How does ITIL Support the Delivery of a Service
ITIL History:
- UK government was seeking a way to deliver services and sought input from a number of vendors.
- They recognized the similarities between vendors
- ITIL V1 was the consolidated view of these practices
- 40 processes
- 2001: U.S. refines the approach in 2001: ITIL V2 is born
- 10 processes and 1 function
- 2007: May 31, 2007 ITIL V3 is born
- Focused on delivering services as a part of a lifecycle
- Repeatable, continual growth based on 5 stages
- Service Strategy
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Operations
- Continual Service Improvement
- 2011: 5 Core books are republished, and the ITIL framework is updated
- ITIL has now dropped the version number, and as such is referenced by year – not version number.
- In 2011 additional processes were introduced.
- ITIL has been established for over 10 years.
Best Practices
- IT service organizations are constantly challenged to improve their ability to deliver quality services at prices customers can afford.
- Best practices are developed and often shared.
- Public frameworks
- Examples: ITIL, PMBOK, Six Sigma
- ITIL is not a standard.
- Businesses have proprietary knowledge. ITIL can contribute to proprietary knowledge.
- Often embedded within the organization
- Difficult to duplicate
- Usually undocumented
- Customized for specific needs
- May require purchasing or licensing
- Public Frameworks
- Validation can occur across a diverse set of environments
- Broad reviews can be conducted across organizations
- Knowledge is more widely distributed
- Training and certification is often available
- Sources of best practices
- They are no good unless you can leverage an enabling activity
- Usually it is people who enable a best practice
- ITIL is all about adapt and adopt – through the use of enabling.
- Sources (Generate)
- Drivers (Filter)
- Enablers (Aggregate)
- Scenarios (Filters)
Challenges of IT Service Management
Common Challenges
- Organizational capabilities are developed to overcome challenges
- Services are intangible and difficult to measure, control, and validate
- Demand is tightly coupled with customer assets
- There is little or no buffer between the service provider and the customer
- Service output and service capacity have perishable natur
How Are Services Delivered
- Assets (Resources and Capabilities) See Above
- Processes
- Characteristics of Processes
- Measurable
- Delivers specific results
- Value to customers and stakeholders
- Responsiveness to specific triggers
- Characteristics of Processes
- Functions
- Service Desk: Is the single point of contact for users when there is a service disruption, a service request, or even some categories of requests for change.
- Technical Management
- IT Operations Management
- Application Management
Process Roles
- Owner (Process)
- Being accountable for the process meeting stakeholder and business objectives
- Defining the process strategy and assisting with the process design
- Sponsoring, designing, and managing process changes and improvements
- Ensuring the appropriate levels of documentation and communication
- Periodically reviewing and auditing process compliance and performance
- Addressing process related issues and reviewing opportunities for process improvements
- Ensuring process resources have required knowledge to perform activities
- Periodically review process trategy
- Manager
- Responsible for operational management of the process
- Working with the process owner to coordinagte all process activities
- Ensuring activities are carried out as required
- Appointing resources to the required roles and managing process resources
- Working with service owners and other process managers
- Identifying process improvement opportunities for inclusion in the CSI register
- Working with the process owner and CSI manager to prioritize process improvements
- Making improvements to the process implementation
- Practitioner
- Carry out one or more process activities
- Understanding how the role contributes to the delivery of services and value creation
- Working with process stakeholders to ensure their contributions are effective
- Ensure process inputs, outputs and interfaces for their activities are correct
- Creating or updating records related to the activities performed
- Service Owner
- Being the single point of accountability for the delivery of a specific service
- Representing the service across the organization
- Ensuring that the ongoing service delivery and support meets agreed customer requirements
- Working with business relationship management to understand customer requirements
- Ensuring consistent and appropriate communication with customers
- Assiting in defining service models
- Assisting in the assessment of proposed changes and improvements to the service
- Identify service improvement opportunities and discuss these with the customer
- Liaising with process owners as necessary to ensure IT processes are effectively supporting the service.