Demand management is the process for understanding what customers want, how much they want, when they want it, and how to influence that demand. For example, demand management is responsible for identifying that the University has a high volume of requests when the fall semester begins.

Predecessors/Before You Begin

Demand management and capacity management are closely related. Demand management is about understanding (and shaping) user demands--looking at the market and knowing what people want. Capacity management is about knowing what IT can provide. Demand management is a service strategy process, because it's about understanding the market. Capacity is a service design process, because it's about designing a solution (ideally, one that matches the identified demand).

Demand management

Service Strategy is about identifying markets and how IT can meet those market needs within certain cost and risk parameters. Demand management supports the Service Strategy phase by understanding what the market (or markets) want, and potentially shaping that market.

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: