How much do you need to know
about governing IT in your organisation?

The Infonomics Education Program has options that suit your needs.

Each module is designed to bring you specific skills.
The complete program is designed to make you the expert!

See below the diagram for a brief description of each module and a class timetable.

Modules shown in green are available now.
Modules in blue will be available progressively through 2011.

Briefing

In one hour, or less if necessary, the briefing module introduces the guidance of ISO 38500 to those who are involved in directing and controlling their organisation's use of IT.  It emphasises the essential concepts for an effective system in which business leaders can govern the use of IT with no technical expertise at all.

The briefing is designed for all and contains no jargon.  It can be readily customised to suit its audience.

 

Seminar

Invest a half day to learn why business leaders should govern IT, and how they can do so effectively without becoming technology experts.

The Seminar explains the difference between governing and managing IT, putting the governance tasks into the same context as top level oversight of other resources.  With an outline of the ISO 38500 governance tasks and principles, seminar participants can begin to apply the standard's guidance in their own roles, and explain the value in a more comprehensive adoption program.

 Each participant also undertakes a preliminary 12 point assessment of their organisation's governance of IT. 

 

Immersion

When time and scarce, the Immersion class gives its participants the most comprehensive base of knowledge about the ISO 38500 approach to governing IT that can be covered in a single day.  Beginning with a case study drawn from aviation, the Immersion class explores the business imperatives for successful use of IT in day by day operations and in building of new business capability. 

 Participants build insight to the role and control of IT throughout the business cycle, and how governance and management tasks are interdependent.  The key messages in ISO 38500 are individually identified and explained, along with the governance tasks and guiding principles.  Learning and insight is reinforced through a 30 point self-assessment of how well each participant's organisation governs its use of IT.  The Immersion class concludes with a high level overview of how organisations can progressively adopt ISO 38500 to improve their governance of IT.

 

Governing IT to drive NBN value

 Australia is investing in a massive new infrastructure development, to bring high speed broadband communications to the majority of the population.  But like all infrastructure, the value of the investment will be realised only when the infrastructure is put to appropriate use.

 Driving the full value of Australia's NBN requires a new level of leadership in business and government to exploit the potential. 

 This 6 hour workshop is for business leaders, government leaders and technology leaders, and aims to equip them with the new perspective they will need to underpin their efforts to create and deliver visionary advances that are enabled by ubiquitous high speed communications.

 

Foundation

 ISO 38500 may be only 15 pages long, but it contains a substantial array of powerful advice for business leaders and for IT Practitioners.  The Foundation class is designed to lay the complete foundation for comprehensive understanding of the messages and guidance in the standard.  The Foundation class follows the same agenda as the Immersion class, but takes the time to go deeper into each topic, with opportunities to reinforce learning through group discussion and debate.  Operating under "Chatham House" rules, the class encourages participants to share their own experiences and draw lessons accordingly.

 An important feature of the Foundation class is the 84 point self-assessment - the deepest level of assessment used by Infonomics to generate insight to the effectiveness of any organisation's approach to directing and controlling its use of IT.  The self-assessment results are modelled and discussed using unique Infonomics tools and provide a basis for further planning within each participant's organisation. 

 The Foundation class concludes by looking at the approaches through which organisations can begin to adopt ISO 38500, and development of an initial action plan to transform the class learning into organisational reality.

 

Planning

 Directing and controlling the use of IT begins with developing the plans for the organisation - its vision and strategy.  These activities were once independent of IT, but nowadays organisations that embed the potential of IT in their base plans are the ones that flourish, and failure to consider IT at the highest level can result in serious negative consequences.

 The Planning class builds on the Foundation (or Immersion) class to build understanding of how to make IT an integral part of business planning, rather than an afterthought.  The key messages, tasks and principles delivered in ISO 38500 are explored in detail to establish a new and powerful perspective on who is responsible for planning and what planning IT means in the 21st century.

 Contemporary case studies complement a focused self-assessment and development of prototype policies to equip each participant with a sound understanding of change that may be required to ensure that their own organisations are winners in the IT-enabled future.

 

Building

Just as a rail line is of no use at all without rolling stock, stations and customers, building IT-enabled business capability involves vastly more than merely acquiring or developing some IT components.  Building an IT enabled business demands substantial attention to the full spectrum of business capability.  The Building class applies the guidance of ISO 38500 to the implementation activities through which organisations should deliver substantial value with acceptable risk.  It also exploits a companion to ISO 38500, the Australian Standard AS 8016, to further explain how organisations can more effectively oversee the organisation and conduct of these IT projects.

 Again by using specially designed self-assessment tools, case studies and discussion of individual experience, the class equips its participants with the knowledge and information they need to begin improving their own organisation's approach to building the IT-enabled future.

 

Running

 Virtually every contemporary organisation is substantially dependent on IT for day by day, and often minute by minute activities.   At the same time, contemporary trends to outsourcing and other commercial arrangements for access to information technology resources increase the gap between those who support the IT capability and those who run the business on which it depends.  Running an IT-enabled business no longer needs deep operational IT skills, but it does demand that business managers, more than ever, understand that they are using IT as a tool, and that their expertise in using the tool is critically important.    The Running class follows the pattern of the Planning and Building classes, using the ISO 38500 lens to look at how organisations should govern the operational use and management of IT.

 Further self-assessment tools, additional case studies and discussion of a range of common operational situations equip participants with a deep understanding of the capabilities that should be in place to ensure that operational use of IT is appropriately robust and efficient.  In-class development of prototype policies again contribute to a rapid application of new knowledge to individual organisations immediately after the class is complete.

 

Change Agent/Practitioner

 Adopting ISO 38500 is not as simple as reading a book and issuing an instruction.  Nor can it be achieved merely by purchasing and installing a new IT solution.  In many organisations, achieving effective governance of IT involves "unlearning" decades of practice that while once sound is now inappropriate.    Change programs for adopting ISO 38500 should start at the top and can require extensive facilitation of change that may well touch every person in the organisation, as well as business partners, suppliers, customers, regulators and other stakeholders.

 The Change Agent/Practitioner class is designed for those who will lead and facilitate the change programs.  The class is available only to those who have already demonstrated sound understanding of ISO 38500 across the entire spectrum of business, through completion of the Foundation, Planning, Building and Running classes.  Participants should also have established management and, preferably, change agent or consulting experience in business and IT contexts.

 Those who successfully complete this intensive week long class will be well-equipped to explain why top level governance of IT is critical in the information age and what the guidance in ISO 38500 means throughout the business cycle.  They will be fully equipped to use established diagnostics to understand and model the characteristics of a subject organisation, to design a change program and to support the development of the policies, practices and capabilities required to effectively direct and control the use of IT throughout the organisation's business cycle.

 

Leaders

Many business leaders are time poor and unable to allocate large blocks of time to classroom based learning.  Yet these same business leaders can and should learn a great deal about directing and controlling the IT on which their organisations increasingly depend.

 The Leaders Series of short classes is designed in modules of two to three hours each, to take the business leader through the fundamentals of the governing body and executive management roles in governance and management of IT.  In addition to gaining new perspective on how they can directly influence behaviour and success, the business leaders will gain new insight to the activities that should be happening within their organisations, to apply the direction they have set and to provide appropriate feedback on the organisation's performance and behaviour in its use of IT.

Class Schedule

 

Training by request

Wherever in the world you are located, Infonomics can come to you to help people understand Corporate Governance of IT and ISO/IEC 38500. Infonomics is happy to partner with professional and industry organisations, IT organisations and training companies to arrange and deliver effective knowledge transfer events.   For enquiries, please email us.

To arrange in-house delivery of ISO/IEC 38500 Education, or to partner with Infonomics to organise events, please Contact Infonomics