Itil – Where to Start
ITIL offers standards towards all aspects of IT Operations. Thus it is vast, or broad, and deep. Depending on the bandwidth, and type of organization you belong, ITIL can be implemented different ways. Note that the objective or motivation for ITIL compliance could be also different for different organisations. Typically an organisation may decide to comply with complete ITIL standard. So will opt to implement all aspects of IT Operations, which I consider as big-bang approach. This is very common approach of ITIL implementation. For the big bang approach, one needs bigger implementation team, big budgets, organizational focus and organizational commitment – to complete the compliance within a defined time frame. Big bang approach also involves training every one on ITIL concepts, certifyng most of managers, etc. As part of this big bang approach, some teams may need to shift their focus on ITIL – away from operational areas, though it is all for good.
However, there could be organizations, groups or teams which may be interested in ITIL practices, but cannot afford to go big-bang way. That could be becuase – no time, no money, no people, or all of ITIL could be an overhead for their organisations… or as simple as “let me try one area”. Thus same approach of big-bang implementation may not fit to everyone.
If some one is looking for ways to get started in a simple way to comply with ITIL – I suggest following:
First point is – organisation or division or team should be convinced that ITIL to be implemnted in their IT operations, though in a small way.There need not be any objective or specific issue resolution. If there is one such, probably my suggested method may not be the best.
Second area is – they need to exclusively identify 2-4 individuals – probably from within their team, or from different teams who have interest in success of IT Operations – to form a control committee.
Third step is – Head of IT Operations – should be also part of the control comittee (CC). A person should be made as CC Manager. However Head IT cannot be CC Manager. Note that this person should have organisation capabilities, but need not have IT Technical capabilities.
Now the critical part – which area of ITIL should be implemented?
I recommend to go with Change Management. So any changes in IT operations – hardware, software, planned or unplanned – should be reviewed and approved by the CC. It could be interesting to begin with… but a committed compliance to Chanage management will bring in many of other areas covered and lot of uniformity.
THere could be many learnings too… like, what to do when the change process not followed, how do we take care if the change is required immediately to resolve a major crisis … which you need to tailor the procedures and document them, and importantly practice them.
I am sure Change Management is the way to go, and best place to start for ITIL compliance. Get started and drop me a note in case you need any help or you want any information.
Wish you all the best …
Swamy
By: Sone
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