Looking around on social networks and using my own experience I have composed a Top 10 for those that want to select or implement a IT Service Management Tool. For some organisations it can be usefull to be aware that improving the efficiency of an IT organisation is not just being done by selecting a tool.

IT Service Management is mostly based upon processes that help you to deliver your products or services as a IT department. A characteristic of processes is that they consist of a collection of related and structured activities. Another one is that they produce a predefined output (based upon a predefined input….?).

Looking at the simple description above it seems quiet simple to lower cost and work more efficient: automate most of the activities and focus on your products and services. Why do many organisations purchase a Service Management Tool/Suite and why are they faced with less efficiency and more costs than expected? Let’s see the Top 10 of lessons Learned of implementing IS Service Management Tools.

1. Implementing a Service Management Tool is more then buying a software tool ‘of the shelf’ and installing it on a server. Before buying a ‘recommended’ tool from a supplier you have to be aware of the following:
   • what processes/activities do I want to automate/make more efficient, and WHY do I want to do this?
   • looking at the processes/activities, which other information system/tool is involved with these processes? Do you want to integrate them in the new solution or does the new tool have to have some kind of (automated/manual) interface?
   • what processes do I want to stay manual, because only a person can do it the best?
   • how much money/effort is involved with the problem area’s how much efficiency do you expect to gain with introducing a new tool?
   • what other criteria do you have for a new tool?
      
2. Implementing a Service Management Tool requires a full understanding of how your organisation operates. Before starting an implementation or even a selection project get together the people that know, understand and have documented the process and activities that are required in your organisation. Together you can detail the inputs, activities and outputs needed for achieving business objectives and outcomes. This makes the business case for your selection and implementation project!
    
3. Don’t think that IT Service Management according to ITIL is an ‘out of the box’ solution for your business problems. Before doing ITIL you have to understand and think ITIL. ITIL is not an “implementation” that you can do once and then it works. ITIL is a complete change in the organisations culture and thinking. It is a commitment to the Continual Service Improvement of your products and services. Having the books only means that you have taken the first step.
    
4. Don’t make ITIL a thing of only the process managers. ITIL requires participation of everyone in your organization. If your organisation is strongly divided and the different teams do not seem to cooperate (and they have no intention to do so) then you first need to pay attention to that. No tool will solve internal conflicts if the conflicts are not recognized and the tool is an agreed way to solve the recognized problem. Implementing ITIL requires a strong vision and ambition on management level.
    
5. Keep the focus on getting the involved processes right. Any implementation of a tool should contribute to the desired process model, in order to deliver your products and services.
    
6. If the implementation of a IT Service Management Tool/Suite goes wrong then don’t blame it on the Toolset. Implementing an IT Service Management Tool requires in depth definitions of important ITSM toolset. If you have no clue of, for example, how you want to have your Service Knowledge Management System, or, as part of it, what you want to register in your Configuration Management System, then it is difficult to make a right implementation. Not because the tools doesn’t support it, but because you have no clue what you expected in the first way. So make first a business analysis and define the services, products and processes you want to improve. THEN select a tool and implement it.
    
7. Changing your organisation and implementing ITIL in a organisation requires more skills than just ITIL knowledge. Since it is a cultural change that touches every group and individual in your organisation you need a strong vision, lots of communication and strong leadership. Find or create the right Business Change Managers and divide the project in multiple projects in order to contain problems.
   Start with quick wins where you can show the benefits of the introduction (or improvement) of the New Way of Working (or something like that). Make people aware that the real improvement is, for example, collaboration and communication.
   The real change then might come out of your people, the organisation, as they start to believe that they can meet your objectives and see the benefits for them.
    
8. Implementing ITIL is not a project. Making the organisation ITIL aware is a project. By saying this I want to stress that ITIL is not a one thing issue. Implementing ITIL means that you introduce a way of working that always will have focus on Service Improvement and adopting processes to the environment. Implementing ITIL is never finished as you will always adopt your processes to new situations, the big benefit is that you do it on a controlled way, and not on a ad-hoc basis.
    
9. Don’t believe vendors that promise you an ‘out of the box’ solution. Most of the times vendors over promise the benefit their tools will have to your business. They simple forget to stress the limitations or the adoptions that have to be made to the tool or your organisation. If someone offers you a solution that sounds too good to be true……it probably is too good to be true.
    
10. Don’t align your business process with your service management tool. Your business is leading and is your vision on how to be of use for your clients. A service management tool just has to fit in your organisation and provide the information that is needed to manage and control your business. Don’t forget to put the business alignment in your specs too!

ITIL Version 3 is all about IT Service Management. ITIL V3 contains the following core publications:

• Service Strategy
  Service Strategy is about the identification of market opportunities for which services could be developed. This is done in order to meet a requirement on the part of customers. Output of the Service Strategy is a strategy for the design, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of the service as an organizational capability and a strategic asset. Key areas of the Service Strategy volume are:
  • Service Portfolio Management;
  • Financial Management.
• Service Design
  Service Design is about the activities that take place in order to develop the service strategy into a design document. This design document addresses all aspects of the proposed service, as well as the processes intended to support it. Key areas of the Service Design are:
  • Availability Management;
  • Capacity Management;
  • Continuity Management;
  • Security Management.
• Service Transition
  Service Transition is about implementing the output of the service design activities and the creation of a production service or modification of an existing service. There is an area of overlap between Service Transition and Service Operation. Key areas of this volume are:
  • Change Management;
  • Release Management;
  • Configuration Management;
  • Service Knowledge Management.
• Service Operation
  Service Operation is about the activities required to operate the services and maintain their functionality as defined in the Service Level Agreements with the customers. Key areas of this volume are:
  • Incident Management;
  • Problem Management;
  • Request Fulfilment.

  A new process added to this area is Event Management, which is concerned with normal and exception condition events. Events have been defined into three categories:

  • Informational events — which are logged;
  • Warning events — also called alerts, where an event exceeds a specified threshold;
  • Critical events — which typically will lead to the generation of Incidents
• Continual Service Improvement
  Continual Service Improvement is about the ability to deliver continual improvement to the quality of the services that the IT organization delivers to the business. Key areas of this volume are:
  • Service Reporting;
  • Service Measurement;
  • Service Level Management.

Related articles:

• Review ITIL

  http://itsmconcepts.cyeblog.com/

  Configuration management – Configuration management helps to define the core infrastructure. The high level activities are Risk Analysis, Contingency Plan Management, Contingency Plan Testing, and Risk Management. Review ITIL Commonly the business continuity life cycle is as a … Butterworth-Heinemann (Computer Weekly Professional Series) also has developed a notable set of publications covering IT Service Management, with particular attention to IT portfolio topics. …

• To get the whole ITIL picture, you or your company should invest…
  http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/
  As the five core titles reflect the lifecycle of services- their appeal encompasses the entire spectrum of people involved at any stage of the framework. So, without being the prime audience, everyone involved will benefit from access to … The ITIL Lifecycle Publication Suite contains ITIL’s most recent version, Version 3 (V3), and represents an important evolutionary step in its life. The refresh has transformed the guidance from providing a great service to being the …
• ITIL VERSION 3 REFRESH

  http://www.itsmsolutions.com/DITY/

  ITIL v3 has a new “hub-and-spoke” design with a descriptive core framework as the hub, and prescriptive solutions as spokes. Perhaps most useful are new implementation templates based on industry, firm size and business model. … Complementary publications address application of the generic core guidance in particular market or technological contexts. The Complimentary components will change as required, perhaps annually, quarterly, even monthly for some. …

• Free Online Sample ITIL v3 Foundation Exam | ITIL Weblog for …
  http://itil.healthcheck-online.com/
  1, 2, 3 and 4. The ITIL CORE publications are structured around the Service Lifecycle. Which of the following statements about the ITIL COMPLEMENTARY guidance is CORRECT? It is also structured around the Service Lifecycle …
• ITIL v3 – The Top 3 Myths From 2008 – To ITIL® V3 and Beyond …

  http://www.ca.com/us/blogs/default.aspx?pgtype=com&id=141428

  The current development is of more complementary publications that will give a greater degree of prescription to you as a practitioner to implement a specific process or set of processes faster and with more detail. … To get started with ITIL, many IT practitioners will start with existing process areas that they already have and want to improve. Most commonly, these will be the key process areas at the core of almost any IT operation: change and configuration …

Implementation Checklist

DO:

• Perform a feasibility study first
• Use what is already good in the organisation
• Take it slowly
• Stay focused
• Appoint a strong project manager with end-to-end focus to drive this implementation program
• Be brave enough to ask for help when you need it
• Keep in mind that you are dealing with personal issues
• Keep communicating WHY your organisation needs this
• Measure your successes continuously
• Enjoy the milestones and share them with the IT group

DON’T:

• Try to mature all the processes at the same time
• Start with a tool
• Start without management commitment and/or budget
• Force ITIL upon people
• ‘ITILISE’ your organisation, keep thinking…
• Rush, take your time to do it well
• Go on without a reason
• Blindly follow the herd
• Ignore the positive activities already in place

Cultural change

A small part percentage of the implementation project will be about process design. Most of the challenge lies in cultural change and personal motivation of staff to use the end-to-end processes as the better way to do business.

Any change leads to feelings of vulnerability and loss of control. These feelings generally manifest themselves through feelings of resistance. The most important thing in this stage of the ITIL implementation is to keep the focus on the reason why your organisation needs ITIL Service Management in the first place.

Implementing ITIL Service Management

Check out the category to see more posts on Implementing ITIL Service Management.

Introduction

ITIL Service Management is something that impacts the entire IT organisation. Implementation of end-to-end processes can have a big impact on the way things are done and can initiate a lot of uncertainty and resistance with staff.

For these reasons, it is important to implement ITIL Service Management with a step-by-step and steady approach.

The following steps are an example of such an approach:

1. Feasability study
2. Awareness
3. Planning
4. Implementation
5. After Care

Developing ITIL processes is a fairly easy job to do! Making sure everybody understands the processes and uses them is more difficult and requires serious planning.

It is advisable to use a project management approach to ITIL Service Management implementation and stay focused on the clearly defined end results (many different Project Management methodologies exist. The Trademark owners of ITIL (the OGC) publish PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments). For more information see the Prince2 Weblog).

Implementing ITIL Service Management also adresses:

• Cultural change
• Implementation Checklist