Government Computer News
Best practices, better performance
Infrastructure library helps you clear hurdles of IT management
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TechnoratiTips from the experts
1. Training
“Just about everyone we talk to that has implemented ITIL has stated that they underestimated the amount of time required to train the people,” said Ron Potter, manager of best practices for TeamQuest Inc. of Clear Lake, Iowa.
2. No Big-Bang Approach
“Clients that treat an ITIL implementation as a formal project, or even a program consisting of multiple projects, tend to be more successful in adhering to timelines and budget,” said Ed Holub, an analyst at Gartner Inc.
3. Don’t Hoard ITIL
“If an ITIL initiative is confined to IT, it is quite likely that at the end of the implementation, the business will not feel that the investment made in time and money was worthwhile. ITIL is a shared business and IT initiative, where both parties must dictate the business objectives and success criteria,” said Brian Johnson, author of 15 books on ITIL and founder of itSMF, a professional membership organization focused on IT service management and ITIL. He is also ITIL practice manager for CA Technology Services at CA Inc.
4. Participation
Fred Broussard, an analyst with IDC, stressed the importance of communication. He related an anecdote about a federal agency involved in a major software update that required testing and development on a live system. Instead of keeping it a secret, users were told about the testing and to let IT know of any problems. “They really appreciated it, and they trusted us more as a result,” Broussard said. “The alternative—building a development site on a separate IBM mainframe—would have been very expensive.”
5. Top down
“From our experience, it is often difficult to get true consensus across a large, varied group of people so that approach can be less than effective, especially in large organizations,” said TeamQuest’s Potter. “The most successful implementations we have seen started with executive management taking a firm leadership approach, declaring that ITIL implementation is not optional, that it is a priority for the organization and that their support is mandatory.”
Tips from a user
Donna M. Manley, IT senior director for computer operations at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, suggested that organizations need to be honest with themselves when implementing ITIL.
“Some of what comes of your ‘current state’ analysis most likely won’t be what you expected,” she said. “You will probably identify gaps you never realized you had. The good news is that once you realize what the gaps are, you can use ITIL processes to remediate them effectively.”
Manley also pointed out that anyone thinking they’re going to just implement ITIL in an organization through process change is doomed.
“Implementing ITIL is a cultural change,” Manley said. “Managing your people through the transition will be one of the most challenging and critical things you’ll do to ensure the success of your program.”
“We are implementing ITIL’s Incident Management processes across all of IT in the help desk and in troubleshooting,” said Jeanette Cook, service level manager at Idaho National Laboratory based in Idaho Falls, an engineering lab supporting the Energy Department in nuclear and energy research, science, and national defense. “It is helping us to restore services faster.”
“ITIL has become the de facto standard for enterprise service delivery processes,” said Thomas Mendel, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. According to Forrester Research, 40 percent of billion-dollar corporations have now adopted ITIL, and that figure will rise to 80 percent within two years.
According to IT consulting firm Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn., an organization can achieve up to a 48 percent reduction in total cost of ownership of IT equipment by fully implementing ITIL. Anecdotal evidence backs up those numbers, according to Gartner.
Policies and standards back ITIL
Further, this system of best practices has been getting support from standards bodies and government policies. The first International Standard (ISO 20000) covering how organizations are to manage IT services is built around ITIL. In addition, the President’s Management Agenda specifically emphasizes the adoption of best practices.
The Office of Management and Budget has published multiple circulars that relate to the adoption of ISO 20000, such as A-123, A-119 and A-76, noted David L. Farris, IT service manager for the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, based in Raleigh, N.C.
“OMB Circular A-119 directs the use of voluntary consensus standards, which ISO 20000/ITIL is and will continue to be,” he said.
It has been nearly two decades since the United Kingdom’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (now called the Office of Government Commerce or OGC) introduced ITIL.
In essence, ITIL is a widely accepted approach to IT service management. But rather than being a standard, ITIL offers a framework of best practices and guidelines. Organizations don’t become “ITIL Certified.” What ITIL provides, though, is a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provisioning.
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