A CEO determines the enterprise is lagging behind its competitors in consumer mobile offerings, and mandates an aggressive rollout of several new…

The most critical first step for the CIO is to understand the organization's current capabilities in relation to the new strategic business objective. Requesting an assessment of in-house mobile technology skills provides a baseline understanding of the existing knowledge, experience, and resource gaps. This "as-is" analysis is a fundamental principle of IT governance and resource management. The results of this assessment will inform all subsequent strategic decisions, such as whether to train existing staff, hire new employees, or procure external contractors. Acting without this foundational data would be reactive and could lead to inefficient use of resources and failure to meet the CEO's objective.

B. Create a sense of urgency with the IT team that mobile knowledge is mandatory.

This is a change management technique that is premature. Without first assessing skills, creating urgency can cause anxiety and confusion rather than focused, productive action.

C. Procure contractors with experience in mobile application development.

This action presumes a skills gap exists that can only be filled externally. This is a potential solution, not a first step; an assessment might reveal that upskilling internal staff is more effective.

D. Task direct reports with creating training plans for their teams.

Effective training plans cannot be created in a vacuum. They require input from a skills assessment to identify specific knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.

1. ISACA

CGEIT Review Manual

8th Edition. Domain 2: IT Resources

Task T2.2

states the need to "Ensure that processes are in place to identify and manage the skills and competencies of IT personnel to meet enterprise objectives." The initial step in this process is to identify the current state of skills through an assessment.

2. ISACA

COBIT 2019 Framework: Governance and Management Objectives. The management objective APO07 Managed Human Resources includes the key practice APO07.03

"Maintain the skills and competencies of personnel." This practice begins with understanding the current skills available within the enterprise to identify gaps against required skills for strategic objectives. The first logical action is assessment.

3. ISACA

COBIT 2019 Framework: Governance and Management Objectives. The management objective BAI04 Managed Availability and Capacity emphasizes the need to "Assess current capacity and performance" (BAI04.02) before planning for new or changed services. This principle of assessing the current state before planning future actions is directly applicable to human resource capabilities as well.