My suspicions have been proven correct in a recent survey by Compass America who surveyed 70 Executives, from Organizations covering 11 Countries - the majority stating their ITIL programmes have been in existence for more than 18 months, about their ITIL investment.
This survey was designed and the results analyzed by John Sansbury, who directs Compass Group Services related to IT Service Management (including ITIL and CobiT), Contact Centers and Service Desks.
The purpose of this survey was: -
"to explore the extent to which organizations are able to correlate the maturity of their ITIL processes with the realization of specific improvements in IT and business operations"
...Or in real terms, "How much business value are you getting from your ITIL implementation?"
Take a few moments to read through the survey and then return to read my thoughts and see if you agree or disagree!
Read the Survey first Here.
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...OK, welcome back.
Here's my thinking...
1. Comments on: ITIL Maturity (Established, Mature, World-Class).
- Not really surprising that Incident, Change and Problem feature highly - after all these processes 'heal pain' and 'oil the wheels' of IT Organizations.
- Ironic that Configuration and Capacity featured way down the list. If I was one of these organizations I would check to see what % of Incidents, Changes and Problems are attributable to Capacity related issues. The least established and mature may be "feeding" the processes that are most established.
- Configuration Management, and the establishment and upkeep of an enterprise CMDB, is a considerably investment that's often difficult to justify as a 'stand alone' Process. There's only payback on certain items, like ensuring that you are legally compliant to Software Licenses, unless you directly consider how Configuration empowers people in Incident, Change and Problem. Having an up to date and accurate CMDB feeding these Processes is a key leverage point. Unfortunately, we are not generally educated in CMDB establishment BEFORE we begin our ITIL efforts. Typically, most Organizations need to show something for their money pretty quickly, so Incident and Change usually come first.
2. Comments on: Confidence in ITIL delivering tangible improvements in IT performance
- This is my take on that pie chart: about 33% are definitely confident, 33% are fairly confident and roughly the final 33% are NOT. A 3 way split. Not very convincing.
3. Comments on: Your Organization measures the maturity of it's ITIL Processes
- Again, not very convincing with half the respondents having 'some' measures and 13% having none. For me, that's 68% of respondents not really stating a convincing argument that they understand how mature their ITIL Processes are.
4. Comments on: The relationship between ITIL Maturity and IT Performance
- 72% without formal linkages between ITIL maturity and IT Performance!
Implications of Findings.
So, from the survey, it seems to me that many Organizations are steaming ahead with their ITIL programmes but most have little or no real firm understanding about what these efforts are actually doing to raise IT performance.
This is concerning since, even from the ITIL Foundation course and the core texts (the starting point for many people's ITIL knowledge ladder, it is stressed that ITIL is all about delivering Service Quality, improvement and focus on the business.
So, what's gone wrong?
Thoughts on this: -
1. Perhaps IT is too busy fire fighting.
2. IT has to show rapid ROI for it's ITIL efforts and these are limiting IT to focus on Incident, Problem and Change.
3. We don't really understand (maybe because it's the 'first time' through) how and in what order to implement ITIL.
4. We have received limited funding for some areas e.g. Configuration and Config.
5. It's too difficult, there's not enough information on how it should be done, we have no clear road-map.
Elements of a successful ITIL Implementation Plan.
As well as the elements Compass provide, how about: -
- ROI focused delivery of ITIL e.g. 100 day projects that deliver incremental and known outcomes.
- Each delivery also helps to establish and maintain the CMDB, which is architected carefully to be evolved over a number of 100 day projects.
- ITIL tool providers (who have done this many many times before) guide their clients with a defined 'roadmap' for rolling out and enhancing ITIL processes.
- The Organization establishes some new independent key roles: "Head of Process Maturity" and "Head of Process ROI" to provide a cross-silo (process) real focus on ensuring that key activities actually take place, are measured and deliver.
Ultimately, the board needs to buy-in to these approaches and appreciate the methods and style of Process delivery and get to grips with how large scale, consistent Organizational transformation actually occurs with IT. In all but the very most enlightened Organizations - such boards will require insight, reference sites and hand-holding.
Further Resources:-
1. More about ITIL Implementation Planning Here.
2. Download a Free 21 Page Project Management e-book:-
Download Project_Management_ebook.pdf
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