Will Tough Economy Drive or Derail ITIL Initiatives?

by Ann All, IT Business Edge

As a CIO, you likely understand the value of making your IT processes more consistent and repeatable, a primary objective of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. But will you be able to convince your CFO? While process standardization is a worthy goal, it’s not easy to quantify, and quantifiable benefits are what finance folks want to see in the current economy.

Companies are looking for service management initiatives relating to IT asset management or other programs that offer quicker and easier payoffs, says IDC analyst Fred Broussard, author of an HP-sponsored white paper on IT service management needs and adoption trends. The 600 global IT organizations he surveyed for his paper cited reducing costs as one of their highest-priority initiatives for 2008, along with aligning to the business and improving service performance.

“ITIL helps you manage services better and work across organizations more smoothly, so you make fewer errors. It’s hard to think about that in a way that saves the company money,” Broussard says. “Money not spent in tracking down errors is much softer than reducing the number of servers or software licenses you are buying.”

“Unless there’s a strong direct link to core elements of an organization’s business strategy, and/or IT can demonstrate and commit to a positive ROI within 12 months, projects are being shelved,” says Bob Mathers, a principal consultant for Compass Management Consulting. “Both are pretty difficult to show for most ITIL implementations.”

“You need a CIO or VP of operations to come in and give a mandate.”

Matthew Schvimmer, HP Software & Solutions

Mathers believes companies will still embark on ITIL initiatives, though he’s not sure many will advance beyond incident management, problem management and change management, the first three areas most companies choose to tackle with their IT service management efforts.

“The investment is fairly low and the benefits fairly clear for those starting out,” Mathers points out, noting that many companies already possess required tools such as a ticket system and see obvious value in lowering the number of service incidents and responding to them more quickly. But Mathers believes some ITIL users may balk at more advanced concepts, such as creating a configuration management database, a repository that illustrates the attributes of and relationships between elements of IT infrastructure.

Though ITIL initiatives require a considerable investment of time and energy, organizations don’t have to throw money at them, says Tracy Schroeder, vice president of information technology for the University of San Francisco, which has been using ITIL for nearly five years.

Rather than purchasing software and engaging an ITIL consultant, Schroeder recommends first attending training sessions and using what you learn to analyze and document your organization’s processes. “I’ve found that consultants can give you general advice and steer you in the right direction, but you have to figure out how ITIL makes sense in your organization and which ITIL principles you can apply.”

The university didn’t invest in a new tool until nearly three years into its ITIL initiative. It now uses several tools from Service-now, a provider of on-demand service management solutions, including tools for incident, problem and change management, plus a basic level of configuration management. The university integrated the latter tool with LANDesk to populate it with its desktop and laptop assets, and with its SunGard Banner ERP system for creating users, says Schroeder.

Taking the time to develop and understand processes beforehand helped, she adds. “That way, when you get to the tool, you know what you want it to do and it’s serving you rather than you shaping yourself around it.”

Can ITIL Do It All? Uh, No

Posted by Ann All

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Sheila Upton, a member of the Innovation Value Institute, about the institute's new IT Capability Maturity Framework, a five-stage maturity model used to organize and structure a framework for mapping IT improvement efforts. One of my questions to Upton: Why, with existing frameworks like the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), did CIOs need another one? Upton told me that members of the institute believed there was a gap in what existing frameworks did and what IT organizations, especially CIOs, needed.

I gleaned some similar insights from sources whom I interviewed for my recent story on ITIL. For instance, Bob Mathers, a principal consultant for Compass Management Consulting, told me it's not uncommon for organizations to integrate ITIL with other improvement frameworks such as COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology). "That came out of their realization that ITIL wasn't necessarily going to solve everything they thought it might solve," Mathers said.

After putting in some of ITIL's core processes, some organizations "stepped back and realized they needed to be more realistic about the benefits any process framework can give them," he said. "ITIL may work quite well for some areas but be lacking in others."

Bad news, guys and girls. There is no magic formula for solving all of your IT ills. ( I feel a little like a jerk telling Virginia there is no Santa Claus.)

Version 3 of ITIL, introduced in 2007, attempts to address some of the perceived shortcomings of earlier versions of ITIL, said Mathers. But some organizations simply adopted aspects of COBIT or other frameworks to create a kind of hybrid framework. ITIL is most often the "foundation" for these hybrid frameworks, he said.

IDC analyst Fred Broussard, who wrote an HP-sponsored white paper on IT service management needs and adoption trends, told me ITIL adoption levels were higher in organizations using other types of process improvement frameworks such as COBIT or Six Sigma. That's likely because it's easier to "sell" ITIL to senior management at organizations already on board with the idea of structured process improvement, Broussard said.

Predisposition to improvement frameworks also may help explain why ITIL is most popular with large enterprises, which are more likely than their smaller counterparts to use other frameworks, said Matt Schvimmer, head of products, IT Service Management and Project Portfolio Management, for HP Software & Solutions. "Large organizations are generally able to be more proactive and devote more time to process effectiveness work. As you go downmarket, you get more into survival mode and find yourself doing more firefighting," he said.

All of my story sources agreed on the inherent value of ITIL and other IT service management initiatives. For a contrarian view, I found some thoughts from Robert Lewis, author of "Keep the Joint Running: A Manifesto for 21st Century Information Technology" and six other books, included in an interesting CIOZone.com piece.

One of ITIL's key tenets is to treat internal business units and their employees as "customers" consuming IT services. That's a mistake, said Lewis, as it diverts IT's focus from "real, paying, external customers."

Simply responding to the needs of internal customers prevents IT from assuming a leadership role when it comes to identifying new technologies that can solve business problems. The better approach, said Lewis, is one of working together to achieve corporate goals.

I also unearthed a link to a two-year-old discussion I had Hydrasight Managing Director Michael Warrilow in which he made the point that, for most IT organizations, best practices should be viewed as an ideal rather than a realistic target. Why? He said:

... When it comes to IT operations, the aim is quite simply "to do more with less" — as the saying goes. Why? Because the generally accepted rule of thumb is that more than 70 percent of IT expenditure currently goes to "keeping the lights on." There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that best practice will increase the cost of IT operations within the vast majority of organizations, and hence increase the risk of doing less with more.

Making ITIL Work

by Ann All

I recently wrote an article and a follow-up blog post based on discussions I had with several IT analysts and with IT professionals on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). They offered lots of great advice on how to effectively implement ITIL, only some of which made it into the article. I'd like to recap some of the advice in the article and mention some of the suggestions that didn't make it. Hopefully other folks with ITIL experience will join the discussion and share some suggestions of their own.

• Start with realistic expectations. If you start out thinking ITIL will help you cut IT costs in half, you will be disappointed.
  
• Begin with a solid baseline, looking at unit costs, quality and productivity.
• Measure in granular enough detail so improvements can be tied directly to an ITIL process or tool.
• Concentrate on your most critical business processes. Ask users to help you determine which processes are the strongest candidates for improvement.
• Enlist a strong executive-level sponsor.
• Invest time in educating users about ITIL's benefits, preferably with diagrams showing how workflows can be streamlined.
• Reassure staff that their roles won't be automated out of existence. Rather, ITIL will allow them to apply their time and energy to more strategic issues. They shouldn't have to spend as much time firefighting, and firefighting will become less stressful for them, when necessary, if processes are better defined.
• Focus on achieving small, incremental wins, and the momentum will take care of itself.
• ITIL is an organizational effort and thus cannot be confined to IT.
• Training is important. Make sure users understand how to use ITIL tools and processes.
  
• Change management can get costly if and when users try to circumvent ITIL processes. With the CIO's blessing, send a weekly e-mail listing all of the 'emergency' changes made the prior week.
• Pick and choose the ITIL principles that will benefit your organization. You don't have to adopt them all.
• Promote posiitve results to create enthusiasm.

Where's the Fit? ITIL and Project Management Skill

It is always good for professionals to combine the right sets of expertise. For someone involved with IT infrastructure projects, ITIL is a great complementary certification. What I find is that often the specialty knowledge drives the PRODUCT of efforts, but the project management skills drives the PROJECT that produces the PRODUCT. On solid technical teams, that second mindset is often missing.

Background
When you get any level experience in the workplace, you realize that the world is a collection of operations and projects. We are always seeking to systematize where possible, to streamline operations, and to improve results. We are always trying to create a "business as usual", "runs by itself" environment, although in reality the full achievement of this is elusive. For more detail go to www.positive-idea.com We are always cognizant of change in external conditions, and of the need to be proactive in changing our operations when necessary. This intersection of operations and project management, is, I believe, where ITIL and project management come together.

The IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®) describes a set of best practices processes for stable, high quality IT services. Project management, as a discipline, provides the capability to implement a defined change in a controlled way, so that cost, schedule, and quality of deliverable are as expected. It would seem that awareness of ITIL in an environment where it is embedded would be an input to project management. Likewise, project management is a great skill to use in implementing and continuously improving the best practices provided by ITIL.

PRINCE2 and ITIL
PRINCE2 and ITIL originate from a single source, the OGC (The Office of Government Commerce) in the UK. While I do not have hard core statistics, ITIL seems to be more strongly on the radar screen in the United States than PRINCE2, probably in part because the PMI PMBOK is more heavily established. But the practice of ITIL does seem to draw on PRINCE2 to an extent due to its common origins, despite the fact that a project management framework such as PMBOK can, in my opinion, be just as effective.

Both ITIL and Prince2 have a mechanism for evaluating the change or project. The Post Project Review in Prince2 is the same as the ITIL Post Implementation Review. A successful review can therefore lead to the end of the project.

Where ITIL and Project Management Meet
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is all about providing service within the operations of IT in an organization. This includes management of the Service Lifecycle, Service Strategy,
Service Design, Service Transition, and Service Operation. It also means continual improvement of the whole set of services that are in place. Management challenges within this realm include Service Desk and Incident Management, Configuration and Release Management, Service Level and Capacity Management, Problem and Change Management, Continuity and Availability Management, and Financial and Security Management.

ITIL itself, as a discipline, addresses the operations within the defined services realm. However, any changes to that services realm can and should be handled by applying a good project management discipline. The difference is that the ongoing operations will be concerned with maintaining and improving services as an in-place, as-is process. The project management discipline will be concerned with defining the beginning of an initiative, delivering the product of that initiative, and turning over the results of that effort to be incorporated into the operation before finally closing out the project.

The two disciplines are substantially different, and using the wrong one can definitely result in lower effectiveness. In the case of ITIL and Project Management, both disciplines will provide inputs the other. For example, ITIL will provide the current situation to a project. It will also provide certain procedures, such as configuration management, that must be followed within the confines of the project. The results, or "product of the project", will become the key input to changes or improvements to be implemented within the ITIL implementation framework in the organization. The professional that understands both sides in depth will be quite valuable to the organization and will have a leg up in knowledge and credibility.

A Little about ITIL (ITIL certification, that is)
ITIL certification has 3 levels: the Foundation Certificate, the Practitioner Certificate, and the Manager's Certificate. Project Management Training Online offers ITIL training in preparation for the Foundation Certificate.

In a nutshell, here is what these 3 levels are about:

The Foundation Certificate: There are no entry requirements, and the foundation test consists of a one hour long multiple choice examination testing a candidate's basic understanding of the principles and terminology of the IT Infrastructure Library. It is designed to provide familiarity with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices for IT Service Management.

The Practitioner Certificates: This is aimed at those who are responsible within their organization for designing specific processes within the IT Service Management discipline, and performing the activities that belong to those processes. The Practitioner's Certificates focus on the depth of understanding and application of those subjects, treating each subject as a specialty. Prerequisites include the Foundation certificate and mandatory attendance at an accredited training course.

The Manager's Certificate: Aimed at managers and consultants, 2 - 3 hour examinations test the practical application of the theory of ITIL, and the exam is typically preceded by a 10-day training event other assessments may also be required. Candidates must hold the Foundation certificate and mandatory attendance at an accredited training course is required.