COBIT To Help ECZ Meet Stakeholder Needs

The training in COBIT 5 helps maximize the value of information by incorporating the latest thinking in enterprise governance and management techniques, and provides globally accepted principles, practices, analytical tools and models to help increase the trust in, and value from, information systems.

COBIT 5 is the only business framework for the governance and management of enterprise in Information Technology (IT). It is the product of a global task force and development team from ISACA, a non-profit, independent association of more than 140,000 governance, security, risk and assurance professionals in 187 countries.

Acting Director Information Technology (IT) Mr Dylan Kasonde said the key features of COBIT Training and the advantage of putting this framework at the centre of the governance efforts at the Commission was to provide for the attainment of benefits realisation, risk optimisation and resource optimisation which are part of governance objectives.

Mr Kasonde added that COBIT 5 was an overarching framework that has adopted best practices from other international standards such as the Information Technology Library (ITIL), International Standards Organisation (ISO), Projects in Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

He explained that the COBIT 5 training was structured into three levels namely Foundation, Implementation and Accessor. The training was conducted from 25th September to 3rd October, 2017 at KPMG, Elunda Park in Lusaka, and covered the foundation and Implementation levels.

In terms of insights that will be gained from the implementation of COBIT at the Commission as people access the training, Mr Kasonde said the Commission will be able to meet stakeholder needs, covering enterprise end-to-end (Enterprise implementation), integrated framework approach as well as a holistic approach and a separate Governance and Management of enterprise IT.

Asked how ECZ plans to use COBIT 5, Mr Kasonde said the Commission will adopt COBIT 5 in its business processes. “This will involve identification of business processes to align with COBIT 5.

processes, practices and activities.”

In terms of how the Commission would avoid potential implementation pitfalls by leveraging good practices, Mr Kasonde explained that it would ensure support of the framework and conduct enterprise awareness of the framework.
He added that the Commission would also manage change enablement to ensure culture; ethics and behavior were adapted to the framework and also work on continuous improvements to ensure sustainability and relevance. Each stage involved writing an ISACA COBIT 5 examination.

Principle Electoral Officer Mr Steve Nyondo said that the training was good and intense as the business enterprises IT integrated IT into day to day business making IT familiar and compatible to stakeholders. Senior Electoral Officer Mrs. Annie Nkaka had learnt that the management and governance of an entire organisation requires an integrated approach.

The participants to the COBIT Training included staff from Elections, Information Technology (IT), Audit and Human Resource (HR) departments.

The staff that participated in the training are Acting Director IT – Mr Dylan Kasonde, Audit Manager- Margaret Chibuye, Senior Administrative Officer Mangala Zimba, Acting Manager Voter Education Mataa Sikota Network, Acting Operations Manager Memory Mwamba, Engineer John Sikwese and Database Administrator Chulu Chipakata.

Others were Acting Systems Manager Gift Phiri, Software Developer Alinani Simuchimba Principle Electoral Officer Steve Nyondo, Senior Electoral Officer Annie Nkaka, Internal Auditor Chitundu Sinyangwe and Internal Auditor Naomi Hara.

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For this and more stories read the ECZ Monthly of October, 2017