ITIL Overview
description
Transcript of ITIL Overview
May 2007
Service management solutionsWhite paper
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.2
Overview
When planning an IT budget, no CIO wants to devote increased funding to
operational costs at the expense of new service development — because new
services represent growth initiators for the organization, while operational
costs do not. Yet more and more enterprises have been making this budget
shift in recent years because the increasing size of infrastructure, process
inefficiencies, maintenance and global sourcing demand more operational
attention.
One way to reverse this trend is the adoption of a service management
approach throughout the organization, including service delivery and
operations. Service management refers to bringing IT business, development
and operations teams together to optimize service quality for the business,
meet business priorities and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
One primary benefit of service management is improved integration across the
IT service life cycle, and recent research suggests that organizations that apply
an integrated approach are up to twice as successful in reducing costs, twice
as successful at increasing quality and customer satisfaction, and up to three
times as successful in increasing revenue.*
Most problems encountered in service delivery and operations can be
traced back to inadequate integration between development and operations.
Typically, a limited “hand-off” takes place between the development team
Contents
2 Overview
4 Achieve cost and time savings through
proper service management planning
6 Integrate development and operations
teams throughout the life cycle
7 Determinebest-practicesprocesses
8 Integraterequirementsfromeach
processintoeachphaseofthe
lifecycle
9 Solveservicedeliveryand
operationalproblemsbefore
theyimpactcustomers
9 Help reduce costs and increase quality
by automating even the most complex
deployments
10 IBM Service Management helps
organizations use best practices
consistently
10IBMGlobalTechnologyServices
helpoptimizeserviceoperations
13IBMsoftwareproductsprovide
therequiredarchitectureand
automation
14 Conclusion
15 For more information
16 About IBM solutions for enabling IT
governance and risk management
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
and the operations team, so when an application is rolled out or updated and
service problems crop up, a tedious and consuming process is undertaken:
• First,muchtimeisspentfiguringoutwhatandwheretheproblemis.
• Next,patchesandcodearewrittento“retrofit”thenewapplicationsothatitrunsproperlyinthe
organization’sITenvironment.Onoccasion,theunwittinghandofoneprogrammermayundo
monthsofoperationalperformanceandcapacityplanning.
• Finally,asimplicationsoftheapplication-supportedservicebecomeclearer,servicemanagement
planningisinitiatedmuchtoolate.Formostorganizations,theseimplicationsbecomeclearafter
deployment,andafteroperationalcostsandservicequalityhavebeennegativelyimpacted.
Most organizations can and should improve the processes of planning
and rolling out new services and updates to existing services. Today, they face
other significant challenges that stand in the way of delivering high-quality,
cost-effective services:
• Thelackofpropercommunicationbetweendevelopmentandoperationsjustmentioned.
• Disparatetechnologies,architecturalcomplexityandteamsdividedbygeographyand/orculture
maketheprocessmorecomplex.
• Industryconsolidation,technologyconvergenceandintensepressureonbusinessmodelshave
createdanenvironmentofrapidandconstantchange.
• Compliance,auditandgovernancerequirementsintroduceaddedsecurityandaccessconsiderations.
• OverallITbudgetsremainrelativelyflateventhoughoperationalcostsarerising.
Consequently, many organizations are spending much more money than
they wish just “keeping the lights on” — and that leaves less money for the
development of innovative, new services and other growth initiatives. The
adoption of service management can play a key role in turning this situation
around. Service management stresses the use of tools, processes and best
practices that can help an organization plan, integrate and automate.
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
Embracing a service management approach can free resources to drive
more innovation and new capabilities within an organization. Most
importantly, the adoption of best practices–based service management can
allow IT to become a competitive differentiator — and a profit center —
instead of merely a cost center.
This white paper shows how incorporating service management into service
delivery and operations — using best practices — can help organizations
transform IT resources, both technical and human, into value.
Achieve cost and time savings through proper service management planning
Paying lip service to the concept of service management is not enough to reap
its benefits. Careful planning is paramount. The successful adoption of service
management requires a shift in mindset and an evolution in an organization’s
processes. Service management can lead an organization from a structure
of siloed application and infrastructure resources to a reliance on process-
based disciplines and, consequently, the provision of valuable IT services that
support well-conceived business processes and business services.
Both IT’s value and cost to the organization correlate with integration and
collaboration across management domains — more so than with the maturity
of any one specific functional process. Process maturity assessments are still
valuable in diagnosing and improving processes, but IT service management
presents implications that extend beyond IT and affect virtually every
management discipline within the organization.
Strategic planning should focus on the integration and collaboration
required for the overall service management capability, rather than viewing
each process as an independent effort. Instead of process maturity only,
the service management capability should emphasize adding value to the
With an emphasis on best practices, incor
porating service management into service
delivery and operations can help transform
IT resources into value
Highlights
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
customer through an improved overall capability achieved through enhanced
integration and collaboration. To deliver the most value, service management
must look at the business of IT from the customer’s perspective.
Unfortunately, in many organizations, the adoption of a service management
approach remains wishful thinking. That will not change until service
management impacts project management and the governance changes
required to drive complex change in the organization. The first step in
planning service management improvements is the adoption and adaptation
of industry-accepted best practices.
After all, it makes no sense to reinvent what others have already learned.
In fact, planning service management improvement is required by
international standards and globally accepted as a primary best practice.
What an organization critically needs are an actionable, end-to-end service
management framework, methodology and governance of best practices that
leverage accepted standards and practices such as:
• InternationalStandardsOrganization/InternationalElectrotechnicalCommission(ISO/IEC)20000.
• ControlObjectivesforInformationandrelatedTechnology(COBIT).
• ITInfrastructureLibrary®(ITIL®).
Beyond the adoption of best practices, planning, design and implementation
methods are required to turn service management from wishful thinking into
business value. Governance is required to establish the decision rights and
accountability framework that “glues” management capabilities together and
drives the desired behavior and decision making in IT — decision making that
aligns with business objectives. In this way, governance helps ensure that IT
functions as a provider of valued services to customers.
Planning, design and implementation are
needed to turn service management into
business value
Highlights
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
Integrate development and operations teams throughout the life cycle
One of the strongest benefits a best practices–based approach to service
management can deliver to an organization is integration at the information,
technology and process levels. But achieving this integration requires close
attention to these criteria:
• Toeffectivelydrivechangewithinanorganization,servicemanagementmustbecloselytiedto
projectmanagementandgovernance.
• Havingallassetclasses—bothbusinessandIT—managedandfullyintegratedinthesame
managementsystemenablesapplicationconvergence,aswellasbusinessandITsynergy.
• Thedegreeofintegrationandcollaborationacrossmanagementdomainsmayhavemoreimpact
onIT’svalueandcosttothebusinessthanthematurityofanyonespecificprocess.
As organizations drive improvements to service management, the best results
come from combining the different perspectives of product developers, service
delivery teams, IT management consultants and business process consultants
to collaboratively promote end-to-end service and asset management
excellence. Different types of subject matter expertise and advanced software
functionality require full participation from many different areas, across many
management domains.
This “integrated teaming” approach is critical for any IT organization that
desires to improve service management capabilities. It must be recognized
that valuable improvements will require changes to governance, resulting
in improved collaboration across management domains. Ultimately, this will
translate to improved value for the organization’s customers.
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.7
A well-designed system puts these integration goals within reach:
• Theintegrationofdevelopmentandoperationsteamsateachphaseoftheservicelifecycleby
usingbestpractices–baseddevelopmenttools,operationstoolsandprocessgovernance.
• Thetestingofservicesinaproduction-modeledenvironment—followedbydeploymentafter
fullconsiderationoftestingresults.
• Beforeproblemsoccur,theestablishmentofbestpracticestoenableoperationsanddevelopment
teamstocollaborativelydiscoverrootcausesquicklyandwithincreasedvisibility.
Determinebest-practicesprocesses
While integration and collaboration across management domains, rather than
the maturity of any one specific process, is the most critical factor for service
management success, it does not necessarily mean a wholesale abandonment
of an organization’s existing processes is in order. With a unified view of
service management and governance, an organization can often leverage many
existing products and processes to support integrated workflows across the
service life cycle. The integration of existing development processes should
be considered when:
• Yourvariousteamshavealreadyestablishedsuccessfulmethodsfordischargingtheirrespective
responsibilities.
• Acleardivisionofresponsibilitieshasbeendevelopedbetweentheseteams.
• Youregularlyworkwithmultipleserviceprovidersforservicedeliveryandoperations.
The key to successful integration is to investigate the various processes used
by your collaborative teams, agree on the ones that are most useful and make
them the “best-practices” processes for your entire organization.
For successful integration, investigate
processes used by your collaborative teams,
agree on the most useful processes and make
them the “bestpractices” processes for your
entire organization
Highlights
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
IBM has developed tools, placed in public domain, that provide an
appropriate starting point for any organization seeking to improve service
management through greater integration:
IBM Tivoli® Unified Process is a reliable and complete process reference
model that routinely saves time, improves quality and enables new levels of
innovation. Tivoli Unified Process provides practical help in understanding
the process flows, roles, tools and information work products required by
service management. Tivoli Unified Process supports ITIL, COBIT, ISO/IEC
20000 and detailed documentation of IBM Process Reference Model for the
Business of IT.
IBM Process Reference Model for the Business of IT describes more
than 40 processes critical to service management and provides a significant
reference point for how all the activities within IT, including everything under
the office of the CIO, should work together in an integrated, efficient and
effective organization.
Using these tools, an organization can bring people from disparate disciplines
together and establish a continuum between development teams and
processes, and operations teams and delivery processes.
Integraterequirementsfromeachprocessintoeachphaseofthelifecycle
A best practices–based service management system provides an integrated,
end-to-end release management capability. Collaborative service testing,
before operational deployment, is one of the primary ways to improve
operational service quality and help reduce operational costs. In this way, the
test environment becomes, in essence, a simplified mirror of the production
environment. Shared analysis of test data leads to enhanced insight into
service performance. For example, performance test results can be used by
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.�
operations as a basis for service quality planning and to establish baseline
operational thresholds. The critical point is that development and operations
plans should be integrated and coordinated as part of an overall service
management plan — much like development and production architectures.
Solveservicedeliveryandoperationalproblemsbeforetheyimpactcustomers
Integration between development and operations, exemplified by more
effective, service oriented testing can help prevent incidents and problems
before they occur, reduce the time and human effort required to resolve them,
and minimize the depth and duration of the impact to users and customers.
This type of integration is required to help reduce operational costs, improve
service quality and satisfy customer requirements for service reliability.
Effective problem management requires good forensic data for debugging the
root causes of service deployment problems. An optimal service delivery and
operations system will provide vital monitoring and configuration data as well
as the steps needed to reproduce the problem.
Monitors built into applications automatically capture problem “events”
and give problem managers access to “known errors” before they spend
time getting to a problem’s root cause. Problem managers can also see and
analyze configuration differences between test and production environments.
Meanwhile, development and testing teams can access problem records and
configurations so they can analyze and reproduce a problem — then move
to solve it.
Help reduce costs and increase quality by automating even the most
complex deployments
Automation reduces costs through two primary means: reduction of the
human effort (and labor costs) required to perform the activities, as well as
the reduction of human error that may occur during those activities. Reducing
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.10
errors improves customer satisfaction and helps control operational costs
associated with responding to incidents. A best practices–derived delivery and
operations process helps automate complex deployments within the context
of an organization’s overall release management process. Automation helps
facilitate enforcement of agreed-upon practices because it permits fewer
deviations. And even when a critical situation occurs, an established process
guides the activities required to effectively and efficiently respond, based on
agreed-to service levels.
IBM Service Management helps organizations use best practices consistently
IBM Service Management solutions enable effective governance of service
delivery and operations processes, as well as the management of the services,
software and infrastructure that supports the business. In particular, IBM
Service Management solutions help organizations to:
• Alignservicemanagementstrategyandplanswiththeneedsofthebusiness,basedonpractical,
actionableandconsistentrelianceonacceptedstandardsandpractices.
• Integrateoperationsanddevelopmentbasedonservicemanagementbestpractices.
• Automateservicemanagementcapabilitiesforconsistentexecutionandtofacilitate
auditablecompliance.
IBM integrated solutions leverage a framework for service delivery and
operations based on accepted standards and practices such as ITIL, COBIT
and ISO/IEC 20000. Organizations can also draw on IBM services for
practical help with all aspects of planning, design, automation and integration
of best practices.
For service management requirements to be addressed, organizations must
develop a service management strategy and associated policies that provide
the foundation for fast, successful implementations in accordance with
IBM Service Management solutions enable
effective governance of service delivery and
operations processes, and the management
of the services, software and infrastructure
supporting the business
Highlights
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.11
best practices such as ITIL. IBM currently has thousands of ITIL-certified
personnel with expertise in financial management; service desk, service
delivery, outsourced operations, capacity management; incident, problem,
change, release, event management and monitoring design; business
resilience; and server, network, storage, facilities and user services. IBM
staff includes OGC IAG (the ITIL Advisory Group within the UK’s Office
of Government Commerce) members, ITIL authors, members of various
IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) advisory boards and committees,
education providers, consultants and developers. IBM also maintains strategic
partnerships with leading IT service management vendors.
IBMGlobalTechnologyServiceshelpoptimizeserviceoperations
IBM Global Technology Services provide industry-leading insight and
guidance in implementing service delivery and operations processes. Expertise
includes such areas as IT management and service oriented architecture
(SOA) infrastructure consulting; IT life-cycle management; IT and SOA
governance; and software platform integration, deployment and management.
IBM Global Technology Services help clients assess, plan, design and
implement industry-accepted service management best practices like those
described in ITIL, COBIT and ISO/IEC 20000. Additionally, the IBM process
reference model for IT translates the IBM Service Management framework
into concrete action for implementation, so an organization can follow a
streamlined path from design to production.
Using workshops, analytics and process reference models in a flexible
and modular way, IBM provides unique, in-depth insight into how an
organization’s IT resources, processes and investments match overall business
needs — and what steps should be taken for improvement. IBM Global
Technology Services enable an organization to quickly identify the right
service management improvement opportunities, choose the best solution
approach and speed implementation.
IBM provides unique, indepth insight into how
an organization’s IT resources, processes and
investments match overall business needs and
how to make improvements
Highlights
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.12
IBM IT Management Consulting Services bring a business-oriented,
standards-based approach to service management strategy and planning.
IBM professionals use tested and mature assets and methods for planning
the adoption of service management practices. Modular services also include
management and strategy consulting, facilitating a well-defined path toward
better management of IT assets, higher stakeholder satisfaction, increased
efficiency and higher standards of service quality.
IBM service management design and implementation services help define
and implement an integrated set of service management tools and processes
for a business-oriented service management capability. Service management
design and implementation include considerations for the governance, guiding
principles, processes, organization, information and technology architecture
required for a successful implementation.
IBM Testing Centers of Excellence allow organizations to work with
highly experienced IBM performance, capacity and testing consultants to
help improve, plan for and validate the performance and scalability of new
applications, processes, storage solutions and networks.
A key element of IBM Service Management, IBM Global Technology
Services deliver decades of cross-industry experience in helping thousands
of organizations around the globe diagnose, plan, design and implement
service management. IBM offers solid experience, a broad portfolio
of solutions and depth of expertise to help organizations better align
technology investments to business objectives and help IT bring its full
value to the organization to drive business growth.
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.1�
IBMsoftwareproductsprovidetherequiredarchitectureandautomation
IBM software products that provide the architecture and automation required
for effective service delivery and operations include:
Tivoli Unified Process provides intuitive, Web-based access to a content-rich
database, the Tivoli Unified Process Method Library. This library draws from
expertise derived from decades of IBM consulting experience. At the heart of
Tivoli Unified Process is IBM Process Reference Model for the Business of IT.
IBM Process Reference Model for the Business of IT has a set of
ITIL descriptions for workflow management that can be tailored to fit an
organization’s particular needs. In effect, IBM Process Reference Model for
the Business of IT makes ITIL operational. It includes a simple, point-and-
click interface that allows users to gain a basic understanding of each process,
and then drill down to understand the relationships between processes, and
the roles and tools involved in efficiently managing them.
IBM Rational Unified Process® (RUP®), based on more than 20 years
of experience working with clients on thousands of projects, is a process
framework for defining, delivering and adopting software and systems
development best practices. RUP and Tivoli Unified Process are included
in IBM Rational Method Composer. The deployment of an integrated Tivoli
Unified Process/RUP solution allows organizations to build applications and
business services with manageability designed in for IT life-cycle support.
IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) handles the data needed to initiate and manage change. It
provides an enterprise-ready platform for storing deep, standardized data
on configurations and change histories to help integrate people, processes,
information and technology.
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.1�
IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Software helps organizations
automate the deployment of software to servers, desktops and laptops
distributed across different environments and locations — quickly, easily
and cost-effectively. Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Software provides
comprehensive release management capabilities, including built-in discovery,
inventory, software distribution, patch automation and support for compliance
and remediation.
IBM Rational® Performance Tester is a multiuser testing tool for validating
Web application scalability before deployment. It creates, executes and
analyzes tests to validate the reliability of complex on demand business
applications.
Rational Performance Tester can be integrated with IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager (ITCAM) software, helping organizations quickly
pinpoint — in real time — the source of bottlenecks in application code or
server resources. Real-time information provided by ITCAM software includes
throughput, response time and specific transaction details.
Conclusion
Implementing service management in service delivery and operations
processes involves building applications and business services with
manageability designed in, for true IT life-cycle support. Such a
“build-to-manage” strategy helps ensure the successful introduction —
and lifetime success — of such services.
For any organization, a successful transition to a service management
approach will necessarily involve looking at the business of IT from the
customer’s perspective. It must be remembered that both IT’s value and
cost to the business are more related to integration and collaboration across
management domains than with the maturity of any one specific functional
Incorporate service management best practices into the service life cycle.1�
process. Enhancing the range and depth of service management capabilities
(including the level of integration and collaboration both within the
organization and with its business partners) will dramatically add value
to the business.
Employing the IBM Service Management approach to service delivery and
operations, based on best practices, allows an organization to manage new
technology alongside existing technology — all with a strategic view toward the
organization’s specific service delivery objectives. IBM service management
helps organizations deliver and operate new services efficiently, while
enhancing service levels and process capabilities.
For more information
To learn more about how IBM Service Management solutions can help your
organization better manage and apply best-practices precepts to service
delivery and operations, contact your IBM representative or IBM Business
Partner, or visit ibm.com/itsolutions/servicemanagement
Also at ibm.com/itsolutions/servicemanagement, you may download these
useful, service management–related tools:
Tivoli Unified Process provides practical help in understanding the
process flows, roles, tools and information work products required by
service management.
IBM IT Service Management Self-Assessment will help you better
understand how your IT infrastructure can more effectively and efficiently
deliver IT services by:
• EvaluatingITprocessesandtheirimportancetoyourITefficiencyandeffectiveness.
• Providinginsightsintoprocessprioritiesforimprovements,basedonyoursituation.
• Sharingapproachesandsolutionsonhowanintegrated,servicesapproachtoservice
managementcanbenefityourorganization.
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About IBM solutions for enabling IT governance and risk management
IBM enables IT organizations to support governance and risk
management by aligning IT policies, processes and projects with business
goals. Organizations can leverage IBM services, software and hardware to
plan, execute and manage initiatives for IT service management, business
resilience and security across the enterprise. Organizations of every size
can benefit from flexible, modular IBM offerings that span business
management, IT development and IT operations and draw on extensive
customer experience, best practices and open standards–based technology.
IBM helps clients implement the right IT solutions to achieve rapid
business results and become a strategic partner in business growth. For
more information about IBM Governance and Risk Management, visit
ibm.com/itsolutions/governance