IMBOK domains - Overview

The Framework is presented as six areas of knowledge (the blue rectangles) and four areas of process (the yellow arrows)

The knowledge areas separate out five domains which are significantly different in terms of the demands that they make on organisations, and on the capabilities of those working in and with organisations. The detail of information technology and the ways by which to acquire and manage it is very different to the detail of organisational strategy; it is surprising to hear (very often) the simple idea that all one needs to do is to align one's IT and business strategies. It is the mission and purpose of the IMBOK to make clear that this is a ludicrous assertion: there are at least four leaps of faith (see the yellow arrows) wherein any misalignment of needs, understanding or expectations can wreck the intentions of a major IT and IS investment.

Consider the required competencies across the whole of this spectrum:

• Information technology: Understanding and scanning for technology opportunities; managing IT supply and supplier contracts; ensuring rapid response to technology failures.
• Information systems: Designing and implementing proper projects and project plans; liaising with busy user-managers; assuring quality in the conception and design of systems and databases.
• Business processes and business information: Understanding the means of production and managing supply and demand; understanding the market place and the adding of value; gathering and managing the information needed to work on longer-term forecasting, planning and budgeting.
• Business benefits: Articulating and negotiating the possible merits and outcomes of new systems ideas; arguing for and winning agreement and support; monitoring and evaluating performance.
• Business strategy: Scanning the internal and external environment for opportunities; formulating and presenting arguments; managing the needs and perceptions of senior management and stakeholder groups.

Any single person who is able to do all of this would be an extremely valuable contributor to any organisation. But would their value be recognised? Competition within an organisation is always very real and needs to be positioned in a way that lets it be managed, and avoids it becoming problematic.

Suppose that we know all about the five knowledge areas. Suppose we have experts who know all about the technologies that we use and that we have competent systems development staff that can work reliably to deliver good systems that meet the specification of the requirements. Happily, functional management in the main business areas is strong and the senior management team is well informed and sets reasonable targets.

Things can still go wrong. The problem lies in the migration of ideas from one area of competency to another - the four process areas highlighted with yellow in the figure above.

Last updated 13 October 2021 Distributed under a CC licence: ShareAlike and Develop, with Attribution. The IMBOK was a major deliverable from the "HictE" (ICT in Higher Education) project. HictE was a research partnership between UWC and CPUT, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.