Occasionally, I find people surprised of my interest in ITIL, knowing that the industry I work in is Internet. With curiosity: “How do you apply ITIL on website and internet!” people ask. In other occasions I found people surprised that I am implementing this gradually without having this as part of a formal and official Implementation program!
That said, I believe there are a lot of myths around ITIL and I find my self obliged to clarify the ambiguity.
- ITIL is a governance framework, and that’s why it is highly required and valid for industries where governance is usually considered an integral part.Completely wrong!. ITIL is a Service Management framework. ITIL is a set of good practices build upon the philosophy of thinking of all the effort and activities in the context of providing value to the end user in the form of service. IT should be aware that the end result is the value that is delivered and not a working set of IT components! . That said, ITIL can be applied to IT regardless of the industry.
- ITIL is not explicit to large IT departments in large companies. ITIL is a collection of good practices that can be applied to any IT department. If well-tailored, it will add value regardless of the size or industry of the corporate.
- ITIL does not necessary need large investments nor support by management. Again it’s a set of good practices that, if no official implementation project or management support available, still can be implemented within the capacity and authority of a certain team or resource! So stop whining about your management or environment, find the good practices that applies to your work scope and start implementing them.
- To realize value, ITIL does not need to be implemented all at once. No need for huge investment a head. Actually the implementation should be gradual for the following reasons:
- ITIL should be tailored to the corporate environment, which is a time-consuming process.
- Gradual implementation will support the case for the next phase of the implementation. Hopefully some values are realized by them.
- Starting point of the implementation depends on the current situation of the IT and the maturity of the different processes, as well as, the corporate strategic goals.
- ITIL is not bureaucratic. Change Management, Configuration Management, Knowledge Management and Portfolio Management are usually perceived as bureaucratic processes that will delay the work! Definitely wrong. If you think deeper, you will easily identify that they are all extremely important and they add huge value. There is no room to discuss this in details, however always remember that in ITIL, the process is not a process if it does not add real value to the end customer. Does this sound bureaucratic to you ?
Finally, remember that ITIL has evolved from real experience of thousands of companies that has been revised and verified for over 25 years. So dispel the last myth yourself: Your environment, company or industry is not a special case! . Don’t re-invent the wheel and start the change!.
Ala' Yasin Abuhijleh 