Service catalogue

At its core ITIL 3.0 revolves around a Service Catalogue which encapsulates all the services that the IT department can provide to the business. It outlines these from the perspective of the three key constituencies for IT in the business: the consumers and end users of IT services; senior IT and business managers and IT workers and managers. It recognizes that each of these groups will view these services from a different angle and need different guidance about how to implement and monitor them. It also appreciates that business people want insights as to how their investments in IT deliver value. However, it recognizes that users also have to realize the part they play in effective IT service delivery. As such, they must be accountable for how they consume IT services.

Springing from the Service Catalogue are the five services that cover the lifecycle of each component of the catalogue. These cover the Service Strategy which is the process of translating business needs into an IT strategy. From this Service Design determines how the service will be delivered (e.g. will it be outsourced or done inhouse). Then there is a need for Service Transition where they are introduced in to a business. From this Service Operation is applied which considers how they are managed in a production environment. Finally, there is the need to consider Service Improvement to examine how to improve services after they have been deployed.

Response to criticism

ITIL 3.0 has been developed in response to a number of criticisms levelled at the former release. In particular, there was a view that by focusing too heavily on process optimization ITIL 2.0 made the assumption that best practice in service delivery was always cost beneficial. However, this ignored the fact that in the end processes are implemented and services adopted to solve problems. Moreover, the only arbitrator who can decide whether those problems are solved are the users themselves. As such, ITIL 3.0 places a strong emphasis on achieving IT financial cost transparency. Its language speaks of investments (information technology) and returns from these investments (services) managed by the investor (the business). It also embraces budget planning and value assessment.

Where though do you start? Previously an organization began the ITIL journey by assessing where its key processes were weakest. However, ITIL 3.0 places more emphasis on the full lifecycle of the key IT services. As a result, most of the initial ITIL 3.0 material advises businesses to begin by deploying a Service Catalogue. However, while ITIL 3.0 is still in its infancy the challenge facing many organizations is that there are few reference sites with sufficient experience from which a CIO starting the new ITIL journey can learn.

More mature offering

ITIL 3.0 is clearly a more mature offering. It represents wider thinking of how an organization can achieve greater cost efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of IT services to the business. It has actively sought to address the identified shortcomings in ITIL 2.0. However, like everything new in this industry, it needs CIOs to embrace and champion it. This is not a role for those who eschew the bleeding edge. Clearly there will be some teething issues with ITIL 3.0. Furthermore, the consequences of these teething problems are perhaps more challenging because ITIL 3.0 requires active business participation. Any flaws encountered could certainly expose the CIO, especially if they have been strong advocates of the benefit of ITIL.

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in the UK, which oversees the development of ITIL, has stated that the ITIL 2.0 material will be retired sometime in 2008.

Peter Hind is a consultant with years of experience in the IT industry.