—With ever-growing complexity of computer and communication systems analytical methods do not scale, especially with respect to dependability assessment of information technology (IT) organization. Generic reference models can be used as an alternative to analytical approaches by focusing on transforming qualitative assessment into quantitative evaluation of IT organization. In this paper, we examine the reference models IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (CobiT) to derive a quantifiable concept for estimating the criticality of dependability-related IT organization processes in CobiT. After systematically analyzing ITIL processes and deriving properties that are relevant to dependability, those processes are mapped onto CobiT processes. Furthermore, we propose a process criticality index (PCI) which reflects the significance of each dependability-related process within a particular reference model. The PCI is based o...