ITIL version 3: One Year Later

It's been a little over a year since the introduction of version 3 of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Gary Anthes did a great job documenting "How to Get More Out of ITIL with Version 3" in the July 21st edition of Computerworld. In today's post, I'd like to share some of the points Gary made that stood out to me.

Before we do that, let's touch on the basic difference between version 2 and 3. Megan Pendlebury, the Service Management Executive with itSMF UK, does a good job of sharing her impressions of what's different.

"V2 took a very process driven view and led to people working within their own silo rather than seeing the entire picture of what was being done within IT and the business they were underpinning. V3 in contrast takes a 'lifecycle' approach to managing services. It's closer aligned to how businesses are actually run, allowing IT to integrate more closely."

According to Pendlebury, the most common comment she is hearing is "we are still working on V2 and will not be looking at V3 for a while." Pendlebury responds to this by saying, "the truth of the matter is that if you are implementing V2 you are already implementing V3." This is reinforced by comments made in Anthes' story by Phyllis Drucker, director of consolidated services at AutoNation Inc. She said, "We'll lay v3 over our processes and see if there are any gaps", as opposed to scrapping their work on implementing V2.

Besides not abandoning V2 efforts, Anthes offers 4 other keys to gaining value from ITIL v. 3.

1. Do get started on V3. It's worth it.
2. Look at the tools.
3. Prepare for culture shock.
4. Don't expect to find everything in v3 - or like everything you find.

Anthes' article is full of valuable input from a number of IT professionals regarding their impression of V.3. Here are some to consider:

"What's so nice about v3 is that it really takes you back to the basics of business, and then you design your service to meet those."  Alan Claypool, manager of business applications, city of Tampa, FL

"We got into ITIL, and by our third year, we realized that our tools were not allowing us to do some of the things we wanted to do. In hindsight, we could have made much faster progress has we had better tools." Sheri Cassidy, manager of process engineering services, Progress Energy Inc.

"We've all talked about the loss of service in the U.S.. I think this [ITIL v3] is a way to structurally put it back in place." Dale Ott, director of service management, Sarasota County Government and Schools, Sarasota, FL

If you are looking for more information on ITIL v3, contact the U.K. Office of Government Commerce, organizations like Pink Elephant or user groups like IT Service Management Forum International.

If you are looking for a tool to help you with infrastructure configuration and change management, consider requesting a demonstration of Ecora Auditor Pro. It will help you lay a solid foundation for adopting ITIL v3 in your organization's IT infrastructure.

Contributed by Mark Tordoff

Comments

[ITIL Version 3]

Successful organizations understand the benefits of information technology (IT) and use this knowledge to drive their shareholders’ value. They recognize the critical dependence of many business processes on IT, the need to comply with increasing regulatory compliance demands and the benefits of managing risk effectively and ITIL V3 is a new version of the IT Infrastructure Library has many new subjects closely related to business operations and is much more focused on doing business than dealing with IT.