I am trying to build a dashboard for our IT Director. We have plenty of lag indicators like "annual downtime," but we are struggling to find meaningful lead indicators that can predict issues before they happen. How do you choose lead indicators within the COBIT 5 framework that aren't just "noise"?
3 answers
Lead indicators in COBIT 5 are often found in the "Enabler Goals." For example, if you are looking at the APO (Align, Plan, and Organize) domain, a lead indicator could be the "frequency of IT strategy reviews with business heads." If this frequency drops, it predicts a future misalignment (a lag indicator). For cloud environments, track "percentage of unauthorized configuration changes" as a lead indicator for security breaches or outages. These metrics act as early warning signals, allowing the Director to intervene before the lag indicators show a failure.
Are you using any automated monitoring tools to feed these lead indicators into your dashboard in real-time, or is this currently a manual data collection process?
Look at "People, Skills, and Competencies." A great lead indicator is the "percentage of staff trained on new cloud protocols" compared to the rollout schedule.
I agree with Karen. Skill gaps are the most overlooked lead indicators. If the team isn't trained before the tech arrives, project failure is almost guaranteed.
Automation is key for lead indicators because their value is in the "now." For cloud tech, I recommend using API-driven tools to track "resource utilization trends." If you see a steady 10% increase week-over-week, that's a lead indicator for a future capacity bottleneck. Manually collecting this once a month makes it a lag indicator by the time you see it. Always aim for automated telemetry where possible.