ITSM on One Page…!?

What are the basics?

Recent client and industry research work has given me a lot of good new exposure to some of the emerging areas of ITSM, notably Social Media, Cloud, and of course the ever-developing Service Catalogue/service definition area. Interesting to see a lot of new activity and approaches in this area, particularly with concepts like OBASHI and other new ways of consulting and matching business demands with IT ones.

There is a need for more innovation and a real grasp of the life and spirit of Service Management, and it’s good to see a lot of activity and interest developing in the market. However, we are always in danger of getting away from the key source of what ITSM is all about – business and services, delivered by people.

I recently did a presentation where I wrote some new slides as well as digging out some old ones and came across some stuff that included my ‘ITIL/ITSM in one slide’ concept. I really think we have to be able to describe and paint a picture of what ITSM is and what it does and delivers in a simple and understandable format, so here goes.

So to me, any CIO should be able to answer these basic questions, which ITSM should deliver:

• To have an agreed set of business goals that IT is working towards
• To measure and review performance against these goals
• To develop and deliver services, with the appropriate processes, systems, and organisational structures to ensure that the goals can be met
• To ensure that suitable people are in place with appropriate skills to deliver the services to meet those goals
• To constantly review performance and make relevant adjustments in resources, and processes to ensure that IT is able to meet the goals
• To constantly review progress with the business and to regularly review and amend the goals as necessary
• To ensure that performance – and success in meeting the goals – is suitably publicised and understood across the business