COBIT 2019 governance and management objectives

By Sam Rivera, Founder, SentinelPanda · June 20, 2026 · 1 min read · COBIT 2019

COBIT's 40 objectives are the framework's working units. You do not implement all of them equally — you prioritise the ones your goals and risk demand.

The working units of COBIT

COBIT 2019 defines 40 governance and management objectives — five governance objectives in EDM and 35 management objectives across APO, BAI, DSS, and MEA. Each objective represents an outcome the enterprise should achieve, and together they are the working units of the framework.

How an objective is structured

Each objective has a purpose statement and is supported by governance/management components — the processes, organisational structures, policies, information flows, skills, culture, and infrastructure that make it work. Each can also be assessed for its capability level, turning the objective into something measurable.

You do not do all 40

A common misconception is that COBIT means implementing all 40 objectives fully. It does not. The goals cascade and design factors tell you which objectives matter most for your enterprise goals, risk, and context — you prioritise and set target capability levels accordingly. COBIT is meant to be tailored, not applied wholesale.

Using them

In practice you select the priority objectives, assess current capability, set targets, and improve the gaps — much like a profile in the NIST CSF. The objectives give structure; the tailoring makes it yours.