Some Common Misconceptions

I have come across a number of misconceptions that people have about ITIL and would like to clarify the same. Some of the common misconceptions are:

1. "We have installed ITIL"/ "We have bought ITIL and are in process of its installation"

 ITIL is not a software package that can be bought or installed.

2. "We are following ITIL Standard"

ITIL is not a standard but a framework of good/best practices. ISO20000 is the standard which is based on ITIL.

3. "ITIL is dependent on Tools"

ITIL consists of a set of processes. Processes are not dependent on tool and so is ITIL. Tools acts as the enablers.

4. "I am ITIL Master Certified"

ITIL Master certification is not available yet. Thus, none of us can be ITIL Master certified. ITIL V2 Managers certification was commonly referred to as Masters by a section of people in the industry and this definition still exists for them. And this is the misconception being carried forth by the group of people following that school of thought.

ITIL and Organizational Cultural Change

I believe that ITIL implementation or anything that changes the way you work needs a change in organizational culture. Specially in case an organization is not process oriented, then ITIL implementation in such organization demands huge cultural change.

What is culture change in an organization?

Organizational culture can be defined as a set of 'ways', 'values' and 'beliefs' that its employees has and they use these to control the way they:

• Interact with one another,
• Outside world, and
• Perform their day to day functions

A change to any of these directly impacts the day-to-day activities of the employees. This is a cultural change.

Thus, any process implementation or automation initiative results in an organizational cultural change. ITIL implementation, being a process implementation, is not an exception.

It is a human tendency to resist a change. It is embedded in the human psychology. Hence, organizational cultural change also faces a tremendous resistance from employees. The top three key factors that contribute to the overall resistance are:

1. Fear of Job Loss: It is a common perception in IT departments of organizations across the globe that their 'work' might be outsourced. Process implementation demands process adherence, a unique 'one' way of working, which further increases their fear of outsourcing.
2. My way is a better way: Every individual feels that existing way of working or the system itself is the best one. This is because they are used to the existing system and are very comfortable with it.
3. Relearning: A change would mean that the new system or 'way’ should be learned and well understood. For many of us (especially after a certain age) relearning is a difficult task.

Change in organizational culture is very important for organization’s growth. It is inevitable. A change is acceptable to any individual when its benefits outweigh the perceived troubles. Thus, a change should be properly planned; employees convinced about the benefits that it brings.

It is very important to plan organizational cultural change for an ITIL implementation initiative to be successful.

Key factors that would constitute Organizational Change strategy are:

Strategic Vision: Formulation and communication of clear strategic vision

Top management commitment: Commitment of top management is required and ‘communication’ of this commitment (following a top-down approach)

Initiation: Culture change should be started at the highest level

Organizational Re-structure: Organization restructuring should be done, if required, to support the organizational change

Control: Select ‘takers’ (those who are ready to accept change) and terminate deviants (blockers of change)

Develop sensitivity: Ethical and legal sensitivity to change should be developed.

ITIL implementation strategy should follow or encompass organizational change strategy. This will ensure that the ITIL implementation initiative is successful.

Understanding ITIL

ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL is a set of best practices for service management.

Till date three versions of ITIL has been released. Version 1 of ITIL  (ITIL V1) was published in 1989 by CCTA, which is now Office of Givernment Ccommenrce (OGC), an administrative body of government of Great Britain. Version 2 of ITIL (ITIL V2) was published in 2000 and finally in 2007 Version 3 (ITIL V3) was released.

ITIL V2 consisted of two core volumes - Service Support & Service Delivery each having set of 5 processes.

With ITIL V3, the focus is now on 'integration of IT with business'. ITIL V3 has 5 core volumes or phases of lifecycle - Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. All of the old ITIL V2 processes has been moved to one of these lifecycle phases.

ITIL is a framework of best practices. It is not a standard. BS15000 was the standard that was based on ITIL V2 and it has subsequently given way to ISO 20000.

Note: I have or would be publishing seperate blogs to understand different ITIL concepts.