Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Brisbane ISACA chapter’s Executive Lunch with John Thorp on the topic of Value Governance, Investment Management and Portfolio Management. Amongst many other qualifications, John chairs the ITGI Val IT Committee.
John’s luncheon presentation was very, very good, and reaffirmed some of the positions I’ve had for some time now. What I love about COBIT and VAL IT is that it is bringing a framework to all that stuff we have in the past done ‘just because’.
Some highlights for me from John’s presentation were the following points:
- IT investments don’t exist, this is all about investment in IT-enabled change – which we can only change when business and IT know who is responsible for what.
- A nice little formula from John: OO + NT = COO [Old Organisation + New Technology = Complex Old Organisation]. Seen that a few times.
- Appealing to the television geeks in the audience (like myself), John pilloried the Star Trek school of management – ‘Make It So!’ is rarely as successful as it is in Star Trek. For a start, most people have no common view as to what ‘it’ is.
- John has a nice turn of phrase – ‘bad news does not get better with age’; ‘decibel-based decision-making’, ‘more effort into less things for more value’ (so true!).
- Apparently governance goes back to the Greek word ‘kubernan’, which is defined as ‘continually steering or adjusting to stay on course’.
- There is a new VAL IT – VAL IT 2.0, which partners COBIT more closely than in the past, and is maturing. I suspect that in a year or two the course I am giving on IT Governance needs to pick up on this point and move with it.
- What I have always referred to as a ‘business prioritisation forum’ is better called an ‘investment services board’ – at least that is what it is in VAL IT parlance.
I believe John’s presentation will soon be on the Chapter website.
Last night I had also had the honour of attending dinner for a recorded roundtable discussion on the topic of IT Governance, with many local professionals giving their thoughts and comments. One of the curious things that really did highlight for me is probably that the term ‘IT Governance’ is all wrong – which is why ISACA’s new qualification is called ‘CGEIT’ – Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT. I haven’t met anyone yet who actually likes the term, yet we keep using it and getting confused with corporate governance issues.
I mean, why don’t we have a marketing governance or an HR Governance, or such like?
At any rate, John is very passionate about advancing the profession in the world of IT management.
It was a good night, and we certainly managed to relax after the microphone was turned off in the convention centre. I was bitterly disappointed though – the Plough Inn was closed at 10.20 on a Thursday night. Bitterly disappointed!