Lessons learned from implementing ITIL

From IT frameworks

1. Management commitment is crucial – not just the IT management, but the corporate management (the higher up and the more solid the commitment, the better). This is the usual ITIL slide slogan. Experience show it is the basic ITIL implementation truth.
2. It is a good idea to implement ITIL in the shortest possible timeframe. Sure, the stress will take some, but the drag of a prolonged implementation will strain even more.
3. Make sure to commit personnel resources to the project or it will fail.
4. No ITIL implementation should be attempted without getting the entire IT department through the ITIL Foundation. Get important outside stakeholders through the certification as well.
5. Get someone from outside with good ITIL competence to facilitate the implementation. This injects objectivity into the project to vaccinate against the urge to defend current bad habits.
6. Putting the coming CSI Manager as the Project Manager for the implementation project is an excellent idea. This creates better stability than having an external PM, and it builds internal competence on ITIL.
7. If the CSI/PrjM is also technical competent to the point of being able to implement the tools, this is a real plus.
8. In reality, one starts with the CSI process area and improves the scene from scratch.
9. Map the current scene. All systems. All customers. All system responsibles. Creating a spreadsheet or such with all this helps get a grip on where you are. This is needed to know where you should be going.
10. Know the people involved. Know their potential before assigning responsibilities.
11. Please keep it simple. It's better with a simple implementation that works 70% than a complex implementation that works 70%. The simpler implementation costs less.
12. Assess the number of employees against the number of processes to be implemented. Assign responsibilities for the process as early as you can. Assign backup responsibles as well. Start treating the process owners as real responsibles. The FreeCode ITIL Map is the overview to use here and elsewhere to make it possible to easily understand and use ITIL.
13. First create a basic Demand Management process as a filter to ensure the IT department get to focus on the implementation of ITIL. The Demand Manager must create acceptance with top management that there will be fewer new services implemented all while the ITIL implementation project is running.
14. The next process to formalize with an iron grip should be Change Management. Put a person with high tolerance for stress in the role of Change Manager. The person should keep a positive focus on solutions even as hell breaks loose.
15. The next is the Service Operations process area to ensure customer satisfaction and goodwill. It creates a breathing space to implement the other areas of ITIL.
16. Put the nicest, smiliest and most service oriented person at the Service Desk. Technical competence is junior to friendliness. Keep that person happy.
17. As the IT department exercises the processes, service will be slower. Running down a flight of stairs is easy. Doing it while you think about how it is done will slow you down or get you to the hospital. But you need to train on how to do it right before you push for speed. When the users and customers goodwill starts to wear out, then you focus on the speed of service.
18. When designing processes, keep bureaucracy at a minimum. If the work flow becomes to cumbersome, short cuts will be taken and the process will be seen to fail. Keep it simple.
19. It is important to inform all customers on how ITIL will affect them.
20. It is important to inform all users on how ITIL will affect them.
21. Make sure there is an agreement within the IT department (and with management) when you start the project. Agreement at the start and throughout the project determines its success.
22. ITIL will not solve your personnel issues. Only good management will. An ITIL implementation will never be better than the people it should serve.
23. Tools will facilitate behavioural change, but personnel issues will persist.
24. Choose tools that are as flexible as possible. The tools should be adjusted to the best work flow. Avoid adjusting the organization to a specific IT tool. Likewise; Adjust ITIL to fit the organization. The KPIs/metrics will show what works. Keep it simple.
25. Creating a CMDB is a long time investment, but starting the task can be seen as a quick-win as it shows structural progress. It is beneficial to start this task early as much will be hinging on this tool. Keep it simple.
26. Bullshit will be abundant. People will resist change. Disregard negative comments. Simply solve the relevant content of any critique.
27. The major change is to make people go from “building the whole car, one-by-one” to “implementing the assembly belt of ITIL processes”. This is a significant mental change. It is a matter of trusting ones fellow workers and the processes created. Trust is hard to come by.
28. Make sure each and everyone focus only on their responsibilities and do their job to the best of their abilities. Make them forget about how the others do their job. If the tuba player in the orchestra stops in the middle of the concert to correct the violin player that fumbles a note, disaster will ensue.
29. Stick to the party line: Keep grinding at the processes, use discipline if necessary. Make sure the processes work through understanding and acceptance – within IT and with management. Keep it simple.
30. Make sure to put down all the deliverables of the implementation project in the Project Brief. Make sure no new deliverables comes creeping up unless the Project Steering Committee formally approves it (PRINCE2 covers this). Accepting demands nilly-willy from outside the project induces pain. Creating new expectations from inside the project is seriously bad form.
31. Help the managers in IT become better managers. Their workday should be profoundly changed by implementing ITIL. No more by-passing of other’s responsibility. No more “do-it-myself”-attitude. Delegating responsibility may be hard but it is necessary.
32. Help creating a positive attitude in the IT department. A negative, "us<->them", "they are jerks"-attitude may be the only internal mood that can suffocate the implementation.
33. Keep at it. Tenacity is the trait to embrace. Ultimately, through hell and high waters, reason will prevail and the people will work more smoothly together. Witness Henry Ford, look to Toyota. The process system is sane. It keeps people from getting ulcers. It also keeps people from being indispensable. Herein lays perhaps the main problem.
34. Keep it simple.