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IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) |  |
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Developed in the late 1980's, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has become the worldwide de facto standard in service management. Starting as a guide for UK Government, the framework has proved to be useful to organisations in all sectors through its adoption by many service management companies as the basis for consulting, education and software tools support. The IT Infrastructure Library documents industry best practice guidance. It has proved its value from the very beginning. Initially, the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) collected information on how various organisations addressed Service Management, analysed this and filtered those issues that would prove useful to CCTA and to its Customers in UK Central Government. Other organisations found that the guidance was generally applicable and markets outside of Government were very soon targeted by the service industry. Being a framework, ITIL describes the contours of organising Service Management. The models show the goals, general activities, inputs and outputs of the various processes, which can be incorporated within IT organisations. ITIL focuses on best practice that can be utilised in different ways according to the need. Thanks to this framework of proven best practices, the IT Infrastructure Library can be used within organisations with existing methods and activities in Service Management. By emphasising the relationships between the processes, any lack of communication and co-operation between various IT functions can be eliminated or minimised. ITIL provides a proven method for planning common processes, roles and activities with appropriate reference to each other and how the communication lines should exist between them.  Generic benefits include:
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Relationship between Processes |  |
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Integrated service delivery refers to the need for Configuration Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management and Release Management processes that are linked together in a meaningful manner. For example, the process of releasing components to the live environment (the domain of Release Management) is also an issue for Configuration Management and Change Management whilst the Service Desk is primarily responsible for liaison between IT providers and the Users of services. This section highlights the links and the principal relationships between all the Service Management and other infrastructure management processes. These processes fall under the Operational and Tactical Layer as given in the table. They are as follows: Operational Layer
1. Configuration Management Configuration Management is an integral part of all other Service Management processes. With current, accurate and comprehensive information about all components in the infrastructure the management of Change, in particular, is more effective and efficient. Change Management can be integrated with Configuration Management. As a minimum it is recommended that the logging and implementation of Changes be done under the control of a comprehensive Configuration Management system and that the impact assessment of Changes is done with the aid of the Configuration Management system. All Change requests should therefore be entered in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and the records updated as the Change request progresses through to implementation. The Configuration Management system identifies relationships between an item that is to be changed and any other components of the infrastructure, thus allowing the owners of these components to be involved in the impact assessment process. Whenever a Change is made to the infrastructure, associated Configuration Management records should be updated in the CMDB. Where possible, this is best accomplished by use of integrated tools that update records automatically as Changes are made. The CMDB should be made available to the entire Service Support group so that Incidents and Problems can be resolved more easily by understanding the possible cause of the failing component. The CMDB should also be used to link the Incident and Problem records to other appropriate records such as the failing Configuration Item (CI) and the User. Release Management will be difficult and error prone without the integration of the Configuration Management process. The Service Delivery processes also rely on the CMDB data. For example:
 Relationship between Capacity Management, Change Management, Configuration Management and Release Management "Corporate enterprises face the challenge of keeping up with the rapid growing and ever-changing business environment of their Client's. The competitive edge is not only the market share it achieves or the revenue it generates, but also is most importantly the customer loyalty earned and maintained. 'ITIL' and 'Service Management' enables you to build this loyalty by achieving best customer satisfaction and value through Service excellence through the combination of People, Process and Technology and aligning them with Operational, Tactical and Strategic Processes". |
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Jan van Ommen International Account Director, AST Consulting |
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