Please provide any thoughts on the below items (1, 2, and 3).

1. ITIL was first introduced in the 1980s by the British government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) for best practices in information technology(White, S. 01/18/2019). ITIL is a roadmap, and like any other roadmap, it is an interactive lifecycle that starts by forming a team to brainstorm on a strategic decision that needs implementation. Followed by designing the steps required to implement the decision and once the implementation is complete it will help evaluate the project and improve areas that need improvement. Itil is a series of books that provides guidance on the quality of the IT service and supports it. Itil gives the advantage of reducing costs, improvement of the IT services, improvement of customer satisfaction and improvement of productivity, improvement of use skill and experience (Schneider, L. 2020).

Cobit is an IT management framework to help organizations develop, organize and implement strategies around information management and governance( White, S.01/15/2019). Cobit was introduced in the 1996s. Cobit is mostly used by IT auditors to control, however IT management has adopted the framework for good controls and to integrate other best practices that align with business strategy. Cobit has four domains planning and organization, acquisition and implementation, delivery and support, and finally monitoring. This covers all aspects of IT and ensures adequate control of the business process.

Cobit and Itil are similar in many ways as they both focus on information technology service management, Cobit main objective is for business to control and to align the business goals to the IT goals. On the other hand ITil focuses on the organization of the IT department for constant improvement.

These two best practices can not solve all the issues of IT governance on their own, it will be wise of GGFRT to use a combination of these frameworks. CObit will help with reporting and control of the financial data to be in compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley act. ITIL will help the company business strategic objective, as to track the whereabouts of the freight, improve the percent of loaded miles in the fleet

2. Capability Maturity Model (CMM)refers to the methodologies used in developing and refining the maturity of the company's software development process. To determine whether an organization's software development has reached a maturity level, it is important to first analyze the company's software development process. This way, it would be easy to document the level of accomplishment that the company's software development process has achieved. The CMM was proposed by SIE in the year 1980 to help in improving processes. The organization can assess its software development process against the CMM on a scale of 1 to 5 processes maturities levels

a. Level One: Initial -at this level, the organization performs its work informally. Every process is ad hoc without proper planning or budgeting

b. Level Two: Repeatable -at level 2 are the organizations that have planned their work and tracked their processes. Their project management process is very basic but is effective enough in cost tracking, scheduling, and functionality managements

c. Level Three: Defined -level 3 organizations in this model have properly defined software development processes. They have also clearly defined their software process both for the management and for the engineering activities. Their documentation of the processes is also advantageous to the company (Manjula & Vaideeswaran, 2010).

d. Level Four: Managed -at level 4, the organization has proper structures for quantitatively controlling its work. They can manage software quality and quantitatively manage processes. The management has control over their software development efforts. There are also precise metrics in place for controlling the same. The company will have a quantitative quality goal for its processes and maintenance. The company will also have in place a quantitative technique, statistical controlled techniques that can be easily used to predict the process development and maintenance (Persse, 2001).

e. Level Five: Optimizing.

At level 5, the company's work is based on continuous improvement. Some of the key features of the company's continuous improvements processes include a highly integrated change management process (Florac, &, Carleton, 2017). They are ready for technology change management as well as defect prevention measures

I work for a company that is already at level 5 of the model. Most of the processes here are highly optimized to prevent waste. The company does not hold inventory but ensures that software development processes can be crashed by employing a team to work on different modules concurrently the integrate the processes. The company has a team in place to work on the code or modules that would be integrated into the systems. Instead of waiting for the weaknesses to appear, the company engaged in proactive maintenance (Sayyadi, Farazmand, & Gholami, 2012). Finally, the company has implemented statistical process control such that anytime the company's processes have many defects above the upper and lower limits, the company reviews the whole process for defects.

3. Explain the differences between CoBIT and ITIL. Which of these methods do you feel is most appropriate for GGFRT? Thoroughly explain the justification for your choice, which will take some research on your part. A source is necessary for this response. If you would utilize both methods, which would you suggest was focused upon first? Please justify your response.

COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) is an IT management framework that is utilized for developing, monitoring, implementing and improving IT governance and management strategies (Pedamkar, n.d.).

COBIT 2019 is based on 6 cores principles for governance system (Shiff, 2021):

1. Provide value to stakeholders
2. Holistic approach: think big picture
3. Dynamic: need to think of system impact if a design factor were to change.
4. Governance distinct from Management.
5. Tailored to system needs.
6. End-to-end: Governance encompasses all enterprise functions.

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a globally recognized framework that provides direction on how to utilize IT for business needs through designed best practices, planning and selection (Pedamkar, n.d.).

The key components of the ITIL 4 framework are (Shiff, 2021):

1. The ITIL service value system (SVS)
   • ITIL service chain value
   • ITIL practices
   • ITIL guiding principles
   • Governance
   • Continual improvement
2. The four dimensions model
3. 1. Organizations and People
   2. Information and Technology
   3. Partners and Suppliers
   4. Value Streams and Processes

Both COBIT and ITIL provide great value to companies but they do differ in their approach. COBIT provides a framework that points to "what" should be done, whereas ITIL describes the "how" (Pedamkar, n.d.). COBIT focuses on controlling IT services to align them with business goals, while ITIL drives towards managing IT services to make operational services run optimally.

Where GGFRT is with their IT system and currently in early stages with updating systems and making transitions of change in their organizational structure, it would be best suited for them to look at starting with the ITIL framework and when services and structure are more in place and running a bit more optimally, obtaining COBIT to pair with ITIL in a unified approach to really leverage organizational strengths and align their IT services to meet business objectives.

References