have used the audit feedback to lay the blame for high levels of fraud at the feet of IT$.$ In your private conversations with the IT manager she has expressed her frustration with the situation, particularly feeling that she is accountable for outcomes that she is not empowered to deliver and does not enjoy adequate support from the rest of the executive.

The structure of ABC board of directors are Audit and risk committee, Social and ethics committee, remuneration committee, Executive management and IT Steering committee under Executive committee

The board of ABC Co comprises $8$ members, $6$ non$-$executive directors, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Two of the non$-$executive directors represent XXX International, and two represent the interests of minority shareholders. The minority shareholders are Gamban nationals and have a very strong voice on the board and hold strong relationships with the Gamban regulatory authorities. All of the board members are from business backgrounds with limited IT knowledge and skills.

The executive committee comprises the CEO, CFO, CRO, CHCO, COO, CEO of Retail Banking, CEO of Corporate and Investment Banking and CEO of Insurance.

The IT steering committee is chaired by the CEO, and includes the IT Manager and divisional CEOs. The committee meets quarterly, and its agenda covers cost, operational risks and status of projects.

You have recently been appointed by ABC Co to drive the maturing of IT governance across the group. One of your first assignments was to prepare and deliver a presentation to the board of ABC Co Inc. to raise awareness regarding IT Governance.

Your initial presentation to the board covered the following:

$$ what IT governance is

$$ the business case for IT governance,

$$ what is expected of boards and board members in this regard;

$$ practical challenges in the implementation of IT governance; and

$$ recommended next steps in implementing an effective IT governance framework.

Write a memorandum to the CEO to:

a$.$ translate the twofold strategic goal into the two most appropriate COBIT enterprise goals and motivate why;

b$.$ scope $10$ COBIT Governance$/$Management objectives based on the strategic context and leveraging the Enterprise goals $$ Alignment goals $$ Governance$/$Management objectives cascade and motivate why you think this is a logical result and

c$.$ identify for each of the derived Governance$/$Management objectives the $2$ most important Governance$/$Management practices, for each identified practice the $2$ most important activities and motivate why.

The context of the case study should continuously and meticulously be taken into account and assessment will take the contextualization of the case study in mind.

MEMORANDUM

IT Governance in ABC Company

Briefly sketch the background to this memorandum and some core aspects you learnt from the case study and scenario set$>>$

$2.$ Analyse the strategic goal from an IT point of view and identify some critical aspects that might influence the governance of IT$>>$

$3.$ Identify two most appropriate COBIT enterprise goals and Motivation

$4.$ identify Ten most appropriate COBIT Governance$/$Management objectives scoped