COBiT Basics > Management guidelines > Key goal indicators

Key goal indicators

A Key Goal Indicator, representing the process goal, is a measure of "what" has to be accomplished. It is a measurable indicator of the process achieving its goals, often defined as a target to achieve.

By comparison, a Key Performance Indicator, which will be addressed in the next section, is a measure of "how well" the process is performing. This relationship is best illustrated below by a concept of the Balanced Business Scorecard, which also looks for measures of outcome of the goal and for measures of performance relative to the enablers that will make it possible for the goal to be achieved. And in this context we need to remember that IT is a major enabler of the business.

IT, as one of the major enablers of the business, will have its own scorecard. As an enabler, its measures will be performance indicators, i.e., how well is the enabler performing such that it can give an indication that the business goal will be achieved. It should also be noted that performance measures relative to the business become goal measures for IT, i.e., the Balanced Business Scorecards are cascade.