Beginners Guide to ITIL

- help or hindrance?

Dennis Adamsa s s o c i a t e s

Management and Infrastructure SIG Meeting

Can it help me?

What are the pitfalls?

Dennis Adams 4th October 2006

Introduction

• Why we are doing this … (Target Audience)– Confused by what ITIL is?– Heard the buzz-words, but not sure of the substance?– Scared by the prospect of being inundated with too much

processes, so that your teams are unable to get any work done?

• These are all typical reactions from technical leaders and managers when faced with the ITIL “hype”.

• The purpose of this presentation is to introduce what ITIL is really about, and take away the mystery.

• Explain and Justify PROCESS to TECHNICAL Audience.

“ITIL for Dummies” ?

Topics to Cover

• What is ITIL ?• What do we mean by a “Process Approach” to the world as a

different way of looking at how we work together ?

• What are the main Processes within ITIL ?• What some of the main Processes look like in more Detail

• The importance of the Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

• Conclusions: Don’t “Implement ITIL?” (!?)• Time for Questions…

The ITIL definition of IT “Service” - is this helpful ??

“An integrated composite that consists of a number of components

such as management processes, hardware, software, facilities and people

that provides a capability to satisfy a stated management need or objective.”

Dictionary of IT Service Management

Think of MANAGING IT as PROVIDING a SERVICE

IT SERVICESERVICE

DELIVERY

SERVICE SUPPORT

BUSINESS

Align IT services with the needs of the Business

Improve the Quality of the Service

Reduce the long-term costs

Think in terms of PROCESSES rather than SKILLS

Functional Organization

Process Approach

Using a Process Approach, we no longer think in terms of individual technical teams “doing their own thing”.

Rather we think in terms of the overall goal which should be directed to the main goals of the organization.

What is ITIL?

• ITIL = “Information Technology Infrastructure Library”• A Library of Processes books outlining “good practice” for

managing IT Infrastructure.• A set of ready-made “how to” references.

• ITIL IS A NON-PRESCRIPTIVE REFERENCE

• ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

• ITIL revision 3 is currently being written.

• A British Standard (BS 15000) certification (BS 25000 to come).• Linked to ISO 9000 Quality Certification.

An Analogy: Remember Development Methodologies?

Paralysis of Analysis ?Paralysis of Analysis ?

Waterfall Develop

ment

Hobby craft

developer

Prototype and User Design

Quick and Dirty

Structured Design Method

Anarchy ?Anarchy ? JFDI ?JFDI ?

Development Methodologies define Ways of Working to ensure that we do things in a Repeatable,

Professional manner.

Initiate

Design

Deploy Service Desk / Help Desk

Identify root-cause of Problems

Infrastructures Changes

New Application Releases

Document the Configuration

Resolve Customer Incidents

Build

Test

DEVELOPMENT PRODUCTION

PRINCE 2 (Projects) ITIL (Infrastructure)

Application Management

The ITIL Library of Process Books

The Business Perspective

Planning to Implement Service Management

Supplementary VolumesMain Volumes“CORE ITIL”Key:

ICT Infrastructure Management

Security Management

Service Delivery

Service Support

The Core ITIL Books: IT Service Management

• Capacity Management• Availability Management

• IT Service Continuity Management.

• Service Level Management

• IT Financial Management

Service SupportService Delivery

• Service Desk

• Incident Management• Problem Management

• Change Management• Release Management• Configuration Management

User Support Control Processes

EXAMPLE: Process to manage CHANGE

Request for Change

Impact Analysis

Assess Priority

Log RFC

Categorize

Approval

Change Scheduling

Testing Plans

Inform Users

Change Review

EXAMPLE: What is CAPACITY PLANNING ?

BUSINESS CAPACITY

MANAGEMENT

• Future Service requirements from the Business

• Future Capacity from the Business

• Resource Requirements in future.

• CAPACITY PLAN

SERVICE CAPACITY

MANAGEMENT

• What are the existing requirements?

• Are we meeting SLAs?

• How well are we utilising existing resources today?

RESOURCE CAPACITY

MANAGEMENT

• How well are we using existing technology?

• Are we using each component appropriately?

• What future technologies could be better?

EXAMPLE: The activities in CAPACITY PLANNING

Business Strategy

Business Planning

IT Strategy

IT

Business

Plan

Service

Level

Exceptions

Resource

Utilisation

Exceptions

MonitoringService

Level

Thresholds

Resource

Utilisation

Analysis

Tuning

Ensuring we can meet our SLAs

Implementation

Some Best Practices in the ITIL Library

• How to get the best benefit from a SERVICE DESK– Single point of contact, Monitoring and escalation on behalf of customers.

• A systematic way of managing INCIDENTS:– Log / Classify / Investigate / Diagnose / Resolution

• Being Pro-Active: PROBLEM MANAGEMENT– Root Cause Analysis, Kepner & Tregoe Analysis, Ishikawa diagrams.

• Keeping track of IT Assets: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT• Stopping dangerous changes: CHANGE & RELEASE MANAGEMENT

– Impact Analysis and Authorisation before Changes• Being Customer-Focused: SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT• Bean-Counting: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

– Charge-back to reflect the cost to the Business.• CAPACITY: Prediction instead of Panic• AVAILABILITY

– Design for continual up-time• DR and BCP: IT SERVICE CONTINUITY

– Risk Assessment and Planning

Why implement ITIL-based processes?

• ITIL emphasises that IT should be seen as a service to the business.

• ITIL could be (part of) a Quality Management strategy to improve the quality of the IT Service for the business.

• Introducing clear processes should enable the company to grow and/or bring on more staff more easily.

• Being based on a “best practice” approach means that you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

• Cost reduction - Standardising “how you do things” can simplify and reduce costs.

• Professionalism / Clear points of contact with external organisations and stakeholders.

The BEST WAY to Implement ITIL Service Management?

Incident

Problem

Change

Release

Configuration

Service Desk

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

…or MORE LIKE THIS ?

Incident

Problem

Change

Release

Configuration

Service Desk

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

.. Just Some parts of a theoretical CMDB

HARDWARE

Specification

Location

Owner

Financials

Software

SOFTWARE

Licenses

Versions

APPLICATIONS

Users

Hardware

USERS

Applications

Contracts

Incidents

INCIDENTS

Applications

Hardware

Resolutions

KNOWN ERRORS

Incidents

PROBLEMS

Incidents

Resolutions

CHANGES

Applications

Users

Equipment

O/S

Equipment

INFRASTRUCTURE

SOFTWARE

e.g. Oracle

RELEASES

Applications

NETWORK

Linkages

Dependancies

SLA

Applications

Users

Contracts

DEFINITIVE SOFTWARE LIBRARY

SERVICES

Applications

DEFINITIVE HARDWARE STORE

B C P

DOCSAVAILABILITY

STATISTICS

Case Study: Understanding Applications and Machines

Data Collection Processes

Hardware in Data Centre

New Equipment Purchasing

Applications on machines

Change Control: Usage of Machine

Application Listing

Release Management: Applications

Server Naming

Configuration Management: Naming Conventions

Objective: Impact Analysis of Applications <=> Machines

Pitfalls and Warnings

• “Organisations should not be over ambitious when implementing Service Management” (IT Service Management “Little ITIL”).

• DON’T “IMPLEMENT ITIL”– ITIL is a Framework of Best Practices, not a Prescriptive Manual– Use what is useful, when and where it is useful.

• Remember that any IT Process will only work if the participants have the right data in the right place at the right time.– Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

• Remember that the objective is to document and implement repeatable processes in order to make the organisation more efficient and/or more responsive to customers.– ITIL should never been seen as an end in itself.

Some Recommendations

• See ITIL processes as a way of standardising what is already done / should be already done.– Everyone should benefit from simplified and clearer ways of doing

things.

• Consider the ITIL Foundation Exam– For most IT Infrastructure Professionals, it is “common sense”– Looks good on the CV– Gives you a common “vocabulary” for discussing how things are

done– Emphasises “customer focus” and “process”– 40 questions multiple-choice, pass mark is 25.

• Keep asking “what is the business benefit ?”

Further Useful Information

• OGC Home Page for ITIL: http://www.itil.co.uk• TSO (The Stationery Office): http://www.tso.co.uk

http://www.get-best-practice.co.uk/itilProducts.aspx• IT Service Management Forum (itSMF): http://www.itsmf.com• Interactive Forum: http://www.itilcommunity.com

• ITIL Toolkit: http://www.itil-toolkit.com• Key Skills Training: http://www.ksl.org,

http://www.itiltraining.com

• Square Mile Systems: http://www.squaremilesystems.co.uk• Pink Elephant Consultancy: http://www.pinkelephant.com• Dennis Adams Associates: http://www.dennisadams.net

Questions?

• Is ITIL a panacea for all IT Infrastructure Management challenges?– It never claims to be !– It is a set of good practice processes to be used as a “toolkit”– ITIL itself speaks about:

• Process / Product / People.– Implement ITIL as part of a Strategic Cultural change in the

organisation, which should include:• Metrics, Operational Tools, Processes, Standards.

• Can you implement “parts” of ITIL and ignore the rest?– Yes.– Remember that to make processes succeed you need appropriate

data.

More Questions ?

Dennis Adamsa s s o c i a t e s

Beginners Guide toITIL

- help or hindrance?

Dennis Adams 4th October 2006

Dennis Adamsa s s o c i a t e s

Management and Infrastructure SIG Meeting

Can it help me?

What are the pitfalls?

http://www.dennisadams.net