OIT to Adopt ITIL Framework

By Leigh Wilkinson, OIT

In October of 2008, IBM completed an optimization assessment of OIT practices and made several recommendations intended to build on the enterprise approach that was begun in 2005 with the OIT consolidation. Many of the recommendations focused on opportunities for improving the OIT organizational governance and structure.

One of the recommendations was that OIT should utilize an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) approach to manage the organizational structure, goals and objectives. ITIL was officially adopted by the chartering of a project to devise an implementation program to shift OIT activities into an ITIL framework. The sponsor is the CIO, Richard Thompson and the steering committee consists of the Chief Technology Officer, Greg McNeal; Associate CIO for Policy, Planning and Oversight, Kathy Record; and Associate CIO for Applications, Jim Lopatosky. Leigh Wilkinson was selected to be the ITIL project manager reporting to the Director of the Project Management Office, Mary Silva.

The ITIL charter lays out a general plan for beginning the OIT transition to an ITIL framework. The first year is dedicated to 3 primary activities:

Assessment of our current practices as they relate to the ITIL framework
Collection of current documentation including SOPs, technical documentation and Service Level Agreements including Memoranda of Agreement
Training and awareness building of ITIL concepts for all OIT personnel as part of a change management or cultural change effort.

Year two activities will be defined by the executive steering committee once the results of the assessment are in. The steering committee will prioritize areas of opportunity for development of ITIL based practices. Priorities will be established on an annual basis beyond year two.

This article likely raises as many questions as it answers. There will be more articles to help explain ITIL and our efforts in future newsletters. Some of the topics include:

What is ITIL anyway?
Why are we adopting the ITIL process? Where do we start?
Who else is using ITIL? What benefits have been seen in these organizations?
How does ITIL relate to ISO, CobiT, CMMI, and other programs?
Goals and metrics, their role in an ITIL implementation.
What is the training and communication plan for the ITIL project?
How long does this take and what does it mean to me?
Organizational maturity and models for measurement.
What are the components of service management as defined by ITIL?

If you have any specific questions you would like answered in a future column or if you want to discuss ITIL, please contact: leigh.s.wilkinson@maine.gov

Article posted on: September 15, 2009
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