Implementing centralised IT service management: drawing lessons from the public sector

[Abstract]: The IT service management model represents a paradigm shift for IT organisations as it deemphasizes the management of IT assets and focuses on the provision of quality end-to-end IT services. This paper presents part of an in-depth study that examines the experience of a government agency, Queensland Health, in the implementation of a centralised IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. The paper sheds light on the challenges and breakthroughs, distils a set of critical success factors and offers a learning opportunity for other organisations. Outsourcing some activities and tool requirements to vendors was seen as one contributor to success although ensuring effective technology transfer to in-house staff was also necessary. Another success factor was centralisation of IT services. Commitment of senior management was also crucial as was a recognition of the need for effective change management to transform the organisational culture to a service-oriented focus

itSMF Australia 2009 Conference: summary report of ITSM standards and frameworks survey

[Abstract]: This report provides a summary of responses from surveys related to adoption of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) frameworks. The surveys were conducted at the itSMF National Conference in Sydney in 2009. Two surveys were conducted: the Corporate survey for organisations and the other for Consultants and Trainers. For the Corporate survey 65 responses were received but only eight for the Consultant and Trainers survey. The responses for the Corporate survey came mainly from large organisations representing both the public and private sectors. The vast majority of organisations whose staff responded to the survey have adopted the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and are making substantial progress in implementing this framework. Priority has been given to implementing the service desk function, change management and incident management processes. Some of the processes in v3 which were not in v2 show low levels of awareness and adoption. Many organisations are also advanced in their implementation of Prince 2, Balanced Scorecard, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security), Government standards and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). The strongest motivating factor to implement IT Service Management is to improve the focus on IT service. The maturity level of ITSM processes is generally rated higher than in previous years with many reporting as repeatable (level 2) and defined (level 3). Most of the respondents have completed ITIL foundation training and many have also achieved intermediate and advanced qualifications. Commitment from senior management is identified as the most critical factor for successful ITSM implementation. Almost one half believe ITSM has met or exceeded their expectations although many stated it is too early to tell if ITSM has delivered benefits. There is strong consensus that the major benefit of ITSM is improved customer satisfaction. Many further benefits have been realised including improved response and resolution, clarification of roles and responsibilities, and improved IT service continuity. Unfortunately, most of the consultants and trainers who attended the conference as delegates or exhibitors did not complete the questionnaire, therefore the analysis of the eight responses may not be representative and care should be exercised in interpreting the results. Generally, the views expressed by the Consultants echoed those of the Corporate respondents and confirmed the strong move towards ITIL V3, as well as growing interest in ISO/IEC 20000 certification. The success factors favoured by the Consultants varied compared to those of the Corporate respondents. Compared to the responses to the Corporate survey, the Consultants and Trainers gave a higher ranking to the importance of sufficient funding for ITSM initiatives and documentation and integration of processes. Another difference was in the Consultants’ perceptions of the effectiveness of ITSM wherein the Corporate respondents gave a more positive view that ITSM met or exceeded expectations. As for the benefits from ITSM, only two of the top benefits reported by the Consultants were in the top five in the Corporate survey

IT service management: towards a contingency theory of performance measurement

Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) focuses on IT service creation, design, delivery and maintenance. Measurement is one of the basic underlying elements of service science and this paper contributes to service science by focussing on the selection of performance metrics for ITSM. Contingency theory is used to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. Content analysis of interviews of ITSM managers at six organisations revealed that selection of metrics is influenced by a discrete set of factors. Three categories of factors were identified: external environment, parent organisationand IS organisation. For individual cases, selection of metrics was contingent on factors such as organisation culture, management philosophy and perspectives, legislation, industry sector, and customers, although a common set of four factors influenced selection of metrics across all organisations. A strong link was identified between the use of a corporate performance framework and clearly articulated ITSM metrics

ICT Governance: Towards Federalized Structure and Solution

The ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Governance means actively identifying the service needs of the Government and her customers and to focus on planning and delivering these services to meet availability, performance, and security requirements. It also aims at managing service level agreements to meet agreed-upon security, quality and cost targets. Successful operation of an ICT unit of the government would require it to be fully integrated with the complete lifecycle of Government’s processes, improving service quality and Government agility. The paper identifies appropriate international standards for ICT Governance, and ICT Management around which solutions for ICT governance should be built.ict; governance; management; service delivery

Evolving IT management frameworks towards a sustainable future

Information Technology (IT) Management Frameworks are a fundamental tool used by IT professionals to efficiently manage IT resources and are globally applied to IT service delivery and management. Sustainability is a recent notion that describes the need for economic, environmental and social development with- out compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; this applies to businesses as well as society in general. Unfortunately, IT Management Frameworks do not take sustainability into account. To the practitioner this paper demonstrates sustainability integration thereby allowing CIOs and IT managers to improve the sustainability of their organisation. To the researcher this paper argues that sustainability concerns need to be provided to IT Management through its integration into the mainstream of IT Management Frameworks. This is demonstrated through the high-level integration of sustainability in Six Sigma, C OBI T, ITIL and PRINCE2

The Analysis of Information Technology Best Practice Adoption in Saudi Arabia

Drawing on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Organisational Learning (OL) theories, the present study examined the CSFs of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementations. Organisations evaluated their manners of managing Information Technology (IT) and decided to move from technology management toward service management that is called Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). ITIL represents one of the most famous ITSM best practices. However, with the absence of a practical ITIL implementation approach based on a theoretical solid ground, many organisations faced unpredictable obstacles and waste valuable resources. The present research aimed to identify a theoretical basis that allows understanding the success of ITIL implementations. Therefore, I first reviewed and analysed the literature of ITIL implementation CSFs to identify appropriate theoretical basis. The analysis led to proposing 4i framework as an OL model to interpret the successful and failed ITIL implementations. I then investigated empirically three case studies: successful, failed and partially successful ITIL implementations. Interviews were used to collect retrospective data from essential people involved in ITIL implementations. The present research applied method triangulation as it also used documents as another data source to understand the longitudinal aspects of the case studies. Collected data was thoroughly analysed qualitatively using two analytical methods. First, to analyse the case studies, I used a thematic analysis approach, namely Framework analysis method. While the Framework analysis findings implied the existence of interrelations among ITIL implementation CSFs, it also exposed the influential roles of the time element and the order of events on learning. Therefore, I then reanalysed the case studies using the event narrative method that concentrated on the events of ITIL implementations and their sequences. The findings of the event narrative analysis proposed a network of CSFs of ITIL implementations. Accordingly, the present research introduce four conceptual terms related to CSFs: contextual CSF, dynamic CSF, supreme CSF and network of CSFs. Finally, through the discussion of research findings in light of related literature of ITSM, CSFs and OL, I extended the network of CSFs to propose the Model of Implementing ITIL Successfully (MIIS) as an extension of 4i framework to understand success and failure of ITIL implementations

Implementation of IT service management in Australia: case studies focusing on organisational change strategies

In order to provide better Information Technology (IT) services to their customers, organisations are increasingly implementing the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists that can be applied by an organisation for establishing integration with its own strategies, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organisation to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure improvements as well as compliance. Whilst the promise of ITIL implementation is compelling, many implementations do not achieve the anticipated outcomes. The extant literature provides very little information as to how ITIL is implemented or the organisational change strategies that organisations use to implement it. To find a point of comparison, study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects have found that there are similarities in this change processes with those observed during ITIL implementations. Research into the implementation of ERP and BPR has found that applying a formal change management strategy, incorporating a Socio-Technical Systems (STS) approach, can assist in the likelihood of a successful implementation. This exploratory research was conducted using a multiple case study approach to investigate the organisational change strategies that organisations have applied to ITIL implementation. This research also sought to identify if using STS as an approach to organisational change can influence the success of ITIL implementations. In this research, one particular STS model, the Leavitt Diamond, was applied in order to investigate the inter-relationships between the STS components and how they are affected during the implementation of ITIL. This research found that organisations were not deliberately selecting and applying an organisational change strategy during implementation. Interestingly though, without knowing it or doing so consciously, the organisations adopted similar organisational change approaches and types for their ITIL implementations. All eight of the organisations studied adopted a planned change approach with a phased ITIL implementation. The research found that although none of the organisations deliberately applied an STS approach to their ITIL implementations, they did without realising, apply an STS approach. The ITIL implementation was found to require greater effort to be applied to the people component of the STS; followed by process, technology and structure. The research also found that an appropriate amount of effort was necessary for each of the individual STS components; rather than an equal effort per component. This research has developed new insights into organisational change strategies and ITIL implementations that had not previously been explored. Through this research, an ITIL STS Model of Organisational Change has been produced that provides a plan and overview of the primary decisions to be made, with the resultant actions, in response to changes to the STS components. This research provides ITIL practitioners, for the first time, information about organisational change strategies as they have been applied to successful ITIL implementations; as well as a model that may assist with developing their own organisational change strategies

Implementing Centralised IT Service Management: Drawing Lessons from the Public Sector

The IT service management model represents a paradigm shift for IT organisations as it deemphasizes the management of IT assets and focuses on the provision of quality end-to-end IT services. This paper presents part of an in-depth study that examines the experience of a government agency, Queensland Health, in the implementation of a centralised IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. The paper sheds light on the challenges and breakthroughs, distils a set of critical success factors and offers a learning opportunity for other organisations. Outsourcing some activities and tool requirements to vendors was seen as one contributor to success although ensuring effective technology transfer to in-house staff was also necessary. Another success factor was centralisation of IT services. Commitment of senior management was also crucial as was a recognition of the need for effective change management to transform the organisational culture to a service-oriented focus