CHAPTER 9: COBIT 5 RESOURCES
‘You cannot open a book without learning something.’
Confucius (551-479 BC)
This chapter discusses the official COBIT 5 documentation and the official COBIT 5 training courses and certifications.
Documentation
ISACA’s COBIT documentation has a reputation for being state of the art and highly accurate. The COBIT 5 framework was developed by an international team of experts and the draft design (April 2010) and subsequent draft documents (July 2011) were both publicly published as exposure drafts for worldwide public reviews and then revised and peer-reviewed before formal documentation was published in April 201286 and is listed in Table 9.1.
Apart from the overview document that may be considered a Framework document since that is its title: COBIT®5: A Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT, the other COBIT 5 documentation is divided into two main categories: Enabler and Professional. Enabler documents provide detailed information about a specific enabler: initially published was Enabling Processes, then in late 2013 Enabling Information will be published and perhaps later other enablers? Professional documents relate to roles: implementation, assessment, assurance, risk management, information security. Professional documents may later be published for other roles such as IT service management.
All documentation is available as printed books or downloadable PDF files. Most documentation is freely available to ISACA members, but some books are only available to ISACA members by purchase.
Since COBIT 3, COBIT has also provided an online database that contains key COBIT documentation and provides a discussion forum and a benchmarking database. This is still under development for COBIT 5 at the time of writing this book (September 2013) and a tentative release in late 2013 has been announced that will provide access to COBIT 5 publications. Other non-COBIT, ISACA content and other GEIT content is tentatively planned to be available in early 2014. In addition, in mid-2014, further growth will provide the ability to customise COBIT to fit enterprise needs and to provide multi-user access, too.
Training and Certification
COBIT 5 training is controlled and run by APMG in conjunction with ISACA. APMG/ISACA jointly organise the syllabi for COBIT 5 courses and set and mark exams. In addition APMG/ISACA assesses training organisations and appoints them as accredited training organisations (ATOs) for COBIT 5. Trainers working for COBIT 5 ATOs must have appropriate background and experience relating to the COBIT 5 courses they teach and they must themselves have passed exams with 67 percent compared to the pass mark of 50 percent.
There are three COBIT 5 courses with a roadmap for training shown in Figure 9.1.
Figure 9.1: Roadmap of COBIT®5 Certifications
Each course has a multiple-choice exam in the final hours of the course that leads to gaining a certificate if the 50 percent pass mark is reached. Exam style and duration are shown in Table 9.2:
Table 9.2 Examinations for COBIT®5 Certifications
The exams on the COBIT 5 Implementation and COBIT 5 Assessor courses can only be taken by candidates who already hold a COBIT 5 Foundation Certificate and who have attended official training courses run by ATOs.
The COBIT Certified Assessor is not a training course but a certificate granted to professionals who hold both COBIT® Foundation and COBIT 5 Assessor Certificates and can provide documented evidence of work experience in the field of business management, IT management or management consultancy. Two years’ experience can be substituted by holding a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA®) Certificate or other relevant auditing or assessment qualifications. To maintain possession of a COBIT Certified Assessor Certificate two assessments must be conducted every two years.
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