No “best practice” can serve the needs of all organizations. One-size-fits-all approaches are often what company leaders hope to find, but they generally don’t exist. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)—a framework of best practice guidance for information technology service management—is no different.
The people behind ITIL never claimed to have all the answers, instead stressing that they were providing guidance and structure for an organization’s IT service delivery and management to better integrate and expand best practices. Still, a lot of companies latched on to ITIL as a cure-all, and as recently as September 2007 Computerworld noted that the guidelines were “spreading in a Borg-like fashion as a growing number of companies seek uniform and standardized IT management processes.” In that same article, it was noted that the membership of the ITSMF USA, which advocates that companies adopt the guidelines, had nearly tripled since two years ago.
But just under a month later, sister publication Network World noted that while many organizations increasingly draw upon ITIL, the notion that it will be a panacea seems to be finally wearing off. Some 51% of respondents use ITIL to improve on IT service management, according to a recent survey, but slightly more (55%) depend more upon internally generated standards. Also, the number of ITIL adopters has dropped off— though nearly half of those not using ITIL right now do still plan to use it in the coming year or so. Many still see great value in ITIL; they just don’t necessarily see it as “critical” to their success.
Maybe ITIL has finally reached a saturation point, or perhaps it will see an increase in interest again since version 3 came out recently. In the end, the distinction may not be important. What is important to remember, though, is that while ITIL is not a cure-all, it does have value. Thus, knowing about ITIL—and having certifications and academic training in IT service management—could be an edge in landing a good job or moving forward in an organization. Likewise, organizations themselves may benefit from networking with partners and resources that can help hook them up with ITILsavvy people.
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Footnotes: Reprinted with permission © 2008 TreeTop Technologies
From "View from the TreeTop" Volume 2 Issue 1 January 2008