ITIL Implementation Best Practice

Researched By: - GARTNER (in 2004)

ITIL is being adopted in ever larger numbers of IT organizations as a framework for IT Service Management process definition and structure. Experiences differ over them results, often influenced by the implementation approach. Gartner had tried to explore the current state of ITIL implementations, including emerging best practices as well as short-comings in the ITIL framework.

Key issues include:

What converging global trends are encouraging IT organizations to adopt ITIL? What best practices can accelerate ITIL implementation and help to successfully deliver benefits? What 'lessons' can we apply to ITIL from similar process disciplines such as software capability maturity model, Six Sigma, and 'lean manufacturing'?

 Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2007, 40 percent of IT organizations will be cited for providing tangible benefits for the enterprise, an increase from 25 percent in 2002 (0.7 probability). Strategic Imperative: Diagnose the current level of IS credibility, and implement plans to increase that credibility through IT service management.

In the Gartner IT Credibility Scale, IS organization credibility accrues in stages, with each stage depending on the programs and practices that are learned at previous stages, and each stage potentially increasing an enterprise's overall business value of IT.

At Level 1, IS organizations deliver little business value. They do not meet commitments, make meaningless promises and seem impenetrable to the people they serve. At Level 2, they can provide baseline performance and begin to add consistency to operations, services and policies. At this stage, they are contributing limited business value, and the businesses remain skeptical Level 3 introduces professionalism to the picture, as IS organizations establish processes for responding to business needs and requests, and increase business awareness of capabilities. At Level 4, businesses engage in joint planning and measurement. IS organizations define effective processes for planning, architecture, project management, funding, sourcing, benefit realization and competency development, and deliver a high level of business value through portfolio analysis. Finally, at Level 5, business leaders actively seek advice, counsel and innovation from IS organizations, which have finally gained the respect of their customers. At Level 5, IS organizations are delivering the highest level of business value. If you want to drive credibility and improve value then ITSM is at the core of it.

"Efficient Frontier" model suggests that best-practice organizations can choose to improve quality or lower cost, but not both at the same time. However, organizations that are performing below best-practice standards can improve quality and reduce cost by moving toward best-practice goals. One very effective way of doing so is through process improvement, particulaarly by copying best-practice processes. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) represents best-practice processes in the IT service management arena. Thus, ITIL has gained widespread adoption because it serves as an "open platform" for implementing IT service management processes.

Why ITIL ? Mature, best practice framework A "de facto standard " (almost) Integrated, holistic set of processes Well-established training programs Certification (BS15000) Support infrastructure in itSMF and consulting

GE has achieved impressive results with its Six Sigma program the result of a decade of cultural change.

GE wouldnt have achieved its Six Sigma successes without many years of prior effort, which created a supportive and receptive environment. Manager of GE's Workout and Change Acceleration Process, suggests the following:

1. Involve all employees as well as other stakeholders, seeking win-win solutions that cross all boundaries. 2. Find and adopt best practices wherever they occur within the enterprise or outside it.

3. Integrate change initiatives with human resource practices to align training, metrics and rewards toward achieving business objectives.

4. Encourage the staff to be more creative by setting "stretch goals" that require them to work outside current structures and processes, with creative and innovative ways of thinking.

Where Does IT Service Management Save You Money? Direct Reduced cost of incident resolution Reduced self-inflicted incidents via integrated and reliable change Increased productivity of IT staff Improved asset utilization and life cycle management Reduced service cycle times End-to-end service cost optimization Automation Improved risk management

Indirect Reduced peer support Standardization Consolidation Non-IT staff more productive Improved availability Managing appropriate expectations Improved efficiency of security and business continuity planning processes Targeted training of users Improved IT governance Drives continual improvement

Recommendations` IT service management will be a prerequisite for demonstrating business value. Success requires commitment and perseverance. IT service management requires fundamental cultural and behavioral change. Pay careful attention to organizational change management issues. Success in IT service management is based on repeatable processes. Use ITIL as the basis for IT operational processes and then focus on continually improving them. Seek opportunities to learn from and copy best-practice processes. Adopt a Capability Maturity Model approach to progressively build process competency