University ITSM

In Computerworld Magazine, Paul Ingevaldson recently wrote an article called "Top 10 qualities of a great IT shop." These qualities include the CIO reporting to the CEO, an executive steering committee, and a focus on the software development lifecycle.

A couple of the qualities relate to ITIL, such as having a security team (loosely Security Management), a disaster recovery process (IT Service Continuity Management), SDLC focus (very loosely Service Design), and participating in the long-range planning (Service Strategy).

The list looks OK to me, so I'm wondering: why don't ITIL concepts show up more often in Paul's list? Here are my guesses:

Demand management and financial management: I'd guess that few IT organizations have these processes; you're doing well (i.e. you have several of the listed "top 10 qualities") if you're in the position of considering these processes.

Availability, capacity, and supplier management: Paul says you should have "up-to-date hardware and software," which touches on capacity management. Availability, capacity, and supplier management add value but I'd guess they have a "cool factor" only when they support other processes like IT Service Continuity.

Service catalog management and service level management: I think these two are the most glaring omissions from the list. A high-performing IT shop needs definition to its operational services at least as much as it needs a strong software development lifecycle. Additionally, these processes ensure good balance between IT and the rest of the organization--studying the service catalog ensures IT is offering needed services, and reviewing SLAs ensures IT is offering services appropriately.

Service Transition: None of the service transition processes, like change management or knowledge management, made the list (unless you argue that training falls under knowledge management). I guess service transition is assumed?

Service Operation: None of the service operation processes made it, either. Service operation is pretty important! I guess a "Great IT shop" is assumed to be operating services, and maybe people don't often put together the business value of a high-performing Service Desk.

The last one, Continual Service Improvement: Continual Service Improvement is most important to "process-oriented" people. Perhaps IT Service Management is still a new approach to IT, and that's why it didn't make the list.

Please see also our other blog entry, Learning from audit to improve IT performance, for another take on the qualities of a successful IT shop.