Last modified on 2008-01-09 15:10:17
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Goal
The goal of this knowledge session is to obtain some basic knowledge about ITIL and to discuss the way it is or could be useful for Charta Software. On one hand it might be a decision for Charta Software to adapt (some of) the ITIL practices itself. On the other hand it is useful to have this basic knowledge, because a lot of companies already use ITIL and confrontations are inevitable.
What is ITIL?
The short version:
"ITIL is a best practice framework for managing IT services"
The longer version:
"The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and techniques for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development, and operations."
"ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which cover an IT management topic. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are registered trademarks of the United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce (OGC). ITIL gives a detailed description of a number of important IT practices with comprehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that can be tailored to any IT organization." (Wikipedia)
Introduction to ITIL
Many companies (like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM) have implemented ITIL or parts of the ITIL framework to manage their IT services. These IT services can either be internal or external. There is no minimum or maximum company size to start implementing the ITIL practices, but the larger a company gets the bigger the need will be for structuring and managing IT processes inbound and outbound.
The ITIL library contains codes of practice for quality management of IT services and infrastructure and defines quality as "matched to business needs and user requirements as these evolve". To obtain this level of quality ITIL describes and explains different processes, divided into Service Support and Service Delivery:
| Service Support | Service Delivery |
|---|---|
| Incident Management | Availability Management |
| Problem Management | Financial Management |
| Change Management | IT Service Continuity Management |
| Configuration Management | Service Level Management |
| Release Management | Capacity Management |
Next to these processes, ITIL describes one function as well: the Service Desk. Click here to get more information about these processes and function on Wikipedia.
To manage all these different ITIL processes within a company, certain 'roles' have to be assigned to people, like 'Incident Manager' or 'Configuration' Manager. Note that the fundamental idea is that these are roles and not functions. This means that someone for example has the function of Service Desk teamleader and the role of Incident Manager. On the other hand, if the processes within the company allow it, dedicated process managers can be and are assigned.
Considerations for Charta Software
- Effort: to implement ITIL processes, one has to invest time and money. Process flows have to be identified and analysed, and responsibilities have to be assigned to people within the organisation. Keeping a company ITIL 'certified' takes effort and one must consider this beforehand.
- Tooling: tooling has to be set up or bought, and data (like within the CMDB) has to be maintained and constantly updated.
- Bureaucracy: ITIL tends to make ITIL processes more bureaucratic, which provides structure and manageability, but also reduces flexibility.
- Responsibilities: assigning responsibility must not lead to 'island behaviour'.
- Alternative: if Charta Software will grow into the company it aspires to be, managing IT services becomes a very complex task. What are the alternatives for succeeding in this?