With the increased importance of corporate governance in the day-to-day operations of organizations globally, ITIL adoption has become a major factor. Global provider of enterprise management solutions, BMC Software, recently brought Malcolm Fry, independent executive advisor to the company, as well as many other ICT corporations, to SA to inform the media and others about the pitfalls of ITIL implementations.

To find out why ITIL implementations fail, one must firstly understand what ITIL is, and what it is not. ITIL was first implemented in 1987 by the British government, and is a set of books that document best practices for IT services management.

According to BMC Software global best practices director, Ken Turbitt, ITIL is the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management (ITSM) in the world. It aims to provide a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally - supported by a comprehensive qualification scheme, accredited training organizations, implementation and assessment tools.

But what is ITSM? Turbitt explains it as: "A top-down, business-driven approach to the management of IT that specifically addresses the strategic business value generated by the IT organization, and the need to deliver a high quality IT service." He notes that ITSM is designed to focus on the people, processes and technology issues that IT organizations face.

Furthermore, ITIL is a framework, describing the contours of organizing service management. Says Turbitt: "The models show the goals, general activities, inputs and outputs of the various processes which can be incorporated within IT organizations. ITIL does not cast in stone every action required on a day-to-day basis, because that is something which differs from organization to organization. Instead it focuses on best practice that can be utilized in different ways, according to need."

Turbitt stresses that ITIL is not a methodology for implementing ITSM processes, it does not contain detailed process maps, and, says Turbitt, does not, and cannot, provide work instructions.

But why do organizations need to align with ITIL? According to Fry, the compelling reasons are because of governance issues, and, in terms of convergence, to better align IT with the business goals.

James D Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, has said that: "The proper governance of companies will become as crucial to the world economy as the proper governing of countries." In support of this statement Fry says: "IT leaders need to measure the real way in which they and their departments are adding value to the business at every level; they must be fundamentally business-thinking people."

According to Forester Research: "Widespread adoption of ITIL best practices by internal IT departments will follow through to 2008, from around 13 percent of billion-dollar companies in 2004, to around 40 percent in 2006 and 80 percent in 2008." Adopting ITIL best practices is therefore something that companies need to do, if they are not to be left behind the rest of the world.

Fry further notes that adopting ITIL best practices holds numerous benefits for organizations. These benefits, according to him, include the fact that it provides a common terminology that leads to better communication and understanding of what needs to be done, narrows the gap between management and IT personnel, and is based on international standards that require staff certification.

Furthermore, he says, ITIL is an aid to software selection, and, most of all, it is seen as the great equalizer. All of which leads to better integration, reduced costs and improved productivity, he claims.

If adopting ITIL has such great benefits in today?s age of convergence, and brings IT and business on par, then why do implementations still fail?

According to Fry there are 10 common reasons, which he believes are:

1. Lack of management commitment;

2. Spending too much time on complicated process diagrams;

3. Not creating work instructions;

4. Not assigning process owners;

5. Concentrating too much on performance;

6. Being too ambitious;

7. Failing to maintain momentum;

8. Allowing departmental demarcation;

9. Ignoring solutions other than ITIL;

10. Not reviewing the entire ITIL framework.

Lack of management commitment

Fry says that no project can succeed without management commitment and drive. "You can achieve isolated wins with ITIL without management commitment, but these wins will be few and far between," he adds. He notes that commitment itself is not enough, and that management must also be more involved.

Spending too much time on complicated process diagrams

"When you start to approach ITIL, there is a great temptation to produce complex and detailed process maps. This is not necessary for most of the processes, and wastes valuable time and resources." He believes that many of the processes, such as incident management, are performed hundreds of times daily, and do not need rigid process maps, and that simple process maps need to be created for some of the ITIL processes.

Not creating work instructions

Fry says that too often, organizations fail to establish written work instructions because they spend too much time creating complex process maps. These work instructions, he says, must be written, published, and continually reviewed.

Not assigning process owners

"IT, like most other departments, is often silo-based and not process-oriented. A process owner should be assigned to each of the ITIL processes that cross functional silos. The process owner should concentrate on the structure and flow of the process, without having to focus on staffing and other departmental issues," Fry states. He believes the process owner?s job is to carefully monitor and manage the assigned processes, so that it can be continually improved.

Concentrating too much on performance

According to Fry, most IT monitoring activities concentrate on performance, while ignoring quality and processes. For example, most service desks can report how quickly they escalate incidents, but few can report how often they escalate incidents to the wrong person. "Organizations need to spend more time on improving quality as part of implementing ITIL," he adds.

Being too ambitious

Says Fry: "ITIL consists of ten service management processes. Many organizations attempt to implement too many processes at once, causing confusion, staff unrest, and poor integration between the processes."

Failing to maintain momentum

Fry concedes that it is a huge effort to implement all ten ITIL processes - taking most organizations three to five years - and maintain the momentum, especially if the biggest gains come early in the ITIL implementation. This is a long time to maintain momentum, but he notes that it is like taking a course of antibiotics when you are ill. "After a few doses, you feel better. But, if you fail to complete the whole course of the prescription, you will soon be back to square one - feeling ill again," he says.

Allowing departmental demarcation

Some processes cross more than one department, often causing conflict among departments, especially where department boundaries are rigid and ownership is important. "All departments need to understand that ITIL is a joint venture and success comes from all working together; that is, the ?power of one?," he claims.

Ignoring solutions other than ITIL

Fry says although ITIL is regarded as the industry ?best practice? for IT service management, many other best practices and frameworks exist, such as Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), Six Sigma, and CMMi. He notes that corporate control requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II, can also affect ITIL, but are often ignored, which can delay ITIL implementation. States Fry: "If you do not focus on these components, then you are not maximizing ITIL?s potential."

Not reviewing the entire ITIL framework

Although there are ten basic ITIL processes, look at the entire ITIL framework when putting ITIL best practices in place. Fry says: "Review, in particular, the security management and the ICT infrastructure management books, because ITIL success is dependent upon other IT processes as well."

Fry concludes: "Memorizing the ITIL books does not mean that you can effectively implement the ITIL processes. You can only successfully implement ITIL best practices by understanding how they apply, based on your individual organization"s IT strengths and abilities."