ITIL - itSMF International

feature publications
Theory into practice
There are one or two new titles on the horizon
for all those trying to put service management
theory into practice. An update of TSO’s popular
‘ITIL Small-scale Implementation’ by Sharon
Taylor and Ivor Macfarlane will shortly be
available to bring the book into line with ITIL
Version 3, while ‘Building an ITIL Based Service
Management Department’ by Malcolm Fry
(again from TSO) takes a refreshing look at the
practicalities of creating a service management
operation that adheres to ITIL processes and
guidelines. Meanwhile, BCS has launched a
new edition of David Miller’s ‘Business Focused
IT and Service Excellence’, which examines the
perception gap between IT and the business;
and a new work entitled ‘Effective IT Service
Management’ by Rob Addy, published by
Springer, provides practical guidance on IT
services by extending the ITIL approach to deliver
proactive and pragmatic IT service management.
The IT service management library is also
going strong. Recent additions have included
‘Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification
– the Roadmap’ for those aiming for corporate
adoption of the standard, complemented by a
more detailed ‘Introduction’ to the subject. Along
with itSMF UK’s highly regarded ‘Planning and
Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 Certification’, these
books offer just about everything you need to
know about getting started with the international
service management standard. Over the
coming weeks, the library will see the launch
of ‘ITSM Global Best Practices’, a substantial
compendium of more than 50 contributions
from opinion formers across the industry,
and also ‘Implementing Metrics for IT Service
Management’, which provides an ITIL-oriented
measurement framework based on a continuous
improvement lifecycle.
Moving forward, itSMF UK will be launching
some new titles later this year, with two Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) pooling their experience
to provide practical guidance on service level
management and change, configuration and
release management respectively. These are
just the first of a number of titles that will be
published by the UK chapter in the months
ahead, reflecting the commitment and expertise
of the UK membership. Watch the website for
further details.
Publications news
By now you should have received the first
few issues of our informative new electronic
newsletter, Publications News. This is the ideal
way to find out about new titles, special offers
and what’s coming next in between issues of
ServiceTalk the Journal. If you haven’t seen
it, and want to receive it please contact
joanne.cooper@itsmf.co.uk
Everyone’s a critic
If you’ve ever fancied giving your views on new
publications, now’s your chance to get your
opinions into print. Starting on the right of this
page, ServiceTalk the Journal will be publishing
independent reviews of publications, to compare
the best (and worst) features of the growing
number of books that are emerging in the service
management space. If this appeals to you, please
get in touch with ServiceTalkEditor@itsmf.co.uk
and we’ll give you the chance to have your say. n
Book review
Laura Jay offers her thoughts on ‘The Official
Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle’ book
Did you find the Official Introduction
interesting and insightful
When ITIL Version 3 was delivered in 2007,
I was looking forward to reading the new
books with eager anticipation. However,
having received the five core books last year
(all approximately 250 pages each), I found
them rather daunting and despite repeated
attempts to read them from cover to cover,
my enthusiasm for the new version started to
wane.
After several unsuccessful attempts to
read through all five, I was therefore delighted
when this ‘all-in-one’ book came out. I
thought this edition might be a better
approach – especially as the whole book
was less than 250 pages and I was pleasantly
surprised because it was.
The facts are set out in an easy-to-read
layout and written with a busy working
person in mind; you don’t need a degree to
understand the terminology either.
What was new to you about the facts
introduced in the book
As an old hand at ITIL V2, it was difficult to
understand in advance just what the new
version was going to come up with. ITIL V3
now has five stages: Service Strategy,
Service Design, Service Transition,
Service Operation and Continual Service
Improvement and the key word is lifecycle.
The stages show that ITIL has no beginning
or end, just one continuous cycle of defining
strategies, designing new/changed services,
implementing them, improving them,
re-defining them and so on.
There are some other key changes,
for example:
- The importance of how IT services and
business demands need to be aligned
- The inclusion of new processes (some
from ISO/IEC 20000 - previously outside
the scope of ITIL V2)
- Some long-overdue amendments such as
incidents and requests now separated out
into two different processes
- More information on areas such as
service catalogue management
How has this book changed your
opinion of ITIL V3
Although excited about ITIL V3 I wasn’t sure
just how practical it would be. This book
helps explain the increased scope of ITIL from
V2 to V3 and how the new existing processes
all work together.
How has the Official Introduction
increased your interest in ITIL V3
Using ITIL V3 both internally and with our
customers is already a direction that Atos
Origin are engaging in, and the condensed
information in this book certainly makes ITIL
V3 look appealing.
I also firmly believe that for anyone coming
straight to the new version of ITIL, this would
be an excellent starting point for them.
Did the Official Introduction fulfil
your needs and expectations
Yes and no. The problem is how do you
introduce all of ITIL V3 in one book With
great difficulty is the answer. This book does
sum up everything you need to know to start,
but then leaves you wanting more. Which is
what it’s supposed to do I guess.
How would you improve the book
One thing that is difficult to understand in the
book is just where the ITIL V2 ‘Ten processes
and a function’ now fit into ITIL V3. There
is a diagram in the book which shows this
in a simplified form but further detailed
explanation would definitely make life easier.
Laura is currently the Central London itSMF
UK regional chair and is working as part of
the BSI standards committee reviewing
ISO/IEC 20000.
October’s issue will be comparing the
different ITIL V3 complementary titles
available such as the ‘Official Introduction to
the ITIL Service Lifecycle’, ‘the Key Element
Guide Suite’, ‘IT Service Management based
on ITIL V3’ and ‘An Introductory Overview
of ITIL V3’ available from:
www.itsmf.co.uk/shop
VENDOR DIRECTORY
consulting 6
@
®
ITIL
MANAGED SERVICES 6 RECRUITMENT 6
PRODUCT 6
PRODUCT CONTINUED 6
baleit.co.uk
Capacity Management
SOFTWARE TRAINING CONSULTANCY
training providers 6
®
ITIL
www.metron.co.uk
Looking for that
®
ITIL bit extra from your
recruitment agency
@
Capacity Management
SOFTWARE TRAINING CONSULTANCY
www.metron.co.uk
We are looking for contributors....
if you would like to advertise or submit an article to ServiceTalk
the Journal contact lindsay.thomas@itsmf.co.uk for more information
In the next
issue...
• In-sourcing
versus
out-sourcing
• Incident
management
processes
• Service
portfolio
management
• Book reviews
• Conference
Supplement
due 14th
october
2008
42 SERVICETALK july 2008 july 2008 SERVICETALK 43