
Val IT

Val IT is a governance framework that can be used to create business value from IT investments. It consists of a set of guiding principles and a number of processes and best practices that are further defined as a set of key management practices to support and help executive management and boards at an enterprise level. The latest release of the framework, published by IT Governance Institute (ITGI), based on the experience of global practitioners and academics, practices and methodologies was named "Enterprise Value: Governance of IT Investments, The Val IT Framework 2.0". It covers processes and key management practices for three specific domains and goes beyond new investments to include IT services, assets, other resources and principles and processes for IT portfolio management.
Overview.
Val IT allows business managers to get business value from IT investments, by providing a governance framework that consists of
The major domains are as follows:
Currently (as of 2006) a relatively short body of work, it will evolve and expand over time, with documents available for download via the Val IT Page at ISACA, and include:
Relationship to COBIT.
Val IT is tightly integrated with COBIT Version 4, also from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (a.k.a. ISACA). The Framework document explains the difference between COBIT and Val IT as follows:
Val IT extends and complements COBIT, which provides a comprehensive control framework for IT governance. Specifically, Val IT focuses on the investment decision ("are we doing the right things?") and the realisation of benefits ("are we getting the benefits?"), while COBIT focuses on the execution ("are we doing them the right way, and are we getting them done well?")
COBIT Version 5 incorporates Val IT (and Risk IT) to its framework:
The COBIT 5 process reference model is the successor of the COBIT 4.1 process model, with the Risk IT and Val IT process models integrated as well.
Relationship to VMM.
Value Measuring Methodology (VMM), which has the motto "it's not just about ROI any more", provides more specific guidance than Val IT about:
Major Processes.
Each of the following major processes/activities have a responsibility assignment (RACI) matrix, indicating the responsibilities of the senior executives, business managers, and information managers, along with the major and minor COBIT control objectives associated with the activity.
Use with other management domains.
As with COBIT, Val IT can be adapted for use with many other domains that are yet to develop an engineering perspective, by either removing the phrases "Information Technology" and "IT-enabled", or replacing them with the name of your domain of interest (e.g. "Marketing"), and then "season to taste".