SIDEBAR: ITIL Update

Revised framework aims to help CIOs demonstrate ROI

by Patrick Thibodeau

CIOs and IT managers are eager to get their hands on Version 3 of ITIL, which is due in April and will be the first new release since 2000. A lot in IT has changed since Version 2 became available.

Security processes, which users say are lacking in the current ITIL version, will get more attention in the new release. According to Sharon Taylor, ITIL's chief architect, Version 3 will also cover an area that has exploded as a major IT management concern since 2000: outsourcing.

Version 3 will also provide guidance on the related issue of knowledge transfer. In a data centre relocation, for example, knowledge transfer means ensuring that new employees or outsourcers know how to run the systems.

Suggestions for Version 3 of the IT Infrastructure Library came from thousands of people around the globe. But Taylor, who is also president of Ottawa, Ontario consulting firm Aspect Group, is the person responsible for the end product. Taylor explains how Version 3 will help CIOs.

What's prompting the need for ITIL Version 3?

Sharon Taylor: The landscape of IT, and indeed IT service management, changes at a very rapid pace. When Version 2 was released, some of the landscape was different than it is today. An example is that the use of outsourced partnerships was not the rule of the day during that time.

How will Version 3 help with outsourcing?

[It will] deal with the strategies about outsourcing: When is it right to consider, in what form should that take, through to the design of how you actually execute an [outsourcing] decision or strategy.

How do you know that you're giving good advice?

The content of ITIL itself has not been developed in a vacuum by any means. Our philosophy has been to use the experience and the best practices of what's going on in the industry, in a diverse client base.

How many people contribute to this?

We're talking upward of thousands.

What else is new in Version 3?

One of the gaps that evolved was that the focus on service management became very operationally based. The big change that we're introducing is to take a broader viewpoint of what service management encompasses, [including] strategic considerations, the design implications, the cultural and organizational change implications. So the major shift is to introduce service management from a lifecycle perspective, as opposed to just a process-based view.

What's going to be the takeaway for CIOs?

One of the things that is most difficult to do with the current version of ITIL is develop a solid business case for return on investment. IT organizations face competition through outsourcing service providers; they are being required to operate and manage themselves as businesses and produce value. From a CIO perspective, the biggest benefit that this [new] version of ITIL brings is that we have added guidance that allows senior executives to be able to demonstrate, measure and produce a return on investment for supporting a unified best-practice framework for service management. It helps them to demonstrate why investing in good service practices gives them a solid return on investment.