Does ITIL still matter?

Home Source:
http://www.misweb.com/magarticle.asp?doc_id=26167&rgid=5&listed_months=0

John Lui reported a CEO's opinion on ITIL is important to any organization, but not always, just for IT services management. ITIL may not cover all the area or industry. Don Page the CEO of the Marval Group, he has more than 20 years of experience in IT service management.

Don Page strongly argues that ITIL is beneficial to organizations of any size. Whether is in the private or public sector. But it has a bit different in term of the organization size. Smaller organizations are at greater risk simply because of their size and dependency on key staff. They need to position themselves where key services are not dependent on individuals. Based on this, having well-defined policies, processes and procedures could be the difference between success and failure. Small and medium-sized organizations should seriously consider ISO 20000 as their IT service framework.

If the organization want to improving the IT services, but no the wholes one; just for the critical part as processing or governance aspect. Don Page advice is, if you are an IT service department, all you need is ITIL and ISO 20000. ITIL provides the underpinning process framework and ISO 20000 the IT governance controls and evidence. There are complementary best practices and standards, in different area take different standard. He would use on a service improvement project. For example; PRINCE 2 for project management and ISO 17799 for security. Many frameworks are specifically designed to meet the demands and regulatory requirements of a specific industry sector. (For example, ETOMS for the telecoms industry, Six Sigma for manufacturing, COBIT for auditors). ISO 20000 is a standard, whereas ITIL is a best practice. The area is covered on different requirement.

From an IT service management framework perspective, there is only ITIL. ITIL will continue to thrive and evolve for two main reasons: 1) because it underpins and aligns with ISO/IEC 20000, the new worldwide auditable standard for IT service management. 2) ITIL's development is driven by the IT Service Management Forum, which has the largest group of practicing IT service management experts and professionals in the world today.

Don Page mention another idea, ISO 20000 gives ITIL the teeth it needs. To maintain a competitive advantage, many businesses need to have the confidence to measure and benchmark their IT organization to maintain business confidence and demonstrate to stakeholders how they measure up against a recognized industry standard or their competition. That mean practice on ISO 20000 is easier than ITIL standard.

In my view, if the organization's IT services management is not at the mature stage, may be take the ISO 20000 first, when all the processes and working flow are running well then consider face to more high level on ITIL framework again.