Enhanced Framework to Maximize IT-related Investments Now Available as Free Download

IT Governance Institute Releases Val IT 2.0 to Help Executives - Increase Business Value and Enable Innovation

(28.07.08) - The IT Governance Institute (ITGI) announced a major update to the Val IT framework, a set of proven practices to help enterprises ensure that they realize value from their increasingly large-scale and complex investments in information technology (IT) and IT-enabled change. Enterprise Value: Governance of IT Investments, The Val IT Framework 2.0 broadens the scope of Val IT beyond new investments to encompass all IT expenditures including ongoing IT services, assets and other resources. It adds more depth to the framework by adding management guidelines that provide greater detail on the Val IT processes and key management practices, as well as maturity models for each Val IT domain.

ITGI also released today a companion guide that helps business and IT executives kickstart a value management initiative. Titled Getting Started With Value Management, the guide helps enterprises identify and implement the most relevant and critical Val IT processes.

"Organizations don’t have the luxury of embarking on IT investments that fail to deliver sufficient value nor can they allow underperforming investments to linger on—especially in the current economic climate. Yet few companies have processes for selecting and managing IT investments using the same rigor they apply to managing their financial investments," said John Thorp, CMC, ISP, a Val IT expert developer, author of The Information Paradox and management consultant. "Val IT gives executives across the organization a systematic framework for choosing between the winners and the losers - and managing the winners throughout their entire economic life cycle."

Val IT helps enterprises focus on outcomes and address the costs, risks and assumptions related to a balanced portfolio of IT-enabled business investments.

"Many organizations I work with have difficulty implementing IT governance because they base IT investment decisions on IT metrics instead of business metrics," said Robert Stroud, international vice president of the IT Governance Institute and IT governance evangelist at CA. "Val IT can help them identify more effective metrics, leading to successful investments in IT projects that better align with the strategic goals of their business."

Version 2.0 of Val IT has been enhanced with a range of additional features, including:

· Value governance processes have been restructured and extended to include a broader range of portfolios, such as IT services, assets, and other resources.

· Management guidelines for each Val IT process have been added. These include inputs to and outputs from each process, activities and associated roles and responsibilities, and goals and metrics.

· High-level and detailed, attribute-level maturity models have been provided for each of the three Val IT domains: value governance, portfolio management and investment management

· Terminology is more consistent with Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (CobiT), ITGI’s framework for managing the execution of IT initiatives.

According to a report by Forrester, calculating value for today’s change initiatives is more difficult, yet more critical, than ever before. The report recommends that "organizations struggling to execute IT strategies that deliver business value and to communicate this value to stakeholders should evaluate Val IT as a tool for improved value delivery."

Val IT extends and complements CobiT, which provides a comprehensive tool set for the management and delivery of high-quality information technology-based services. Val IT focuses on the investment decision - whether executives are doing the right things - and the realization of benefits - whether they are getting the benefits. CobiT focuses on execution - whether executives are doing things the right way and getting them done well. (IT Governance Institute: ra)