Replete with Myths

Roger Purdie, international operations manager for Brisbane-based The Art of Service, travels throughout the world talking to IT professionals about their ITIL efforts and work to encompass the framework into their IT department.

"It's a standard question I ask where ever I go," he says. "'Who is implementing ITIL as a project?' The hands go up, and more often than not 100 percent of the participants at a training program or seminar have the view that ITIL is something to be run as a project. Such a mentality to the adoption of a framework, like ITIL, is not likely to lead to long-term improvement in the IT department," he says.

"It's the wrong way to look at the use of a conceptual framework. The goal shouldn't be implement ITIL, the goal should be deliver improved performance from the IT department to support organizational objectives. Then the savvy IT manager looks at the available tools, frameworks and methodologies, and picks and chooses ones that are appropriate."

Purdie has a unique analogy when delivering education services to senior IT staff. He likens the development of skills in the ITIL framework to a worker on a building site. "The builder puts on their tool belt and has at their disposal a variety of tools to help tackle different situations on the site. The builder approaches a situation, makes an assessment and then selects a tool that will aid them in overcoming the obstacle or job they face.

"ITIL is not a new tool belt, it is simply another tool for the IT professional to use, when faced with a particular situation."

SIDEBAR: Tips for Getting Senior Executives to Support ITIL

• • Focus on a couple of high-impact incidents and how they might have been avoided by sharing knowledge and adopting ITIL best practices.

• • Gather metrics on how ITIL reduces the number of incidents and/or shortens the length of outages.

• • Celebrate ITIL successes, and learn to market those success stories.

Source: IT Service Management Forum's Princeton, New Jersey, chapter