Cobit FAQ > Who are the Process owners?

Who are the process owners?

CobiT is business process oriented and therefore addresses itself in the first place to the owners of these processes. Referring to Porter's Generic Business Model we are talking about core processes (procurement, operations, marketing, sales, etc.) as well as support processes (human resources, administration, information technology, etc.). As a consequence, CobiT is not only to be applied by the IT department, but by the business as a whole.

The above approach stems from the fact that in today's enterprises, the process owners are responsible for the performance of their processes, of which IT has become an integral part. In other words, they are empowered but also accountable. As a consequence, the business process owners bear the final responsibility for the information technology as deployed within the confines of their business process. Of course, they will make use of services provided by specialised parties like the traditional IT department or the third party service provider.

CobiT provides the business process owners with a framework, which should enable them to control all the different activities underlying IT deployment. As a result, on this basis they can gain reasonable assurance that IT will contribute to the achievement of their business objectives. Moreover, CobiT provides the business process owners with a generic communication framework to facilitate understanding and clarity among the different parties involved in the delivery of IT services.

Furthermore, the addition of the Management Guidelines in the 3rd Edition provides management with a set of tools that allow self-assessment in order to make choices for control implementation and improvements over IT, and measure the achievement of goals and the proper performance of IT processes. The Management Guidelines include maturity models, critical success factors, key goal indicators and key performance indicators to support managerial decision making.