Call them what you want; best practice,
framework or a BOK, there are several ways in which Service Management can
enable the business to achieve its business goals. But with such abundance how
do you know which one to use. Of course there are the most popular ones such as
ITIL, COBIT and ISO, but what about the ones that aren’t as well known. Despite
poking fun at the movie Sharknado where the sharks were cut down with a
chainsaw, Van Haren publishing has shown us the pen is mightier than the sword
and put together a great synopsis of the more common ones called “Global Standards and Publications” which is free for download.
As I went through the list (there may be
others that aren’t here) I noticed that each of the reviews had a consistent
outline including some background, target audience, the benefits and
constraints of each of the frameworks. The nice thing about this format was
that I was able to think about ways in which I could augment parts of service
delivery in my organization with a different approach fro a perspective which
is new.
In my opinion implementing practices ‘by the
book’ was never really the intention of how these were supposed to be utilized.
You really should be looking at your organization in a way where you can decide
what is fit for purpose. Taking pieces from each of these guidelines and
applying them to your business where it makes sense in an effort to achieve
your business outcomes. No two businesses are the same and to that end managing
the services which support them should be looked at with an open mind to how
best to support them. Keep in mind that supporting a financial institutions
banking service may require different guidelines and governance than an online
web application may have.
I believe that marrying a few of these
together can work to further your businesses goals where only one may appear to
limit you in some way. After all at the end of the day we are all working to
improve service delivery.
I would really like to hear what you think
about this topic and what ‘framework(s)’ or whatever you call it you use and
what makes it a success. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter @ryanrogilvie
Labels: Continual Service Improvement, ITIL, ITSM, ITSM Frameworks, Service Delivery