We need ITIL more than ever, but it is
stopping us from meeting the challenges which will decide whether we
have a job in five years from now. James West explains why we must
solve the ITIL paradox. One of the key themes emerging from recent conversations with some of
the brightest minds in ITSM (which will soon result in a series of
articles tackling the industry’s hot topics. And I mean hot – not
lukewarm) is the ITIL paradox.
We appear to have entered a contradictory juncture in ITIL’s life
cycle: businesses need ITIL more than ever, but it is also the element
which is stopping them from delivering the service the business demands. Allow me to explain. Service desks in recent years have been forced
to accept that break/fix IT support is no longer their primary purpose.
The service desk of today must support a broader array of technologies,
manage third party relationships with cloud and outsourcing providers,
and deliver useful services, not outdated SLAs.
Running in parallel to
these changing demands, years of over-exposure caused by marketers,
consultants and trainers setting unrealistic expectations about what it
can offer, has seen ITIL experience a backlash. ITIL 2011 has been
criticised for being bloated and out of step with the rapid pace of
technology change (a two year rewriting process does inevitably date the
material). The drop off in ITIL’s influence is alarming, the industry
is not talking about it anymore. ITIL has committed the crime of
appearing unsexy.
The problem, and the start of the paradox, is that ITIL 2011 offers
strong guidance for many of the challenges outlined above. It looks at
supplier management, and has an entire book explaining steps for making
service desks into customer-first outfits. It tackles contract
management, invaluable in the fragmented cloud-influenced software era,
and the basic principles of managing assets and change which have been
solidly defined since ITIL version 2 could help define BYOD policies.
In short, ITIL is still of great value to our industry. But it is
also holding us back. One of the defining principles of ITIL is control
– managing change is the bedrock of ITIL, and its becoming increasingly
clear that IT departments must cede some of this control. The
lifecycle of IT assets, which in ITIL is based on the idea that
technologies are procured by the technology specialists, prepped and fed
out to the business, has fundamentally changed because of BYOD. The
business demands flexible, agile IT with less safety controls, and
service desks are struggling to deliver because such principles
contradict ITIL. We need ITIL, but ITIL is killing us. This is the
ITIL paradox.
The perceived damage caused by ITIL is gaining credence, with commentators such as Aale Roos suggesting
we must ‘unlearn ITIL’ to free our minds from the entrenched thinking
the framework has built. While I understand the need for drastic
action, I feel unlearning ITIL would not benefit the industry, because
the common language and shortcuts it provides are essential for
controlling key areas of IT support and management. James Finister tackled the issue on a recent ITSM Rest of the World podcast,
stating the problem with ITIL is that too many of those practicing it
think it’s just about process.
I agree, ITIL is not inherently bad – it
is in fact the opposite – but an over-reliance on its teachings, and
ITSM tools that push service desks down a pre-defined route, have been
damaging. Let’s be clear about the importance of solving the ITIL paradox: the
careers of IT support and service professionals depend on it. Failure
to tackle our entrenched thinking about the delivery of technology
service will result in the internal IT department becoming increasingly
bypassed, as business users – for good or bad – adopt appealingly simple
consumer technologies. It is not implausible that the internal IT
department in future will be little more than a connector between
consumer IT and the corporate network.
This would mean a massive
reduction in the IT departments power and influence – from guardians of
technology to mere gatekeepers in a short space of time. How do we solve the ITIL paradox? I don’t claim to have a definitive
answer and would welcome suggestions and debate on this page and in the
wider ITSM community. However it’s clear we must take a more realistic
look at ITIL. It is vital that we maintain our interest in ITIL and
revisit the latest books for advice on the challenges faced today.
Most
importantly however, we must re-assess the value and role of ITIL. We
should continue to make use of the common language it provides, but
remember a core principle of ITIL: it is just a reference guide.
Businesses today need IT which listens to their needs and facilitates
technology, not prescribes and restricts it. Taking ITIL too literally
is the reason why this has been so difficult so far, so by liberating us
from the prescriptive, tightly defined mindset which we have
unfortunately created, we will be free to react and operate in the real
world.
Sumber: http://www.servicedesk360.com/featured-articles/how-to-solve-the-itil-paradox/