PAG26 IT Responsibility Model Reference Material
The following PAG-2026 references describe Pye Advisory Group’s practices and definitions for connecting business direction to technology decisions, delivery and ongoing improvement. They extend the business-facing view of COBIT by making areas such as purpose, alignment, investment, data ownership and feedback more explicit, while the COBIT-PAG model retains all 40 original COBIT objectives.
This reference contains all 40 PAG items, grouped under Business Context and the four IT domains: Direction, Capability, Delivery and Continuous Improvement. Seven items establish the business context, and 33 sit within the IT Responsibility Model alongside the COBIT objectives.
Business Context — PAGBX
Objectives (“OB”)
PAGBX-OB01 — Measurable Objectives. Measurable objectives define how progress toward goals will be measured and judged. They translate broad intentions into evidence leadership can review, using measures that reflect meaningful outcomes rather than activity alone. An objective can identify an owner, a target and a timeframe, supported by a clear definition of the measure. Together, these details provide a practical way to assess whether the strategy is producing results and whether the business needs to adjust its approach.
Purpose (“P”)
PAGBX-P01 — Values. Values are the founding principles that guide how the business behaves and makes decisions. They express what the organization stands for and provide a basis for judging choices, trade-offs and conduct, including when leadership is under pressure. Useful values are few enough to remember and specific enough to apply. They can be supported by plain-language explanations and examples of expected and unacceptable behaviour, helping people understand how the principles apply to everyday work.
PAGBX-P02 — Vision. Vision describes a future state of being that the business aspires toward. It provides a guiding horizon for choices and investment without necessarily having a fixed endpoint or completion date. A useful vision is clear enough to help people recognize whether their work moves the organization toward that future, while remaining broad enough to guide it through changing circumstances and successive missions. Leadership may eventually look back and recognize that the business has grown into the vision, even if there was no single moment when it was declared complete.
PAGBX-P03 — Mission. Mission describes a specific, purposeful undertaking the business intends to achieve in pursuit of its broader vision. It gives leadership and teams a clear commitment around which to organize strategy, resources and work. A useful mission explains what is to be accomplished and is clear enough for the business to recognize when it has succeeded. Once accomplished, the organization can establish a new mission while its values and broader vision continue to provide direction. The mission describes the undertaking; strategy explains the approach to fulfilling it.
Strategy (“S”)
PAGBX-S01 — Business Strategy. Business strategy defines the deliberate approach the organization will use to fulfill its mission over the coming years. It sets out where the business will focus, which choices matter and what it will not pursue, giving people a basis for decisions beyond a collection of projects or requests. A useful strategy makes its priorities and trade-offs explicit and guides subsequent goals, investment and execution. Typical outputs include a strategy statement, strategic themes and a record of the choices that explain the chosen direction.
PAGBX-S02 — Goals. Goals translate strategy into broad outcomes the organization intends to achieve. They describe results rather than tasks and provide enough direction for departments and teams to align their work without prescribing every detail of execution. Each goal should have a clear connection to the strategy and can be assigned an owner and a planning horizon. Goals form the basis for more specific objectives and help leadership judge which proposed activities and investments deserve priority.
PAGBX-S03 — Desired Outcomes. Desired outcomes describe what should be observably different if the strategy succeeds. They keep attention on business results rather than activities completed or technology installed, and separate the improvement being sought from any particular solution. Clear outcomes allow leadership to compare different approaches to the same need and establish conditions for recognizing success. Typical outputs include outcome statements, success conditions and links showing how each outcome supports a broader business goal.
Direction — PAGDR
Business Capability (“BC”)
PAGDR-BC01 — Business Capability Planning. Business capability planning identifies what the business must be able to do to execute its strategy before selecting a process or technology solution. It examines current strengths, capability gaps and future needs, keeping attention on the abilities required rather than particular products. Those findings guide architecture, process improvements and investment choices. Typical outputs include a capability map, a gap assessment and priorities for developing the capabilities the business needs next.
Business Process & Technology Alignment (“BPT”)
PAGDR-BPT01 — Business Process & Technology Alignment. Business process and technology alignment ensures that workflows and systems are designed together around the intended business outcome. It starts by understanding the current process and determining whether improvement requires changes to policy, roles, working practices, technology or a combination of these. The future process and its supporting systems are then designed to work together. Typical outputs include current and future process views, process-to-system mappings and recommendations that avoid simply automating an ineffective way of working.
Data & AI Governance (“DA”)
PAGDR-DA01 — Data & AI Governance. Data and AI governance establishes ownership, decision rights, guardrails and accountability for organizational information and artificial intelligence. It assigns responsible owners and defines expectations for quality, access, acceptable use, transparency, retention and risk. Governance is proportionate to the sensitivity of the information and the consequences of the decisions or actions involved. Typical outputs include a governance charter, a stewardship model, AI usage guardrails and a record of governance decisions.
Decision (“D”)
PAGDR-D01 — Decision Alignment. Decision alignment provides a repeatable way to make significant decisions that are consistent with strategy and clearly owned. It establishes who has authority to decide, who needs to contribute and which strategic criteria should guide the comparison of options. Recording the decision, its rationale and its implications gives the people delivering the work a clear basis for action. Typical outputs include a decision record, agreed evaluation criteria and arrangements for communicating ownership and consequences.
PAGDR-D02 — Solution Direction & Options Analysis. Solution direction and options analysis identifies viable ways to meet a business need before selecting a product or provider. It begins with the problem and its constraints, then compares approaches such as changing a process, using existing capabilities, configuring software, purchasing, building or integrating. The aim is to recommend an appropriate direction without prematurely committing to a supplier. Typical outputs include an options assessment, a summary of trade-offs and a recommended solution approach.
Investment (“INV”)
PAGDR-INV01 — Investment Prioritization. Investment prioritization directs limited funding and capacity toward initiatives that best support the organization’s chosen direction. It considers strategic alignment, expected value and opportunity cost, making clear what the business delays or gives up when it funds one initiative instead of another. The aim is to support deliberate choices rather than approve every worthwhile idea. Typical outputs include an investment ranking, a funding recommendation and a record of the trade-offs involved.
PAGDR-INV02 — Strategic Technology Investment Planning. Strategic technology investment planning builds a forward view of spending from business strategy, capability needs and the technology roadmap. It distinguishes the cost of maintaining current services from investment in strategic change and connects major commitments to intended outcomes. Timing reflects dependencies, delivery capacity and affordability. Typical outputs include a multi-year investment view, links between investment and roadmap initiatives, and explicit funding assumptions that leadership can review as circumstances change.
Prioritization (“PR”)
PAGDR-PR01 — Priority Management. Priority management maintains an explicit ordering of important work using strategic value and consistent criteria. It distinguishes the importance of an initiative from whether it should be done first, allowing dependencies, timing and capacity to inform the sequence. Priorities are revisited when strategy or material conditions change rather than whenever a new request appears. Typical outputs include a priority model, a ranked initiative list and records of review decisions.
Privacy & Integrity (“PI”)
PAGDR-PI01 — Privacy & Integrity. Privacy and integrity protects the appropriate use, accuracy and trustworthiness of information throughout its lifecycle. It defines how sensitive and personal information may be collected, used, shared and retained, while protecting against unauthorized alteration as well as disclosure. These expectations are built into systems, processes, supplier arrangements and controls. Typical outputs include privacy principles, information integrity controls, retention and handling rules, and privacy impact considerations appropriate to the business situation.
Strategy (“S”)
PAGDR-S04 — Strategic Alignment. Strategic alignment keeps decisions, priorities, projects and technology choices connected to the direction of the business. Major work should have a clear relationship to current goals and objectives, allowing leadership to distinguish strategically useful commitments from ideas that are attractive but do not support the chosen direction. Alignment is reviewed when strategy or circumstances change. Typical outputs include an alignment map, links between initiatives and objectives, and findings that identify where work needs to be redirected.
PAGDR-S05 — Strategic Roadmapping. Strategic roadmapping turns strategy into a sequenced view of the major changes needed to reach the intended outcomes. It explains the journey and the dependencies between initiatives without attempting to list every project task. Sequencing reflects strategic importance, available capacity and the organization’s ability to absorb change. The roadmap remains adaptable as conditions change and is supported by a practical review cadence, helping leadership understand what needs to happen and in what general order.
PAGDR-S06 — Technology Roadmapping. Technology roadmapping shows how technology capabilities and investment should evolve to support business direction. It starts with goals and capability needs, then considers whether existing technology should be retained, improved, integrated, replaced or retired. The resulting sequence reflects dependencies and the pace of change the organization can realistically absorb. Typical outputs include a technology roadmap, a platform and application lifecycle view, and links between business capabilities and planned technology changes.
PAGDR-S07 — Technology Opportunity Assessment. Technology opportunity assessment examines whether a proposed technology-enabled opportunity is worth pursuing before significant resources are committed. It connects the idea to a genuine business need or desired improvement and considers potential value, feasibility, constraints and fit with the organization’s direction. The assessment helps leadership distinguish useful opportunities from technology pursued for its own sake. Its findings provide a basis for deciding whether to investigate further, develop a business case or set the idea aside.
PAGDR-S08 — Infrastructure Strategy. Infrastructure strategy defines the direction for the foundational environment on which applications, data and services depend. It translates business and technology priorities into principles for hosting, networks, endpoints, resilience and lifecycle choices. These principles guide standards, sourcing and future investment so that individual infrastructure decisions form a coherent operating environment. Typical outputs include an infrastructure strategy, target infrastructure principles and lifecycle and investment priorities.
PAGDR-S09 — Cloud Strategy. Cloud strategy defines when, why and how cloud services should support the business. Choices about public cloud, software subscriptions, private hosting and hybrid arrangements are assessed against value, risk, economics and capability needs. Governance, cost, security, portability and the skills needed to operate the environment are considered before individual migrations are approved. Typical outputs include cloud decision principles and a target hosting model, giving leadership a basis for cloud choices without treating adoption as an objective in itself.
Capability — PAGCP
Application Architecture & Roadmap (“AA”)
PAGCP-AA01 — Application Architecture & Roadmap. Application architecture and roadmapping maintains a coherent view of the software landscape and how it should evolve to support business capabilities. It identifies each application’s purpose, owner and dependencies, together with duplication, lifecycle concerns and technical debt. This view informs decisions to retain, improve, integrate, consolidate, replace or retire applications. Typical outputs include an application architecture, a portfolio view, a roadmap and explicit lifecycle decisions connected to investment planning.
Product & Service Management (“PS”)
PAGCP-PS01 — Product & Service Management. Product and service management treats technology capabilities as continuing responsibilities with identifiable users, business value, ownership and lifecycle needs. It balances enhancement, reliability, support and technical health beyond the end of a project. Service expectations and roadmaps connect ongoing work to business outcomes and help guide eventual replacement or retirement. Typical outputs include a product or service catalogue, an ownership model, lifecycle roadmaps and clear service expectations.
Delivery — PAGDL
Application Support (“AS”)
PAGDL-AS01 — Application Support. Application support keeps business software usable, reliable and appropriately maintained after implementation. It establishes ownership, support paths and escalation expectations, with deliberate management of defects, small enhancements, patches and vendor assistance. Recurring support demand informs future improvement, replacement and roadmap decisions. Typical outputs include an application support model, a support backlog, a maintenance plan and escalation arrangements, making ongoing care a visible responsibility beyond project delivery.
Data Modeling (“DM”)
PAGDL-DM01 — Data Modeling. Data modeling defines important business concepts, their relationships and the meaning of the information systems need to share. It establishes common definitions before detailed schemas or integrations are implemented, preventing the vocabulary of one application from becoming an accidental standard for the whole business. Models connect business meaning to technical implementation. Typical outputs include conceptual and logical data models, shared data definitions and maps of entities and relationships.
Decision (“D”)
PAGDL-D03 — Solution Evaluation & Selection. Solution evaluation and selection compares specific candidates against the business need and the solution direction already agreed. Criteria reflect requirements, strategy and operating realities, with attention to overall fit and trade-offs rather than feature counts alone. The recommendation explains why the selected option is preferable to alternatives and records the assumptions behind that choice. Typical outputs include evaluation criteria, a scored comparison, a selection recommendation and a decision record.
Prioritization (“PR”)
PAGDL-PR02 — Project Qualification. Project qualification determines whether an idea deserves to become a formal project before it competes for priority and investment. It confirms the problem, intended outcome, sponsor and strategic fit, then considers whether the work needs project treatment at all. Poorly defined initiatives can be rejected, deferred or reshaped before extensive planning begins. Typical outputs include a qualification brief and a decision to proceed, stop or revise the proposal, with initial ownership and outcomes identified.
Project Management (“PM”)
PAGDL-PM01 — IT Project Management. IT project management provides proportionate structure for delivering technology change predictably. It clarifies the outcome, scope, ownership, plan, risks and decisions, scaling governance to the size and exposure of the assignment. Delivery remains connected to the business reason for the project rather than becoming an exercise in managing tasks alone. Typical outputs include a project brief or charter, a delivery plan, a status and risk view, and closure and handover arrangements.
PAGDL-PM02 — Project Recovery & Realignment. Project recovery and realignment stabilizes troubled work and establishes whether it still merits continuation. Diagnosis examines scope, requirements, decisions, capacity, provider performance and strategic fit before rebuilding the plan. Leadership reconfirms the intended outcome and business case, with the option to stop or reshape work that no longer supports current priorities. Typical outputs include a recovery assessment, an executive decision brief, a realignment decision and a revised delivery baseline where continuation is justified.
Support Center (“SC”)
PAGDL-SC01 — Support Center. A support center gives people a clear route to technology help, requests, status information and escalation. It establishes channels that users can find, consistent triage and a way to route work to the people equipped to resolve it. Patterns in demand and recurring issues inform service improvement and future planning. Typical outputs include support channels, a request catalogue, a triage and escalation model and support reporting suited to the business.
Continuous Improvement — PAGCI
Business Intelligence & Analytics (“BI”)
PAGCI-BI01 — Business Intelligence & Analytics. Business intelligence and analytics turns trusted data into measures, analysis and insight that support decisions and improvement. It starts with the questions leaders need to answer and uses consistent definitions for performance indicators. Findings become useful when they are connected to accountable owners and decisions rather than presented as information alone. Typical outputs include dashboards, scorecards, analytical models, metric definitions and insights that help leadership determine what action to take.
Feedback (“F”)
PAGCI-F01 — Stakeholder Feedback Collection. Stakeholder feedback collection creates deliberate opportunities to hear from people affected by technology services, projects and decisions. Input is gathered at useful points from representative users, sponsors, operators and providers, with attention to recurring patterns and material business concerns rather than individual preferences alone. Typical outputs include feedback channels, an input summary and common themes that give decision-makers a clearer view of how services and changes are experienced.
PAGCI-F02 — Lessons Learned & Retrospectives. Lessons learned and retrospectives capture useful experience from completed work and operations while it is still fresh. Reviews focus on what should be repeated, changed or stopped, considering decisions, processes, technology, providers and organizational factors without turning the discussion into blame. Significant lessons become owned actions rather than meeting notes that are filed away. Typical outputs include a retrospective summary, a lessons learned record and practical improvement actions.
PAGCI-F03 — Improvement Backlog Management. Improvement backlog management maintains a visible, prioritized set of actions arising from measurement, feedback and operating experience. Improvements are captured with clear ownership and evaluated using the same strategic criteria as other work. Low-value items are explicitly deferred or closed so that the backlog remains useful. Typical outputs include a consolidated improvement backlog, ranked actions and ownership and status information that connect identified improvements to delivery.
PAGCI-F04 — Feedback-to-Strategy Integration. Feedback-to-strategy integration ensures that meaningful learning influences future direction, priorities, roadmaps and investment. Recurring themes are brought into planning and portfolio discussions, distinguishing issues that need a tactical fix from evidence that assumptions or strategic choices need to change. Recording where learning changes a decision makes follow-through visible. Typical outputs include strategic feedback themes, revised roadmap or priority decisions and the rationale for resulting changes.
PAGCI-F05 — Post-Implementation Review. A post-implementation review examines whether a delivered change achieved the intended business outcome and identifies what should happen next. It takes place after enough real use to observe the effects and compares results with the original need, objectives and expected benefits. Unresolved risks, follow-up work and lessons are assigned for action. Typical outputs include a review report, a benefits and outcomes assessment and a record of follow-up actions.
Measurement (“M”)
PAGCI-M01 — Priority Alignment Measurement. Priority alignment measurement checks whether the organization’s actual priorities remain consistent with strategy and objectives. It compares stated priorities with funded and active work, identifying competing commitments and unplanned activity that displaces agreed strategic work. Repeated measurement reveals trends rather than treating an alignment score as a one-time grade. Typical outputs include a priority alignment score, findings that explain misalignment and a view of change over time.
PAGCI-M02 — Delivery Alignment Measurement. Delivery alignment measurement examines whether teams are executing against agreed plans while responding appropriately to changing conditions. It checks that delivery continues to support the intended priorities and outcomes, distinguishing sensible adaptation from uncontrolled drift. The review also looks for recurring barriers that prevent teams from following through. Typical outputs include a delivery alignment score, findings about delivery friction, and trends and improvement actions that address the underlying causes.
PAGCI-M03 — Strategic Alignment Measurement. Strategic alignment measurement assesses whether people and work remain connected to the organization’s direction, goals and objectives. It tests whether leaders and teams understand that direction and whether major initiatives can be linked to strategic outcomes. Repeated assessment helps show whether alignment is improving or deteriorating and where clarification or corrective action is needed. Typical outputs include an alignment score, identified gaps, trends over time and improvement priorities.