Which COBIT principle encourages adopting a holistic approach to governance?

• A. Meeting stakeholder needs
• B. End-to-end governance
• C. Enabling a holistic approach
• D. Separating governance from management

Answer: (C)

Adopting a holistic approach means treating governance as an integrated system that spans the whole enterprise—covering people, processes, information, technology, and the supporting culture and structures. This COBIT principle explicitly calls for enabling that broad, unified view, so governance and management operate cohesively across all parts of the organization rather than in isolated silos. A holistic view ensures decisions and controls align with overall enterprise objectives and stakeholder needs, creating consistency and synergy across domains. The other options describe different ideas—meeting stakeholder needs focuses on outcomes, end-to-end governance emphasizes coverage along the value chain, and separating governance from management highlights role separation—none of which captures the explicit emphasis on an integrated, enterprise-wide perspective.