Introduction to the ITIL methodology in ITSM
IT management knows several approaches. The main difference between them is priorities. One method focuses on technology (IT Systems Management), the other on services (IT Service Management). The latter is abbreviated as ITSM and is often found in the context of another concept: an information technology infrastructure library, or ITIL. In this part of the ITIL series, we will look at the role of best practices in ITSM, as well as take a look at the history of the birth of ITIL and give a brief overview of the methodology.
/ photo rawpixel CC
Regarding the two key concepts of the service approach, the well-known egg and chicken dilemma applies - what comes first? To explain the interconnection between ITSM and ITIL, Stuart Rance from the BMC IT company wrote the article “ITSM vs. ITIL: What's the Difference? It begins with a clear delineation of the scope of applications and the wording of the key statement: it is impossible to put an “or” union between ITSM and ITIL. And that's why.
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If you transfer these concepts to the domestic plane, ITSM can be compared with the approach to the work of the bar, all processes of which are primarily focused on tastes, preferences and convenience of the client. Then the book about the client approach in the bar business of John Taffer (Jon Taffer), an American consultant and writer, is ITIL.
In other words, ITSM is a way of doing IT business, and ITIL is a best practice. However - and this is important - ITIL is not a recognized standard, but a basis that contains best practices, and not a step-by-step instruction that is mandatory. According to Steven Weil, senior security consultant at consulting company Seitel Leeds & Associates, “ITIL does not contain specific, detailed descriptions of how the processes should be implemented, since they will be different in each organization. In other words, ITIL tells the enterprise what to do, but not how to do it. ”
It turns out, according to the meaning inherent in these two concepts, the idea about service-oriented IT first arose, which later became the reason for the emergence of an ordered support system.
The role of ITSM is to serve as a bridge between development and the user, who can be either a non-technical employee of the organization or a client.
L.F. Popova, in her work “The Influence of Information Technologies on the Formation of the Sustainable Development of an Enterprise”, indicates “a reduction in the volume of personnel involved in collecting and processing information, improving the quality and speed of communication” under the influence of information technologies on organizational activities. However, sometimes automation leads to an imbalance in relations between divisions and other departments (or clients).
In such a situation, IT departments focus on technological problems, but at the same time there are at least two more aspects that affect performance: meeting the needs of the end users (employees and customers who will receive the IT product) and cost-effectiveness (optimal cost of sales of the product in accordance with the budget).
ITSM focuses on these aspects and brings a better understanding of what a business needs and why, that is, acts as a foundation for repeatable and scalable processes, reduces the distance between end users and the IT department. Due to this, customers are formed realistic expectations, and the delays between the detection of problems and their elimination are minimized.
Thus, ITSM focuses on processes such as support and delivery of IT services, understanding the current state of the IT infrastructure, finding the best IT management practices by finding a common language between users and implementers, as well as creating a technological route for business.
As noted above, ITIL contains guidelines for implementing ITSM. The IT infrastructure library has a rather interesting origin: its history is closely connected with the British crown. ITIL was developed in the late 1980s by the UK Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). The reason for ordering a full-fledged complex of best IT practices was the low quality of IT services provided to the British government.
Thus, ITIL was designed to improve service and at the same time reduce maintenance costs. ITIL is now a trademark of AXELOS, a joint venture of the UK government office and Capita, London.
/ photo Witizia CC
Quora's Amanda Fairbrother, an ITIL expert, told the Quora users that the authorities ordered a study to determine the best practices used in 2.5 thousand different organizations - large and small, public and private, employed in all industries. The work resulted in a set of guidelines for the Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management, which formed the basis of the first version of ITIL. It was published in 1989 and had forty volumes. A year later, the library began to spread across the world outside the UK.
In 2001, the world saw ITIL v2, where the focus shifted to the process component (from the technical aspects), and the number of volumes was reduced to seven. This was preceded by the use of the foundations of ITIL by Microsoft in 2000 to create its own methodological model of Microsoft Operational Framework (MOF).
In 2007, ITIL v3 was released. The number of volumes was again reduced (to five), and the emphasis was placed on the life cycle of IT services: strategy, design, transformation, operation, continuous improvement of services. The main message of ITIL v3 in the current edition was the falsity of the “process for process” approach.
The commercial potential of ITIL received a massive assessment in the early 90s along with how a number of private organizations and the British Public Service College received the status of training platforms of the ITIL methodology. At the same time, the ISEB Attestation Commission, which is part of the British Computer Society (BCS), joined the first tests for the ITIL certificate.
Gradually, organizations from all industries, both private and public, began to recognize the benefits of ITIL. This was facilitated by the launch of the IT Service Management Forum by the UK and the Netherlands in the first half of the 1990s to spread the methodology in Europe. As of 2016, it has 6 thousand participants worldwide.
At this stage, a number of companies, such as HP, IBM, Procter & Gamble and DHL, began to invest heavily in ITIL. As for the USA, ITIL got there relatively late. However, in his study, Doctor of Economics Maurizio Marrone (Mauricio Marrone) claims that as of 2009, 45% of respondents from 364 American companies used ITIL, and 15% planned to do so.
As already noted, the ITIL methodology includes the following steps for assessing the life cycle of a service: strategy, design, transformation, operation, continuous improvement. Strategy is a key element of the ITIL life cycle. It sets the bar for the IT service supplied by the organization. The service strategy, like the other stages of the ITIL life cycle, consists of various processes, sets of measures designed to perform a specific task. Each process has input, output, and results for generating changes.
Processes also involve a feedback system for evaluating results and improving service quality. The final product of this phase is a document that lays down a detailed description of the client’s needs, the potential market and the required services, as well as the main inputs to the design phase of services. The strategic phase consists of three main processes: financial management, demand management and portfolio management services (SPM).
Designing services is a stage in the life cycle of a new or modified service that is designed and prepared for the conversion phase. The main task here is the development of a final solution to meet the needs of the business. As Alison Cartlidge of the IT Service Management Forum says , service design must be a holistic process and take into account four factors: people (skills and competencies involved in providing services), products (technology and management), processes (roles and activities ), partners (manufacturers, developers). At the exit, this stage involves the formation of a package of documents called the Service Design Package (SDP), containing a detailed design specification. SDP will be the governing document for choosing a solution at the conversion stage.
At the service transformation phase, the necessary service solutions are implemented, which are designed in accordance with the needs of the business. This is where the necessary resources are planned according to the estimated cost and quality. The three main processes at this stage are change management, service asset and configuration management (SACM), and service knowledge management. The remaining four processes concern transformation planning and support, as well as release and deployment management.
As for the operational phase, the focus here is on conducting and managing current IT activities. The phase contains many processes to support the efficient and uninterrupted operation of IT services. The focus is on ongoing activities, gathering information and fixing irregular violations. The main processes that form this phase are event management, incident management, problem management, access control and service requests management.
The last stage of the service life cycle is continuous improvement of services. The implementation of this stage is not an easy task, since it requires changes in management, staff attitudes and the erection of continuous improvement to the rank of core value.
Thus, ITIL leads to the establishment of links between IT and customer needs, which is reflected in improving the services provided and increasing customer satisfaction. This leads to lower costs by increasing the efficiency of resource use. For example, according to a Gartner study , a number of Japanese companies that used the ITIL process were able to reduce the impact of the human factor in release management by 20% per year and reduce production costs by 30% in three years. In addition, ITIL methods allow you to create transparency when working with IT assets and more stable conditions to support constant business changes.
/ photo rawpixel CCWhat was before: ITSM or ITIL?
Regarding the two key concepts of the service approach, the well-known egg and chicken dilemma applies - what comes first? To explain the interconnection between ITSM and ITIL, Stuart Rance from the BMC IT company wrote the article “ITSM vs. ITIL: What's the Difference? It begins with a clear delineation of the scope of applications and the wording of the key statement: it is impossible to put an “or” union between ITSM and ITIL. And that's why.
')
If you transfer these concepts to the domestic plane, ITSM can be compared with the approach to the work of the bar, all processes of which are primarily focused on tastes, preferences and convenience of the client. Then the book about the client approach in the bar business of John Taffer (Jon Taffer), an American consultant and writer, is ITIL.
In other words, ITSM is a way of doing IT business, and ITIL is a best practice. However - and this is important - ITIL is not a recognized standard, but a basis that contains best practices, and not a step-by-step instruction that is mandatory. According to Steven Weil, senior security consultant at consulting company Seitel Leeds & Associates, “ITIL does not contain specific, detailed descriptions of how the processes should be implemented, since they will be different in each organization. In other words, ITIL tells the enterprise what to do, but not how to do it. ”
It turns out, according to the meaning inherent in these two concepts, the idea about service-oriented IT first arose, which later became the reason for the emergence of an ordered support system.
Essence of ITSM
The role of ITSM is to serve as a bridge between development and the user, who can be either a non-technical employee of the organization or a client.
L.F. Popova, in her work “The Influence of Information Technologies on the Formation of the Sustainable Development of an Enterprise”, indicates “a reduction in the volume of personnel involved in collecting and processing information, improving the quality and speed of communication” under the influence of information technologies on organizational activities. However, sometimes automation leads to an imbalance in relations between divisions and other departments (or clients).
In such a situation, IT departments focus on technological problems, but at the same time there are at least two more aspects that affect performance: meeting the needs of the end users (employees and customers who will receive the IT product) and cost-effectiveness (optimal cost of sales of the product in accordance with the budget).
ITSM focuses on these aspects and brings a better understanding of what a business needs and why, that is, acts as a foundation for repeatable and scalable processes, reduces the distance between end users and the IT department. Due to this, customers are formed realistic expectations, and the delays between the detection of problems and their elimination are minimized.
Thus, ITSM focuses on processes such as support and delivery of IT services, understanding the current state of the IT infrastructure, finding the best IT management practices by finding a common language between users and implementers, as well as creating a technological route for business.
ITIL as the basis of ITSM
As noted above, ITIL contains guidelines for implementing ITSM. The IT infrastructure library has a rather interesting origin: its history is closely connected with the British crown. ITIL was developed in the late 1980s by the UK Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). The reason for ordering a full-fledged complex of best IT practices was the low quality of IT services provided to the British government.
Thus, ITIL was designed to improve service and at the same time reduce maintenance costs. ITIL is now a trademark of AXELOS, a joint venture of the UK government office and Capita, London.
/ photo Witizia CCQuora's Amanda Fairbrother, an ITIL expert, told the Quora users that the authorities ordered a study to determine the best practices used in 2.5 thousand different organizations - large and small, public and private, employed in all industries. The work resulted in a set of guidelines for the Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management, which formed the basis of the first version of ITIL. It was published in 1989 and had forty volumes. A year later, the library began to spread across the world outside the UK.
In 2001, the world saw ITIL v2, where the focus shifted to the process component (from the technical aspects), and the number of volumes was reduced to seven. This was preceded by the use of the foundations of ITIL by Microsoft in 2000 to create its own methodological model of Microsoft Operational Framework (MOF).
In 2007, ITIL v3 was released. The number of volumes was again reduced (to five), and the emphasis was placed on the life cycle of IT services: strategy, design, transformation, operation, continuous improvement of services. The main message of ITIL v3 in the current edition was the falsity of the “process for process” approach.
The commercial potential of ITIL received a massive assessment in the early 90s along with how a number of private organizations and the British Public Service College received the status of training platforms of the ITIL methodology. At the same time, the ISEB Attestation Commission, which is part of the British Computer Society (BCS), joined the first tests for the ITIL certificate.
Gradually, organizations from all industries, both private and public, began to recognize the benefits of ITIL. This was facilitated by the launch of the IT Service Management Forum by the UK and the Netherlands in the first half of the 1990s to spread the methodology in Europe. As of 2016, it has 6 thousand participants worldwide.
At this stage, a number of companies, such as HP, IBM, Procter & Gamble and DHL, began to invest heavily in ITIL. As for the USA, ITIL got there relatively late. However, in his study, Doctor of Economics Maurizio Marrone (Mauricio Marrone) claims that as of 2009, 45% of respondents from 364 American companies used ITIL, and 15% planned to do so.
ITIL today
As already noted, the ITIL methodology includes the following steps for assessing the life cycle of a service: strategy, design, transformation, operation, continuous improvement. Strategy is a key element of the ITIL life cycle. It sets the bar for the IT service supplied by the organization. The service strategy, like the other stages of the ITIL life cycle, consists of various processes, sets of measures designed to perform a specific task. Each process has input, output, and results for generating changes.
Processes also involve a feedback system for evaluating results and improving service quality. The final product of this phase is a document that lays down a detailed description of the client’s needs, the potential market and the required services, as well as the main inputs to the design phase of services. The strategic phase consists of three main processes: financial management, demand management and portfolio management services (SPM).
Designing services is a stage in the life cycle of a new or modified service that is designed and prepared for the conversion phase. The main task here is the development of a final solution to meet the needs of the business. As Alison Cartlidge of the IT Service Management Forum says , service design must be a holistic process and take into account four factors: people (skills and competencies involved in providing services), products (technology and management), processes (roles and activities ), partners (manufacturers, developers). At the exit, this stage involves the formation of a package of documents called the Service Design Package (SDP), containing a detailed design specification. SDP will be the governing document for choosing a solution at the conversion stage.
At the service transformation phase, the necessary service solutions are implemented, which are designed in accordance with the needs of the business. This is where the necessary resources are planned according to the estimated cost and quality. The three main processes at this stage are change management, service asset and configuration management (SACM), and service knowledge management. The remaining four processes concern transformation planning and support, as well as release and deployment management.
As for the operational phase, the focus here is on conducting and managing current IT activities. The phase contains many processes to support the efficient and uninterrupted operation of IT services. The focus is on ongoing activities, gathering information and fixing irregular violations. The main processes that form this phase are event management, incident management, problem management, access control and service requests management.
The last stage of the service life cycle is continuous improvement of services. The implementation of this stage is not an easy task, since it requires changes in management, staff attitudes and the erection of continuous improvement to the rank of core value.
Thus, ITIL leads to the establishment of links between IT and customer needs, which is reflected in improving the services provided and increasing customer satisfaction. This leads to lower costs by increasing the efficiency of resource use. For example, according to a Gartner study , a number of Japanese companies that used the ITIL process were able to reduce the impact of the human factor in release management by 20% per year and reduce production costs by 30% in three years. In addition, ITIL methods allow you to create transparency when working with IT assets and more stable conditions to support constant business changes.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/331376/
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