IT service management
IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing large scale IT systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. It stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction. No one author, organization, or vendor owns the term "IT Service Management" and the origins of the phrase are unclear.
ITSM is process-focused and in this sense has ties and common interests with the process improvement movement (e.g. TQM, Six Sigma, Business Process Management, CMMI). It is not bound to any particular technology, instead seeking to abstract particular technical concerns into more universal and persistent processes and capabilities. Within the scope of IT organizations, it is more concerned with cross-functional processes than with deeper technical practitioner skills and challenges, and providing integrated frameworks for structuring the often arcane activities of developers and operations staff.
ITSM, as a practice area supporting "back-office" enterprise information techology (IT), is generally concerned with the running of the IT capability as a supporting business function, not as a primary business endeavor. That is, the design and manufacture of semiconductors is not an ITSM concern, but the IT systems used to support the marketing of those products would be. In this respect, ITSM can be seen as analogous to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) discipline for IT - although its historical roots in IT operations may limit its perspective here.
ITSM in context
The concept of "Service" in an IT sense has a distinct operational connotation, but it would be incorrect to then assume that IT Service Management is only about IT operations. However, it does not encompass all of IT practice, and this can be a controversial matter.
In the UK for example, ITIL is often paired with the Prince2 project methodology and SSADM for systems architecture.
ITSM is related to the field of Management Information Systems (MIS) in scope. However, ITSM has a distinct practitioner point of view, as opposed to the more academic connotation of MIS.
IT Service Management in the broader sense overlaps with the discipline of IT portfolio management, especially in the area of IT planning and financial control.
The degree to which software engineering is an ITSM concern is unclear. Certainly, the available ITSM literature has a distinct operational flavor, but also shades into software quality and architectural concerns (especially related to infrastructure, capacity, and operability), while usually steering clear of project management and actual software development. Similarly, the relationship of ITSM to the field of Enterprise Architecture is unclear.
Frameworks for IT Service Management
There are a variety of frameworks and authors contributing to the overall discipline.[1] Frameworks that might be considered to provide examples or instances of ITSM include:
- The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
- Control Objectives for Information Technology (COBIT)
- Application Services Library (ASL)
- Business Information Services Library (BISL)
- Microsoft Operations Framework
- The Helpdesk Institute (HDI) have produced [2] a support centre focussed approach to Service Management loosely based on ITIL.
There are also a variety of proprietary approaches available from IT service providers and research firms.
Organizations concerned with IT Service Management
There is an international, chapter-based professional association, the IT Service Management Forum (ITSMF), which has a semi-official relationship with ITIL and the ITSM audit standard ISO/IEC 20000.
A professional institute for Serivce Managers, the Institute of Service Management (IoSM) represents practitioners in the field.
ITSM and the IT Infrastructure Library
IT Service Management is often equated with the United Kingdom's governmental publication, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). However, while a version of ITSM is a component of ITIL, ITIL also covers a number of related but distinct disciplines and the two are not synonymous. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are Registered Trade Marks of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is an Office of the United Kingdom's Treasury. The content of the books is protected by Crown Copyright.
The "Service Management" section of ITIL is made up of eleven different disciplines, split into two sections, Service Support and Service Delivery. This use of the term "Service Management" is how many in the world interpret ITSM, but again, there are other frameworks, and conversely, the entire ITIL library might be seen as IT Service Management in a larger sense.
The ITIL definition of Service Management includes:
Service Support
- Configuration Management
- Change Management or Change Management process (ITIL)
- Release Management
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
Service Delivery
- Service Level Management
- Capacity Management
- Financial Management
- Availability Management
- Continuity Management
- Security Management
Other frameworks and concern with the overhead of ITSM
Analogous to debates in software engineering between agile and prescriptive methods, there is debate between lightweight versus heavyweight approaches to IT service management. Lighter weight ITSM approaches include:
- ITIL Small-scale Implementation[3] colloquially called “ITIL Lite” is an official part of the ITIL framework.
- FITS was developed for UK schools. It is a simplification of ITIL.
- Core Practice (CoPr or “copper”) calls for limiting Best Practice to areas where there is a business case for it, and in other areas just do the minimum necessary, i.e. CoPr.
ITSM Governance and Audit
Several benchmarks and assesment criteria have emerged that seek to measure the capability of an organisation and the maturity of its approach to service management. Primarily, these alternatives provide a focus on 'compliance' and measurement and therefore are more aligned with corporate governance than with IT service management per se.
- ISO20000 (and its ancestor BS15000). These are not identical in taxonomy to ITIL and include a number of additional requirements not detailed within ITIL and some differences. But it is the closest thing to an “ITIL assessment standard”.
- COBIT (or the lighter COBIT Quickstart) is comprehensive and widely embraced. It incorporates IT Service Management within its Control Objectives for Support and Delivery.
- The IT Service Capability Maturity Model uses the CMM maturity measurement model.
References
- ^ van Bon, J.(Editor) (2002). The guide to IT service management. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0201737922.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Carrie Higday-Kalmanowitz (Editor), Sandra E. Simpson (Editor) (2005). Implementing Service and Support Management Processes. van Haren Publishing. ISBN 9077212434.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ OGC Staff (2005). ITIL Small Scale Implementation. Stationery Office. ISBN 0113309805.