ITIL process templates - a contradictio in terminis?
Jan van Bon
Reduce your organization's complexity with 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝙈 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙙 for a customer-driven 𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮: a unique proposition for sustainable service delivery
On a regular base, I run into people looking for "ITIL process templates". In fact, if you Google for that, you can find an entire market for that product. I still am kind of surprised that this is even possible. Aren't they all making a fundamental mistake?
ITIL is a set of practices (it says so on page 1). Practices are the results of processes, aplied by people, using products, describing how services can be delivered. So - if you're looking for a process model, you should look for something that is beneath ITIL.
The ITIL books do offer content that approaches process descriptions, but you can't create a solid process model from these components, as they also contain procedure and work instruction details.
Overlooking this, it seems that you'll have to choose from these alternatives:
- You apply what you can find in ITIL, and accept the fact that these are not really processes. The inefficiency that comes with it is then accepted.
- You develop your own process model, then map selected ITIL practices to these processes and create your management system.
- You adopt a process model that is already developed; then you map selected ITIL practices to these processes and create your management system. Watch out! Several companies are offering "ITIL process templates", which is a contradictio in terminis. They actually offer workflow-like descriptions that belong in option 1.
- You adopt a management system that contains a predefined process model; then you target selected ITIL practices with the management system.
Organizations that want to follow a process-based management structure should spend serious time on designing their management system. Sadly, most organizations still follow the common option 1, which is one of the main reasons why they get the traditional result that comes with most ITIL projects.
But hey - nobody ever got fired for hiring an ITIL consultant ;-)
Data Driven Problem Solver
9yTrue Story. When I train at a IT company of department how to solve problems by Root Cause Analysis the most heard comment is "so this is how we can solve problems". It's always fun to ask a problem manager how they have secured the problem solving in the organisation. By ITIL, how then?
Pity that the pugilism of the purists preoccupies people who have lost their way while trying to solve problems, forgetting their purpose. Process, practice, whatever. The goal is to realize improved outcome(s) - now *and* in the future. ITIL and the rest of the IT management, governance, technical best practice guidance frameworks provide some important principles to observe when deciding the next best improvement to an organization's IT management, governance, and technical best practices. Consultants who push (lead without listening) waste resources on solutions that do not fit their client, rather than pulling (facilitating) the necessary and sufficient changes for an organization to move to and stay in an improved state can - and do - get people fired. In any event, the way things get done - be they labeled processes, procedures, practices, etc. - will very likely be changed in specific ways to realize a better outcome than before and to continue doing so while proceeding to the next improvement.
Trainer and "player-coach", helping to adapt to changes and develop agility
9ySome companies talk about #ITIL when they actually need just #ISO9001 certificate in order to qualify for some tenders.
NO TITLE... just a passion
9yHi Jan, I agree with you : ITIL process templates don't make much sense. And I would push even further! What I see in all this is that the very meaning and purpose of processes have been lost. Companies apply best practices and model templates with no reflection, no strategy whatsoever. They just follow what the market does. And the easier the better, so let's copy what others are doing! To paraphrase you "nobody will get fired to blindlessly follow the crowd". Before thinking of the management system, there is indeed a need to think of the processes, but before thinking of any processes, senior management should sit and think to what it actually means to manage an organisation with processes. There is a massive managerial impact that is totally and utterly overlooked (even in ITIL). So to summarize my message, before spending time on the WHAT and the HOW related to processes, it could be useful to go back to the WHY (the meaning, the purpose). I have developed some of this in a white paper "The 7 building blocks for IT Service Management success" that you can easily get from my linkedin page. I am proud to have won 2 awards with that paper. ;-)
met pensioen
9yJan, you are absolutely right. I still am surprised when somebody announces "we are going to implement ITIL processes to overcome our problems". My first question in these cases always is: "what problem do you actually want to solve?". That may lead to the real question: "what is the real problem". And for me that's where ITIL may come in: since most organisations are not unique in their basic way of working it's quite possible somebody already found a good solution and documented that in ITIL. Take note of their "best practice", translate it to your local situation and processes (using a standard if you like) and enjoy the benefit of "wheels for free". But don't call it ITIL processes.....