Enablers are factors that, individually and collectively, influence whether something will work—in this case, governance and management over enterprise IT. Enablers are driven by the goals cascade, whereby higher-level IT-related goals define what the different enablers should achieve.
COBIT 5 defines 7 enablers which are ordered as follows;
Principles, policies and frameworks which translate the desired behaviour into practical guidance for day to day management.
Processes which describe an organized set of practices and activities to achieve certain objectives. These also produce a set of outputs that support the achievement of IT-related goals.
Organizational structures which are key decision-making entities in an enterprise
The Culture, ethics and behaviour, of individuals and of the enterprise, are very often underestimated as a success factor in governance and management activities
Information is pervasive throughout any organization and includes all information produced and used by the enterprise. Information is required for keeping the organization running and well governed, but at the operational level, information is very often the key product of the enterprise itself
Services, infrastructure and applications provide the enterprise with information technology processing and services
And finally, people, skills and competencies are linked to people and are required for successful completion of all activities and for making correct decisions taking corrective actions.
Enablers must be considered in terms of interconnectedness as each Enabler needs the input of other Enablers to be fully effective. For instance processes need information and organisational structures need skills and behaviour. They also and deliver output to benefit other Enablers for example processes deliver information, skills and behaviour of individuals to make processes efficient.
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IT Governance COBIT Video