I.T. Service Management The ITIL approach to service delivery Gerald O Sullivan Human Sciences Research Council
egovernment challenges Measurable egovernment value Lowering service delivery costs Increased productivity Citizen convenience High-availability systems Information security
Information Planning and Reporting E.1 A head of department shall establish - (a) an information plan for the department that supports- (i) the planning process and objectives contemplated in regulation III B; and (ii) compliance with Part I of Chapter 5; (b) an information infrastructure plan that supports the information Strategic plan; and planning Underlying (c) an operational plan that enables egovernment the value implementation of the information infrastructure plan and information management.
Information Plan Supports the planning process and objectives contemplated in regulation III B (strategic planning) and compliance with Part 1 of Chapter 5 (underlying electronic government value) informs supports Information Infrastructure Plan Improves service delivery, productivity and cost-efficiency of the department. Complies with MISS and MIOS. requires enables Operational Plan Enables the implementation of the information infrastructure plan and information management Diagram 1: Fulfilling the Information Planning and Reporting requirements of the Department
Successful I.T. organisations I.T. is aligned with organisational objectives strategic alliances with departmental units; understand information needs; technology is enabling. Excellence in service delivery service catalogue; set, measure and meet service levels. Pro-active, not reactive availability, reliability; quality improvement processes.
Background of I.T. Infrastructure Library Initially developed in the late 1980 s by the British Office of Government Commerce; Has subsequently become the world-wide de facto standard in Service Management; Provides an integrated set of best practises drawn from the public and private sectors internationally; Recommended by SITA.
Objectives of ITIL Harmonising and standardising I.T. working practices across the organisation; Providing business continuity in the face of technical failure or other disaster; Managing partnerships and out-sourcing through service level management; Transforming I.T. business practice through radical change; Focusing on client expectations and continuous service delivery improvement.
Service culture Quality-focused approach to meet customer expectations; Enables I.T. directorates to align their processes with Batho Pele principles, particularly: equal access to services, increasing productivity and lowering cost.
ITIL Service Delivery Service level Identifies management which IT elements are essential for business continuity planning, co-ordinating, the event agreeing, of disaster; and reporting on SLAs, and the on-going Contributes review of service to cost-effective achievements; disaster recovery procedures; Financial management Becomes an for integral IT services part of those work processes which are Catalogues highly services IT dependant; and level of I.T. service needed; providing Monitors Ensures cost-effective Optimises whether that the stewardship IT required service spend service on availability of counteracting I.T. levels resources; is are cost-effective, achieved, risks. providing sustained Capacity inputs management and to aligned Personnel with Performance user s expectations; Management systems; aligning Instigates the Reduces Accounts current actions and the for frequency to future the eradicate spend capacity and on poor IT duration of services; the infrastructure of incidents the context which with of the threaten the required Departmental Attributes service service availability; Service delivery; these costs Delivery to the Improvement services delivered; Programme; Maintains Ensures Assists underpinning management that the availability contracts make of decisions and systems operational on meet IT investment; the level requirements of IT service agreements continuity joined-up egovernment. management Measures with the external cost of and the internal SLAs. service providers. ensuring Balances that cost services against can capacity be to recovered meet service within levels; required, business Avoids timescales; fruitless expenditure; Provides inputs to the budget cycle so that upgrades are done Availability management when necessary, instead of too soon or too late; optimising Ensures the that capability cost-justifiable of the IT IT infrastructure capacity always to deliver exists which a cost effective matches and the sustained current level and future of availability. needs of the Department.
ITIL Service Support Service Provides Desk accurate information about IT assets and components day-to-day for accounting contact point purposes between and asset-tracking; users, IT service providers and Maintains third-party Better alignment support an inventory organisations; of IT of services all software with Departmental for licensing; requirements; Incident Provides Improved management information risk assessment; about IT components to support processes restoring Improved Reduced such normal as change quality impact service management, of service of as roll-outs quickly and on as roll-outs, enhanced service possible capacity quality; and to minimise planning and user satisfaction; the Better adverse Fewer service information impact desk; Consistency unplanned on of business about the changes release current operations; to processes service the infrastructure; levels of hardware and capability; and software; Problem Assists Improved Better management with financial and expenditure planning. Minimisation planning, job satisfaction of co-ordination service and disruption better and staff timing by motivation synchronising of changes, through releases reducing of detecting Reduced better cost hardware understanding the improving business underlying software; impact efficiency. capabilities cause disruptions of and incidents expectations; to service and ( incidents ) their subsequent Feeds by Stable timely into resolution resolution; a test programme and and live prevention; environments, of continuous because process improvement. infrastructural Configuration Proactive changes management identification are combined of beneficial into single, system controlled enhancements; and wellunderstood all business-focussed on IT the assets release underlying and packages; their causes information configurations; of incidents related to and the their SLAs; documenting Provides Focuses Change Improved subsequent management Improved management resolution security, since and escalation prevention; releases are of incidents; thoroughly tested. standardised Better Pro-actively use methods of staff and and permanently and increased procedures resolves efficiency. for handling problems; changes to the IT Improves infrastructure organisational to minimise learning the impact by building on service a database delivery; of Release known management errors and their work-arounds. oversee, document and communicate the successful roll-out of software and related hardware changes.
Change Management example Log Request for Change Filter change requests Decide change category Allocate initial priority Reject Authorise and schedule Estimate impact and confirm authorisation Urgent? No Authorised? No Rejection Yes Yes to Urgent Procedures to Change Builder
ITIL Implementation Pre-requisites Top-level Management commitment Change management Process ITIL self-assessment questionnaire Situation analysis Establishing the CMDB Training, training, training
ITIL Education and Certification Two bodies provide certification services Local accredited training available: Foundation: ~R5k Practitioner s: ~R5k Manager s: ~R20k UK Examinations body (under the auspices of the British Computer Society) www.bcs.org.uk/iseb/ism2.htm Dutch Examinations body (Independent) www.exinexams.com 1 hour multi-choice paper 2 hour multi-choice paper Two 3-hour written papers 94 103 250 Both bodies provide these Certification services Foundation Certificate Practitioner s Certificate Manager s Certificate
Recap: what is ITIL? A comprehensive, consistent and coherent set of best practices for IT Service Management ITIL describes the goals, activities, inputs and outputs of eleven I.T. Service Management processes Developed in the late 80s by the CCTA, now called the OGC, a UK government agency ITIL is published as a set of books available from the UK. The books were recently rewritten to bring them up-to-date ITIL and the BS15000 standard are part of the same logical structure