Lessons learned in ITIL implementation failure.pdf

8/10/2019 Lessons learned in ITIL implementation failure.pdf

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978-1-4244-2328-6/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

Lessons Learned in ITIL Implementation Failure

Mohammad Sharifi, Masarat Ayat, Azizah Abd Rahman, Shamsul Sahibudin Centre for Advanced Software Engineering (CASE), University Teknologi Malaysia

81310 UTM,Skudai,Johor,Malaysia{sharifi1400,nahadineh_122}@yahoo.com, {azizahar,shamsul}@utm.my

Abstract

ITIL is the most widely used IT framework inmajority of organizations in the world now.

However, implementing such best practiceexperiences in an organization comes with someimplementation challenges such as staff resistance,task conflicts and ambiguous orders. It means thatimplementing such framework is not easy and itcan be caused of the organization destruction. This

paper tries to describe overall view of ITIL framework and address major reasons on the failure of this frameworks implementation in theorganizations

1. Introduction

Information technology (IT) is a category ofservices utilized by business. They are typically ITapplications and infrastructure that are packagedand offered as services by internal IT organizationsor external service providers [1,2]. IT hasincreasing role in the companies and everyorganization tries to use it to achieve its businessobjectives. Therefore it is crucial to implement andmanage IT in the organizations. There are severalstandards, tools, frameworks and best practices tomanage and maintain IT services. The mostapplicable and widely used framework is ITIL [3].This framework is a de-facto standard which is usein the majority of IT companies and organizationsin the world. In order to implement this framework,every organization or company should adapt itsactivities with ITIL instructions. It means that, staffshould change their behaviors based on ITILmethodology. In addition, there are severalconsiderations to success implementation of ITILin the target organizations. If implementers do not

pay attention to such considerations,implementingof ITIL will be fail. There are a lot of such cases

inthe world [4,5,6,7 ]. This paper tries to describestructure of ITIL framework and addresses reasons

which are cause to fail implementing of ITILframework in the target organizations.

2. ITIL

ITIL (Information Technology InfrastructureLibrary) is a de-facto standard which wasintroduced and distributed by Office ofGovernment Commerce (OGC) in UK and includesall IT parts of organizations [8]. At present ITIL isthe most widely accepted approach to IT ServiceManagement in the world. It has an iterative,multidimensional and lifecycle form structure. ITIL

has an integrated approach as required by theISO/IEC 20000 standard with following guidance:[9]

I. Service Strategy

The Service Strategy provides guidance on howto design, develop and implement servicemanagement from organizational capability

perspective and strategic asset. It provides guidanceon the principles underpinning the practice ofservice management which are useful fordeveloping service management policies,guidelines and processes across the ITIL servicelifecycle. Service Strategy guidance is applicable inthe context of other parts of ITL lifecycle. ServiceStrategy covers these parts of IT systems: thedevelopment of markets, internal and external,service assets, service catalogue andimplementation of strategy through the servicelifecycle.

Service Strategy includes these processes: Financial Management Service Portfolio Management Demand Management [10].


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II. Service Design

It is guidance for the design and development ofservices and service management processes. Itcovers design principles and methods forconverting strategic objectives into portfolios ofservices and service assets. The scope of ServiceDesign is includes the changes and improvementsnecessary to increase or maintain value tocustomers over the lifecycle of services, thecontinuity of services, achievement of servicelevels and conformance to standards andregulations. It guides organizations on how todevelop design capabilities for service management.Service Design includes these processes:

Service Catalogue Management Service Level Management Capacity Management Availability Management IT service Continuity Management Information Security Management Supplier

Management, Application Management Data and Information Management Business

Service Management [11].

III.Service Transition

It is guidance for the development andimprovement of capabilities for transitioning newand changed services into operations. ServiceTransition provides guidance on how the

requirements of Service Strategy encoded inService Design are effectively realized in ServiceOperation while controlling the risks of failure anddisruption. This part of ITIL framework combines

practices in release management, programmanagement and risk management and places themin the practical context of service management.

Service Transition processes are: Change Management Service asset and Configuration Management Release and deployment Management Knowledge Management Stakeholder Management Transition Planning Support and Service Evaluation [12].

IV.Service Operation

Service Operation tries to embody practices inthe management of Service Operation. It includesguidance on achieving effectiveness and efficiencyin the delivery and support of services so as toensure value for the customer and the service

provider. Strategic objectives are ultimatelyrealized through Service Operation, therefore

making it a critical capability.It processes are:

Event Management Incident Management Request Management Problem Management Access management [13].

V.Continual Service Improvement

This is including of instrumental guidance increating and maintaining value for customersthrough better design, introduction and operation ofservices. It combines principles, practices andmethods from quality management, ChangeManagement and capability improvement.Organizations learn to realize incremental andlarge-scale improvements in service quality,operational efficiency and business continuity.Its processes are:

The 7-Step Improving Process Service Level Management [14].

3. Implementations failure

There are several major reasons on failing ITILimplementation in the organizations. Most of thereasons are on practical implementation issues ofITIL in the several organizations in the world,which are [4,5,6,7]:

I.Lack of management commitment

It can be said that no project can be succeedwithout management commitment and drive. It is

possible to achieve isolated wins with ITIL withoutmanagement commitment, but these wins will befew and far between. In addition, managementshould involve on project to access organization toits objectives. Fry(2005) notes that commitmentitself is not enough [6]

II.Spending too much time oncomplicated process diagrams

In the first step of implementing ITIL in suchorganizations, there is a great temptation to

produce complex and detailed process maps. But itseems that producing such complex processes it isnot necessary for most of the processes and it iswastes valuable time and resources. For examplesome processes, such as incident management, are

performed hundreds of times daily, and do not needrigid process maps, and that simple process mapsneed to be created for some of the ITIL

processes[7].


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III.Not creating work instructions

There is no need to create any complicatedcomplex process map which is waste time

because some of the organizations fail toestablish written work. It is better to have written,

published, and continually reviewed workinstructions.

IV.Not assigning process owners

Majority of IT departments are silo-basedsilo-based, not process-oriented. ITIL is process

based therefore a process owner should beassigned to each of the ITIL processes that crossfunctional silos. It is better to the process owner,concentrate on the structure and flow of the

process, without having to focus on staffing and

other departmental issues. Process owners shouldcarefully monitor and manage the assigned processes, so that it can be continuallyimproved[5].

V.Concentrating too much onperformance

Usually, the most IT monitoring activitiesconcentrate on performance, while ignoringquality and processes. For example, most servicedesks can report how quickly they escalateincidents, but few can report how often theyescalate incidents to the wrong person. It can besaid that Organizations need to spend more timeon improving quality as part of implementingITIL[6].

VI.Being too ambitious

Base on ITIL structure, there are severalservice management processes. Many of theorganizations attempt to implement all or manyof the ITIL processes at once, that it causesconfusion, staff unrest, and poor integration

between the processes. Therefore it is better toselect the most important processes for targetorganization and then schedule theirimplementation.

VII.Failing to maintain momentum

Usually, three to five years is needed toimplement all ITIL processes in the company andthere needs a huge effort to implement all ofthese ITIL processes in the target organization.Therefore, there should maintain a momentumduring this implementation and it is hard

especially if the biggest gains come early in theITIL implementation. It should be mention that

ITIL implementation is like taking a course ofantibiotics when somebody is ill. After a fewdoses, Body feels better. But, if patient fail tocomplete the whole course of the prescription, hewill soon be back to illness, again[6].

VIII.Allowing departmental demarcation

Every organization has its own structure. ITILis best practices which gathered by CentralComputer and Telecommunication Agency(CCTA) in the United Kingdom[15]. And it doesnot mean that every one of these processes isrelated to one department. So, one or some

processes cross more than one department, andoften causing conflict among departments.Especially, where department boundaries arerigid and ownership is important. Staffs in alldepartments should understand that ITIL is a

joint venture and success comes from all workingtogether; not just some parts of organizations.

IX.Ignoring solutions other than ITIL

Although ITIL is documented the industry best practices for IT service management, manyother best practices and frameworks is applicable,too. Control Objectives for Information andrelated Technology (COBIT)[16], Six Sigma[17],and ISO 20000[18]are some frameworks andstandards which are using to increase quality ofservices in the organizations too. Therefore, it is

better to use concrete frameworks and standardto increase quality of activities and tasks in theorganizations. At the end, it is not importantwhich framework is using, it is important thatquality of the outputs are satisfyable or not.

X.Ignoring reviewing of the ITIL everytime

Although Successful ITIL implementation isvery important but it does not meansorganization wins on ITIL implementation. Themore important matter is maintaining ITIL best

practices in the organization. On that time, auditis very important in the organization time to time.Especially, it is better to review the securitymanagement process periodically.

XI.Not memorizing ITIL books self

It is not good to just memorize and implementall of the ITIL books guidelines. It means thatITIL can not be implemented with some paper

based instructions without any attend to targetorganization. ITIL only can be successfullyimplemented by understanding how those best


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practices apply, based on target organizations ITstrengths and abilities [7].

4. Conclusion and Future work

In every organization today, IT services arevery important and must be delivered in a costefficient manner, mitigating security risks andcomplying with legal requirements. The mostaccepted framework is ITIL in the majority oforganizations, now. Implementing such frameworkneeds a big effort comply with knowledge on howto use documented ITIL based best practices in thetarget organization?

There are several reasons on why ITILimplementation fails in the target organizations.Those reasons which mentioned in this paper were:

Lack of management commitment,

spending toomuch time on complicated process diagrams, notcreating work instructions, n ot assigning processowners, c oncentrating too much on performance, b eing too ambitious, failing to maintain momentumand allowing departmental demarcation.

There is need to study to find out major reasonsfor ITIL implementation failure in the SMEMalaysian companies which already tried toimplement ITIL framework in their companies butunfortunately, they had some problem or failed toimplement this framework. This investigate hasstarted as a part of one PHD thesis and it is

continuing. The result will publish later.

5. References

[1] Sharifi,Mohammad et al, Combining ITIL, COBITand ISO/IEC 27002 in Order to Design a ComprehensiveIT Framework inOrganizations,IEEE:AMS2008,Kualalampure,2008.

[2] Sharon Taylor, S.Lacy, I.Macfarlane, ITIL:ServiceTransition,TSO publications.Norwith,UK,2007.

[3] Wikipedia,ITIL v3, Information technologymanagement, 24 November 20,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL_v3H

[4] Nexio Technologies, How to Fail in your ITILImplementation - Part 2,417 Saint-Nicolas, Suite 400Montral, Qubec,H2Y 2P4,(514) 798-3707,[email protected],2004.

[5] Opalis Software, Inc., Opalis Describes Top ThreeReasons for ITIL Implementation Failures.at Pink Elephant ITIL Case Studies Symposium, SanFrancisco, Calif. ,kulesapr.com,August 2005.[6] Malcolm Fry, The pitfalls of ITIL, BMC Software,ITYWorld.com, Theo Boshoff, Computing SouthAfrica,2005.

[7] Philipson, G. (2005). Cargo cult dooms project tofailure. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney.[8]ITIL forum(2007), Information TechnologyInfrastructure Library ver 3, From Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia.

[9]Jan van Bon,M.Pieper,A.Veen,T.Verheijen,Best

Practices: Introduction to ITIL,TSOPublications,Norwich,June 2007.

[10] Sharon Taylor, M.Iqbal, M.Nieves, ITIL:ServiceStrategy,TSO publications.Norwith,UK,2007.

[11]Sharon Taylor, V. Lioyd,C.Rudd, ITIL:ServiceDesign,TSO publications.Norwith,UK,2007.[12]Sharon Taylor,S. Lacy,I.Macfarlane, ITIL:ServiceTransition,TSO publications.Norwith,UK,2007

[13]Sharon Taylor, D. Cannon,D.Wheeldon,ITIL:Service Strategy,TSO

publications.Norwith,UK,2007.[14] Sharon Taylor, G.Case,G.Spalding, ITIL:ContinualService Improvement,TSO

publications.Norwith,UK,2007.

[15]http://itil.technorealism.org/index.php?page=ITIL_History, 6 augost,2007.

[16] CobiT 4.0 ( 2007) http://www.isaca.org.[17]http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020626a.asp, iSixSigma LLC.

[18] ISO 20000 and ITIL,ISO 20000Central:News&Information for ISO20000,http://20000.fwtk.org/20000-itil.htm.

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Lessons learned in ITIL implementation failure.pdf