CGEIT Exam Dumps - Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT Exam

 Service level agreements (SLAs) are the most important consideration when developing a new IT service, because they define the expectations and obligations of both the service provider and the service consumer. SLAs specify the scope, quality, availability, performance, and security of the IT service, as well as the roles and responsibilities, escalation procedures, and penalties for non-compliance. SLAs help to ensure that the IT service meets the business needs and objectives of the service consumer, and that the service provider delivers the IT service in a consistent and reliable manner. SLAs also provide a basis for measuring and improving the IT service delivery and management processes. References := CGEIT Review Manual, Chapter 3: Benefits Realization, Section 3.2: IT Value Delivery Processes, Subsection 3.2.1: IT Service Delivery, Page 93.

 An IT balanced scorecard (BSC) is a framework that measures and manages the performance and value of IT in relation to the enterprise’s strategy, goals, and objectives. An IT BSC provides the most comprehensive insight into the effectiveness of IT, because it covers four perspectives that reflect the key aspects of IT: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. For each perspective, an IT BSC defines objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives that align with the enterprise’s vision and mission. An IT BSC also helps to balance the short-term and long-term outcomes of IT, as well as the leading and lagging indicators of IT performance. According to ISACA’s article on The IT Balanced Scorecard1, “the IT BSC is a powerful tool for demonstrating the contribution of IT to the business, communicating IT performance in business terms, and aligning IT with business strategy.” Furthermore, according to ISACA’s CGEIT Domain 1: Framework for the Governance of Enterprise IT2, “the IT BSC is a widely used framework for measuring and managing the performance of IT resources in relation to enterprise goals.” Therefore, an IT BSC is the best way to provide a comprehensive insight into the effectiveness of IT.

 The MOST effective way for the CIO to ensure that the new IT objectives are cascaded to IT personnel is to define individual performance measures related to the IT objectives. Cascading goals is a framework to get everyone in an organization aligned with the big picture organizational goal, and to make sure they know what to do by breaking strategy into clear tasks and deliverables1. By defining individual performance measures related to the IT objectives, the CIO can:

Communicate the expectations and priorities of the IT function to each IT staff member2

Link the individual goals and activities to the IT objectives and the organizational strategy3

Motivate and empower the IT staff to take ownership and responsibility for their work4

Monitor and evaluate the progress and performance of the IT staff and provide feedback and recognition5

The other options are not as effective as option B. While it is important to communicate the new IT objectives, establish IT management’s performance measures, and update the IT balanced scorecard, these are not sufficient to ensure that the IT objectives are cascaded to IT personnel. They are rather means to achieve the end goal of aligning and measuring the IT objectives at different levels of the organization. They do not necessarily translate into clear and specific actions and outcomes for each individual IT staff member.

Enterprise architecture (EA) is the best option to support the planning of IT investments required for the enterprise, because EA is a practice and a discipline that describes and documents the current and future state of the enterprise’s business processes, applications, data, infrastructure, and security, and how they align with the enterprise’s vision, mission, goals, and objectives. EA can help the enterprise to plan IT investments by providing a holistic view of the enterprise’s IT architecture, identifying the gaps, needs, and opportunities for improvement, innovation, or transformation, and prioritizing and selecting the IT projects, programs, and portfolios that deliver the most value to the stakeholders and customers. According to ISACA’s CGEIT Domain 2: IT Resources1, “EA is a key enabler for IT investment planning and decision making. EA helps to ensure that IT investments are aligned with business strategy and support business outcomes.” Furthermore, according to ISACA’s article on EA2, “EA can help to optimize IT spending by reducing complexity, duplication, and waste, and by increasing efficiency, agility, and interoperability.” Therefore, EA is the best way to support the planning of IT investments required for the enterprise.

 Privacy requirements should be the most important consideration for a hospital planning to use cloud services and mobile applications, because they involve the protection of sensitive and personal health information (PHI) of the patients and staff. PHI is a type of data that is subject to strict regulations and standards, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the US1, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU2, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada3. These regulations and standards require the hospital to ensure that PHI is collected, stored, processed, and transmitted in a secure and compliant manner, and that the rights and consent of the data subjects are respected. Using cloud services and mobile applications can pose significant challenges and risks to privacy, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, data loss, data residency, third-party liability, etc. Therefore, the hospital should carefully evaluate the privacy requirements and implications of using cloud services and mobile applications, and adoptappropriate governance, policies, controls, and measures to safeguard PHI in the cloud environment.

The best way for a CIO to monitor the alignment between the business and IT strategy is to regularly review the balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that helps to measure and communicate the performance of an organization in relation to its vision, mission, goals, and objectives. The balanced scorecard uses four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth, to evaluate how well the organization is achieving its desired outcomes and creating value for its stakeholders1. The balanced scorecard can also help to align the IT strategy with the business strategy by linking the IT objectives, initiatives, and measures with the business objectives, initiatives, and measures across the four perspectives2. By reviewing the balanced scorecard regularly, the CIO can monitor the progress and results of the IT strategy, identify the gaps and issues that need to be addressed, and ensure that the IT strategy is supporting and enabling the business strategy. According to COBIT 5, one of the seven enablers of IT governance is performance management, which includes using the balanced scorecard to align IT-related goals and metrics with enterprise goals and metrics3. The balanced scorecard is also part of the IT governance domain 5: Performance Measurement4.

The other options are not the best ways for a CIO to monitor the alignment between the business and IT strategy. Key risk indicators (KRIs) are metrics that indicate the level of risk exposure or potential impact of a risk event on an organization. KRIs can help to monitor and manage IT risks, but they do not necessarily reflect the alignment of IT strategy with business strategy. IT services supporting business processes are the activities and functions that IT provides to enable and facilitate the execution of business processes. Reviewing IT services can help to evaluate the quality and efficiency of IT delivery, but they do not capture the strategic alignment of IT with business. The risk register is a document that records and tracks the identified risks, their causes, impacts, probabilities, responses, owners, and statuses. The risk register can help to document and communicate IT risks, but it does not measure or report the alignment of IT strategy with business strategy. References := 1: Balanced Scorecard Basics - Balanced Scorecard Institute12: Aligning Business Strategy with Information Technology Strategy - ISACA23: COBIT 5: A Business Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT, ISACA, page 314: CGEIT Review Manual 2023, ISACA, page 197. : Key Risk Indicators - ISACA3 : What are IT Services? Definition & Examples - BMC Software4 : Risk Register - ISACA

According to the ISACA paper on IT Governance Reporting1, the IT strategy committee is a board-level committee that is responsible for overseeing and guiding the IT strategy and governance of the enterprise. The IT strategy committee helps to ensure that IT supports and enables the achievement of the enterprise’s strategy, objectives and goals, and that IT delivers value, benefits and competitive advantage to the enterprise. One of the decisions that would be made by the IT strategy committee is the composition of the investment portfolio, which is the set of IT projects and programs that are selected, prioritized, funded and monitored by the enterprise. The composition of the investment portfolio reflects the strategic alignment, value proposition and risk profile of IT, as well as the resource allocation and optimization of IT. The other options are not decisions that would be made by the IT strategy committee, but rather by other IT governance bodies or roles, such as the IT steering committee, the IT management team, or the chief information officer (CIO). References: IT Governance Reporting, IT Strategy Committee