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To ITIL® V3 and Beyond: Travels with Rob Stroud
July 2007 - Posts
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Measure Twice – Cut Once
Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I experienced my first lesson in “best practices” as a young boy growing up in Sydney, Australia. I built a dog house that, well, to be kind to myself, was not fit for a dog. To prevent similar failures in the future, my father gave me advice that I’ve called upon throughout my life in many situations: “Measure twice, cut once.” With some imagination, this adage, which sounds much more scholarly than its sniveling cousin “Better safe than sorry,” can work everywhere—from counting change, to checking to see if you left the coffee pot on, to making sure that your blog is sufficiently proofed before posting. It even works in the context of ITIL® V3.
I recently spoke with an ITIL practitioner in London who mentioned that V3 was launched at the perfect time for his retail organization. Having leveraged ITIL for several years, his organization was already quite mature in the service support processes. They had successfully implemented incident, problem and change, and, with software asset management under control, were almost through configuration management. After implementing the service support disciplines, they attempted to implement Service Level Management. That’s when they discovered that, while a very significant number of metrics were being collected, they were not measuring all the components and activities that contribute to IT and business alignment. Therefore, SLM could not be implemented without significant additional changes to previously “completed” processes. Alas, measure twice, cut once.
The ITIL V3 Glossary of Terms defines Service Level Management as “the Process responsible for negotiating Service Level Agreements, and ensuring that these are met. SLM is responsible for ensuring that all IT Service Management Processes, Operational Level Agreements, and Underpinning Contracts, are appropriate for the agreed Service Level Targets. SLM monitors and reports on Service Levels, and holds regular Customer reviews.”
The V3 definition differs from the V2 definition in that V3 places more emphasis on the inclusion of Service Level Management (SLM) metrics, which are gathered and incorporated into the design phase. V3’s emphasis on the service lifecycle calls for a logical process to developing services with the end objective being the integration of IT and the business. Investments made in the decision process would be more than offset by the reduction of work at the back end.
Measure twice, cut once.
ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
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Where oh where have my processes gone?
Howdy y’all from Austin, Texas where I met with ITIL® dudes and spoke at the itSMF Local Interest Group on “Implementing ITIL in a Cross Functional Environment.” We worked through the considerations of implementing ITIL in various industries, including banking, insurance and utilities. (I’m plum tuckered out by those of you now thinking “But you can’t ‘implement’ ITIL.” It’s time to paint your back white and run with the antelope. That’s Texas slang for “stop arguing.”)
What’s important to remember is that the ultimate reward of an ITIL initiative—and IT general—is improved business. During the session, an attendee from the utility industry gave an example of the increased commingling of IT and business. In the past, an electricity meter was read by an inspector who traveled to the meter to visually inspect it. Today, that job belongs to IT with the data automatically fed into the billing system, which may bill customers and automatically trigger payment from customers’ banks.
In another example of IT taking over the performance of business processes at the same company, IT now handles requests for service, such as establishing new connections, and automatically routes calls for assistance, such as when a power line is down, to the closest technician.
These scenarios exemplify the true integration between IT and the business and fit the V3 model perfectly.
As we moved from the event to the social hour, V3 was the hot topic. While many agreed that the Service Centric model is the right direction, there was concern over impact on existing initiatives. For example, “I am heavily involved in an implementation of change, incident, problem and configuration management and I want to know if my processes are supported in V3.” They are, of course, supported. They may look a little different and they may be expanded a little, but all the processes you have grown to know and love are supported. I promise you.
If you’re still concerned, you may be interested in this “unofficial” mapping of ITIL v2 to V3, which I presented at an ITIL V3 launch event in Chicago. It’s inserted here to help you get your bearings while you wait for the “official” mapping to be released.
Robert Stroud’s Unofficial Mapping of ITIL V2 Processes to ITIL V3 Books
ITIL V2 Process
Primary ITIL V3 Book
Service Support
Change Management
Service Transition
Configuration Management
Service Transition
Incident Management
Service Operation
Problem Management
Service Operation
Release Management
Service Transition
Service Desk
Service Operation
Service Asset and Configuration Management including the CMDB
Service Transition
CMDB is part of the Configuration Management System (CMS)
Fault Management (ICT Volume)
Service Operation
New–Knowledge Management in Service Transition
Service Delivery
Availability Management
Service Design
Capacity Management
Service Design
Financial Management
Service Strategies
IT Service Continuity Management
Service Design
Referenced in Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement
Service Level Management
Service Design
Asset Control
Service Operation
NEW–Service Catalog in Service Design
I always learn from the ITIL practitioners I meet in my travels. Some advice I picked up in Texas: If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’. And never squat with your spurs on.
On to the next rodeo.
ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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