CGEIT Exam Preparation References

Exam Study Approach

The questions on the CGEIT exam are intended to evaluate a candidate's practical knowledge, related experience and judgment. Since the exam covers a broad spectrum of IT governance issues and practices, candidates are encouraged to refer to their own experiences when preparing for the exam and refer to the reference sources for further explanation of concepts and practices with which the candidate is not familiar.

Primary references

The following primary references can be used for CGEIT exam preparation. These represent publications that address the CGEIT domains and the use of an IT governance framework. These were used as references in the development of the CGEIT domains, tasks and knowledge statements. When reading these documents, an exam candidate should focus on the IT governance principles and practices that are presented and discussed.

Publications

The following primary references can be used for CGEIT exam preparation. These represent publications that address the CGEIT domains and the use of an IT governance framework. These were used as references in the development of the CGEIT domains, tasks and knowledge statements. When reading these documents, an exam candidate should focus on the IT governance principles and practices that are presented and discussed.
The following publications are available for purchase or download:

1. Board Briefing on IT Governance, 2nd Edition—Briefing that explores the meaning of IT governance, its relationship to enterprise governance and the actions boards and senior management should take to affect IT governance.
2. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies—Five volume series published by the IT Governance Institute that addresses IT governance practices.
   Available only as a download.
   1. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies: IT Alignment - Who Is in Charge?—Explains why IT alignment is important and discusses various means to achieve alignment, such as the IT strategy committee, IT steering committee and IT investment committee.
   2. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies: Optimizing Value Creation from IT Investments—Focuses on a frequently raised issue in most organizations, the challenge of achieving adequate returns on IT investment.
   3. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies: Measuring and Demonstrating the Value of IT—Focuses on performance measurement issues.
   4. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies: Information Risks—Whose Business Are They?—Focuses on information risk management.
   5. IT Governance Domains Practices and Competencies: Governance of Outsourcing—Focuses on outsourcing IT activities.
3. COBIT®4.1—ITGI's world-renowned IT governance and control framework features a streamlined, pragmatic and business-focused approach to implementing IT governance enterprise wide.
4. Implementing and Continually Improving IT Governance—This publication enhances, expands and improves on the content of the prior ISACA IT Governance Implementation Guide Using COBIT^® and Val IT™, 2nd edition publication. It incorporates valuable references to cutting edge research from ISACA publications. This guide provides an approach for implementing IT governance in such a way that the implementation team can get started in an effective and efficient manner, establishing a good practice approach for implementing and maintaining effective IT governance based on a continual improvement life cycle that should be tailored to suit the enterprise’s specific needs.
5. Enterprise Value: Governance of IT Investments: The Val IT Framework—A governance framework for IT-enabled investments.
6. Frameworks for IT Management—This itSMF publication covers the most important frameworks and describes in a structured format the specific characteristics.

Other Recommended References

The following other recommended references can also be used for CGEIT exam preparation. These represent publications, articles, and links to frameworks, standards and guidance. Often these references only address an aspect or approach to IT governance.

| Top | Publications | Publications & Articles |

| Journal Articles | Other Links |

Publications/Articles

1. ITGI Roundtable Discussions—From time to time, ITGI sits down with industry experts and discusses the current state of IT governance, then shares their thoughts, concerns and suggestions on this increasingly important topic.
   Download: A complimentary downloads are available.
   Purchase: Not available
2. IT Governance Global Status Report 2008—This report features the results of an ITGI study to survey global executives relative to perceptions and use of IT governance worldwide.
   Download: A complimentary download is available.
   Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
3. Enterprise Value: Governance of IT Investments: The Business case—Presents the eight steps of developing an effective business case and provides useful tools for each.
   Download: A complimentary download is available.
   Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
4. Aligning COBIT® 4.1, ITIL® V3 and ISO/IEC 27002 for Business Benefit—This management briefing is the result of a joint study, initiated by the ITGI and UK government's Office of Government Commerce (OGC) that addresses best practices and the need for senior business and IT managers to better understand the value of IT best practices and how to implement them.
   Download: A complimentary download is available.
5. COBIT Control Practices: Guidance to Achieve Control Objectives for Successful IT Governance, 2nd Edition—This guide presents control practices and approaches supporting the prevention, detection and correction of undesired events through responsible use of resources, appropriate management of risk and the delivery of value to business.
   Download: A complimentary download is available to ISACA members.
   Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
6. IT Governance: Developing a Successful Governance Strategy: A Best Practice Guide for Decision Makers in IT
   A best practice guide developed by the National Computing Centre to capture and define best practice across the key aspects of successful business.
   Download: A complimentary download is available from the ITGI website.
7. The Balanced Scorecard and IT Governance
   This article, reprinted from the ISACA Journal, presents how the IT balanced scorecard can be linked to the business balanced scorecard.
   Download: A complimentary download is available from the ITGI website.
8. Enterprise Governance: Getting the Balance Right
   This paper from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) focuses on why corporate governance often fails in companies and, more importantly, what must be done to ensure that things go right.
   Download: http://www.ifac.org/Store/Details.tmpl?SID=10770463423295840
9. Building IT Risk Management Effectiveness—An article from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) Research Briefings, IV (2C), July 2004, by George Westerman.
   Download: http://web.mit.edu/cisr/working%20papers/cisrwp351.pdf
10. IT Savvy Pays Off: How Top Performers Match IT Portfolios and Organizational Practices—An article from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4560-05, May 2005, by Peter Weill and Sinan Aral.
    Download: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=779345
11. System-of-Systems Governance: New Patterns of Thought—An article from the Software Engineering Institute/Carnegie Mellon, October 2006, by Ed Morris, Pat Place and Dennis Smith.
    Download: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/06.reports/pdf/06tn036.pdf
12. Governance, Risk and Compliance Handbook—This book provides a comprehensive framework for a sustainable governance model.
    Download: Not available
    Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
13. Implementing Information Technology Governance: Models, Practices, Cases—This book provides practical guidance and a detailed set of IT governance structures, processes and relational mechanisms for implementing IT governance or improving existing governance models.
    Download: Not available
    Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
14. IT Governance based on COBIT 4.1 - A Management Guide—This guide is a quick-reference guide to IT governance.
    Download: Not available
    Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
15. Balanced Scorecard Step By Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results—This book presents a combination of balanced scorecard theory and practice.
    Download: Not available
    Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore
16. CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology—This book describes achieving and exercising strategic IT leadership including IT performance management using the balanced scorecard and how to measure and manage customer value.
    Download: Not available
    Purchase: www.isaca.org/bookstore

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ISACA Journal Articles

• Download: A complimentary download is available to ISACA members.
  Articles more than one year old are accessible to all.
• Volume 3, 2008—Recognising the Need for Val IT: Identifying Tipping Points for Value Management: By Sarah Harries and Peter Harrison, FCPA
• Volume 2, 2008— Key Elements of an Information Risk Management Program: Transforming Information Security Into Information Risk Management: By John P. Pironti, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CISSP, ISSAP, ISSMP
  Practices in IT Governance and Business/IT Alignment: By Steven De Haes, Ph.D., and Wim Van Grembergen, Ph.D.
• Volume 1, 2008— Dysfunctional Operations in IT: By Kent Anderson, CISM
• Volume 6, 2007— How Does the Business Drive IT? Identifying, Prioritising and Linking Business and IT Goals: By Wim Van Grembergen, Steven De Haes and Hilde Van Brempt
  The Rule of Four of IT Governance: By Erik Guldentops, CISA, CISM
• Volume 5, 2007 The IT Balanced Scorecard Revisited: By Alec Cram, CISA, CISSP
  What Is in Our IT Portfolios?: By Erik Guldentops, CISA, CISM
  
• Volume 4, 2007 Outsourcing IT Governance to Deliver Business Value: By Max Blecher
  Portfolio Management—Unlocking the Value of IT Investments: By Georges Ataya, CISA, CISM, CISSP, and John Thorp, CMC, I.S.P.
• Volume 3, 2007 Bridging Business and IT Strategies With Enterprise Architecture: Realising the Real Value of Business-IT Alignment: By Sushil Chatterji
• Volume 1, 2007 The Many Faces of IT Governance: Crafting an IT Governance Architecture: By Nick Robinson, CISA

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Other Links

1. ITIL—The IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL) is a widely accepted approach to IT service management.
2. Prince2™—PRINCE2 is a project management method designed to provide a framework covering the wide variety of disciplines and activities required within a project.
3. CMMI®—Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach.
4. PMBOK®—The PMBOK Guide is an internationally recognized standard that provides the fundamentals of project management as they apply to a wide range of projects.
5. TOGAF™—The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is a framework for developing an enterprise architecture.
6. ISO/IEC 17799:2005—Guidelines and general principles for initiating, implementing, maintaining, and improving an information security management system (i.e. an information security governance framework) in an organization.
7. ISO/IEC 20000—The ISO/IEC 20000 addresses service management processes.
8. ISO/IEC 38500:2008— Guiding principles for directors of organizations on the effective, efficient, and acceptable use of information technology within their organizations.
9. COSO/ERM—This framework defines essential enterprise risk management components, discusses key ERM principles and concepts, suggests a common ERM language, and provides clear direction and guidance for enterprise risk management.
10. AS/NZS 4360:2004—This Standard provides a generic guide for managing risk.
11. AS 8015:2005—This Standard addresses the effective, efficient and acceptable use of information and communication technology.

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