K-12 Technology Works


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IT Management or IT Governance? Most people in K-12 believe that they have a handle on IT Management, or at least understand what it is. But the concept of IT Governance has been slow to gain traction in the education community, especially in K-12. At K12TW, we consider this extremely unfortunate, as IT Governance offers precisely the formula that’s needs to ensure that technology is effectively leveraged in our school systems.

From our perspective, IT Governance forms the only umbrella under which good IT management and controls can truly flourish. The focus of IT Governance is the stewardship of IT resources on behalf of the stakeholders who expect a return from their investment. The actual IT leadership within your organization undoubtedly plays a critical role in this endeavor, but as was made clear in the international standard for governance of information technology, ISO38500, the true responsibility for IT Governance lies with the executive leadership of any organization.

In K-12, this puts the responsibility for IT Governance squarely in the lap of your cabinet. It is not cabinet’s job to manage technology but to govern IT. This level of governance is not concerned with everyday operations. This is the domain of frameworks and standards designed to couple with sound governance practices. IT Governance is primarily concerned with ensuring value and managing risk.

According to the IT Governance Institute (ITGI), there are five domains of IT governance:

Strategic Alignment
Value Delivery
Resource Management
Risk Management
Performance Measurement

Together these domains comprise the major areas of focus required to control IT and fully optimize the value of your investment in technology.

K-12 Technology Works offers a range of services directed toward bringing effective IT Governance to your organization. Our services include everything you’ll need from executive consulting, coaching and education to assistance in the implementation of enabling frameworks. In fact, our entire catalog can be easily plugged into an IT Governance implementation.

We will work with your cabinet to develop the high level controls and metrics needed to ensure that IT is aligned with organizational goals and objectives. We can provide education and guidance, as well as hands-on assistance to make this happen. But no such project is complete without the operational systems needed for effective management. This is where we turn to best practices and the implementation of IT management frameworks.

These frameworks for IT management and control are indispensible in order to facilitate IT Governance. At K12TW, we rely on two major frameworks for this purpose. The first is Cobit (Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies). Cobit is a framework comprised of 4 domains, 34 processes and 215 control objectives. It is aligned to the IT Governance model and provides invaluable insight into what is required for management of your IT processes.

The second framework leveraged at K12TW is ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). Unlike Cobit, ITIL is focused on how to implement best practice in managing IT. The version 3.0 library is comprised of 5 volumes that cover the entire IT management life cycle.

Together, Cobit and ITIL cover all aspects of IT optimization, from alignment to continual service improvement. They form the underpinnings for successful IT governance and the delivery of value from your IT investment, and K12TW is here to help you make it happen.

t K12TW, we have the expertise to adapt these robust frameworks to the K-12 environment. We’ve been in the trenches and learned the best practices for implementing best practices in K-12. We can assist your organization in implementing these frameworks with services from planning and design to project management, training and documentation. We’ll be with you every step of the way, in as deep as you need us to get.