Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) are two most popular emerging disciplines in today's field of Information Technology which are increasingly popular globally. In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, it's more important than ever that IT organizations implement ITSM and ITIL as a means of better aligning themselves with business needs and providing exceptional service delivery at a low cost. The large scale application of these disciplines of the IT sector is expected to bring a significant qualitative change in the service sector in coming days. Here author gives a cursory overview of the cutting-edge application of Information Technology for readers.
Dr. Tapas Kumar Das, Global Head Software/System Delivery, JELD-WEN Inc, Oregon, USA, is a well-known expert in the field of Information Technology, AI, Thermal and Nuclear Engineering. He spent almost a decade on ITGC (Information Technology General Control), COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology), COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organization) and SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) SOX compliance using ITSM and ITIL frameworks. (Email: dastapash@hotmail.com)
Introduction:
Nowadays almost all corporate business world trying to control and maintain their total IT operation using well-defined standard frameworks. IT infrastructure is so complex and most of the time it is a combination of In-House datacenter, Cloud or some hybrid combination spread across multiple continents in different countries.
Almost every Country maintains a different type of IT standard making it difficult to find out a single framework satisfying all the regulatory standards. Because of the large amount of data and applications spread across global infrastructure, it is absolutely needed to control and maintain IT in the safest, smooth, efficient, and cost-effective way including mitigating data theft and cyber-attack.
Let us discuss what is ITSM and ITIL and how they are related in the present-day scenarios.
ITSM:
Information technology service management (ITSM) are the activities that are performed by an organization to design, plan, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.
ITSM is a concept that enables an organization to maximize business value from the use of information technology. ITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition, and into live operation.
Differing from more technology-oriented IT management approaches like network management and IT systems management, IT service management is characterized by adopting a process approach towards management, focusing on customer needs and IT services for customers rather than IT systems, and stressing continual improvement.
ITSM frameworks:
ITSM framework refers to the collective processes and practices that are needed to manage and support Information Technology services and managing the life cycle of IT service delivery. ITSM framework supports the full spectrum of IT services - right from the network, application, and complete business services.
IT has always had processes that were specific to technology, but to integrate IT objectives with business objectives the processes must include the following objectives:
Process Focus: Shifting IT from focusing on technology to thinking about processes on a business-level
Prevention: Viewed as "firefighting" in IT, but addressed as preventative on the business side
Proactive: Shifting IT practices to a proactive, rather than reactive, strategy
Customers: Viewing users as customers
Distributed, sourced: Changing from traditional centralized IT with everything completed in-house
Integrated, enterprise-wide: Shifting from a siloed IT department to a department with less isolation
Repeatable, accountable: Creating structure instead of "ad hoc" practices by standardizing processes
Formal best practices: Establishing processes rather than working off informal policies so everyone is on the same page
Business perspective: Moving away from thinking about IT-specific needs to full-scale business needs
Service orientation: Shifting from traditional "operational specific" IT initiatives to a focus on customer and client service.
ITSM strategy, organizations implement formalized and documented processes to manage specific aspects of IT service delivery for example Incident management, request fulfillment, managing service capacity, implementing changes, or controlling new releases.
Benefits of ITSM:
Lower costs for IT operation
Higher returns on IT investments
Minimal service outages
Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes
Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents
Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams
Well-defined roles and responsibilities
Clear expectations on service levels and service availability
Risk-free implementation of IT changes
Better transparency into IT processes and services
There are many Service Management frameworks that businesses can use. Some of these frameworks are targeted at specific industries or business needs - such as healthcare, government, and telecommunications. If your business has technology needs that are unique to your industry, you might do well to find a framework that addresses your specific challenges.
Some popular frameworks are:
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL): A framework of best practices for delivering IT services.
Business Process Framework (eTOM): a framework designed for telecommunications service providers.
COBIT (Control Objectives for information and Related Technologies): An IT governance framework.
ISO/IEC 20000: It is considered the international standard for IT service management and delivery.
Six Sigma: Developed by Motorola with a focus on using data analysis to minimize product and service flaws.
MOF (Microsoft Operations Framework): A compilation of 23 documents that guide businesses through the entire lifecycle of an IT service, including creation, implementation, and cost-effective management with an emphasis on Microsoft technologies.
Among the above IT Service Management frameworks, ITIL is becoming the most popular framework adopting by most of the prominent corporations. Let us explore ITIL and its framework.
ITIL:
ITIL, since its inception in 1980, has continuously evolved into many versions and currently has 5 books. ITIL was first developed by the British Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s. Over the years, it has undergone multiple revisions that aim towards business alignment and improved efficiency. The first ITIL book was published in 1989 followed by a V2 in 2000. While V3 came out in 2007, a more up-to-date variant of V3 was published in 2011. The latest edition of the ITIL book is expected to release later this year and it is expected to cover methodologies like DevOps, agile and lean.
ITIL has become the de facto standard in IT service management. It helps organizations in all kinds of industries offer their services in a quality-driven and economical way. The most recent version of the ITIL framework, ITIL® 4, was released in February 2019. It's a significant update from ITIL V3 which was in widespread use for over a decade.
ITIL Evolution:
ITIL, since its inception in 1980, has continuously evolved into many versions and currently has 5 books. ITIL was first developed by the British Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s. Over the years, it has undergone multiple revisions that aim towards business alignment and improved efficiency. The first ITIL book was published in 1989 followed by a V2 in 2000. While V3 came out in 2007, a more up-to-date variant of V3 was published in 2011. The latest edition of the ITIL book is expected to release later this year and it is expected to cover methodologies like DevOps, agile and lean.
ITIL has become the de facto standard in IT service management. It helps organizations in all kinds of industries offer their services in a quality-driven and economical way. The most recent version of the ITIL framework, ITIL® 4, was released in February 2019. It's a significant update from ITIL V3 which was in widespread use for over a decade
ITIL Framework Life-cycle Stages
Why ITIL?
Business success can depend significantly on the stability, agility, and integration of the IT components and their services. If networks, databases, or servers go down, or if incidents aren't remedied or risk not managed, this can have major impacts not just on the business internally, but on all services and end-users. If an organization can more efficiently deliver its services to customers, with greater reliability, they have a much higher chance of success.
With customer needs and technologies rapidly changing in today's world, it's vital to have a set of practices in place to help your business to adapt quickly. This is where ITIL comes in, as its practices can offer flexibility, innovation, and added value to services in a simple and customer-focused way. ITIL can help ensure your IT process standards contribute effectively to your overall business strategy.
ITIL Framework:
ITIL framework consists of five stages as a part of the service lifecycle. Each stage consists of a set of processes or functions that are aligned with the IT organizational structure.
Following is the ITIL service lifecycle stages:
Service strategy
Facilitates organizations to set business goals and develop a strategy to meet customer requirements and priorities.
Service design
Includes designing of processes and functions. This covers the designing of service management processes, technology, infrastructure, and products.
Service Transition
Focuses on maintaining the current state of service while deploying a new organizational change. It ensures that risk and impact are in control so that there are no interruptions to any ongoing services.
Service Operation
Service operation ensures day-to-day operational tasks are seamless and is responsible for monitoring infrastructure and application-related services. This enables businesses to meet customer's requirements and priorities.
Continual Service Improvement
This is a part of a quality check that aims towards continuous improvement of processes in an incremental manner. This happens throughout the service life-cycle.
ITIL Service Life-cycle:
ITIL framework consists of five stages as a part of the service life-cycle. Each stage consists of a set of processes or functions that are aligned with the IT organizational structure. Companies adopt some of these processes that are suitable for their teams. ITIL is therefore flexible in terms of adoption. Following is the ITIL service life-cycle:
ITIL Service Lifecycle
Key Areas of ITIL SM:
ITIL Change management
Businesses implement new projects or applications on a day-to-day basis. It is important to analyze risk and impact before carrying out the planned activities. Based on the risk and impact, change approvals are planned including all relevant stakeholders. Change management records every detail of change that is requested for better tracking and audit. Change management is crucial for an organization to effectively deploy new implementations without any downtime. Post-implementation review is done to keep things in control.
ITIL Incident management
Business users expect smooth business operations without any disturbance. However, in reality, it is a challenge to achieve with the available complex infrastructure components and applications. A proactive approach to incident management deflects redundant tickets and also eliminates major incident occurrences. Automation handles ticket classification and assignment so that service desk agents focus on higher priority activities. ITIL Incident management works in close association with Configuration Management Database, CMDB to link the asset related to the incident.
ITIL Problem management
Repetitive issues are handled by the Problem Management team to analyze the root cause and find a permanent fix. The problem manager performs the Root Cause Analysis and suggests a temporary workaround until a permanent solution is deployed. Proactive problem management is adopted by many organizations to prevent any potential damage caused by major outages and ensure service availability. It is recommended to understand the difference between incident and problem management to assign clear roles and responsibilities.
ITIL Release and Deployment Management
To plan, schedule, and control the build, test, and deployment of releases, and to deliver new functionality required by the business while protecting the integrity of existing services.
ITIL Request Fulfilment Management
Service request management uniquely involves a user submitting their request for something new --whether that's access to a service, a new phone, or information.
ITIL Vs ITSM:
ITSM and ITIL are not mutually exclusive. IT Service Management, ITSM defines how IT services are managed efficiently and adding value to customers. Companies may not realize that they are doing ITSM but whenever IT systems and IT infrastructure are present, ITSM is performed inevitably. ITIL enables companies to achieve efficient ITSM. ITIL is a framework with a set of best practices that are adopted by businesses and individuals for business transformation and strategic IT. ITIL suggests ways to improve and optimizes resources to provide real value to customers.
"ITSM is how you manage IT and ITIL guides businesses for efficient ITSM".
ITSM Certification:
Interested individuals can earn a certification in the ITSM discipline, and there are options for corporate-level training and certification, as well as for individuals. But needs to find the correct certification program, the correct framework he/she plans to use
ITIL Certification
ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS which is available as a chain of five volumes. It addresses processes related to service design and strategy, service operation, and transition. These processes ensure continual service improvement. ITIL offers many certifications based on candidate experience.
Following are the options:
ITIL FOUNDATION - Gain fundamental ITIL best practices knowledge to prepare for ITIL Foundation certification.
ITIL INTERMEDIATE - Expand on the concepts learned in ITIL Foundation with our lifecycle and capability courses.
ITIL PRACTITIONER - Combine the concepts from ITIL Foundation with the hands-on skills gained with ITIL Practitioner certification, for a holistic ITIL approach.
ITIL EXPERT - Prepare for ITIL Expert certification by completing Managing Across the Lifecycle certification.
Reference:
1) Freshworks, https://freshservice.com/itsm
2) IT Service Management, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_service_management
3) ServiceNow, https://www.servicenow.com/products/itsm.html
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