| Insofar as I can discern from the gushing press | | | | other example companies. |
| coverage about ITIL v3, ITIL will save your organization, | | | | - Buying tools or methodologies that have a proven |
| allow CIO's everywhere to retire early, and bring about | | | | track record at increasing efficiency and cutting costs |
| world peace in our time. Delving deeper into ITIL, one | | | | is wonderful, but when it is the cornerstone and raison |
| half expects heavenly light to radiate upon their head, | | | | d'être of the CIO, one has to wonder what the |
| and hear a choir of angels as all questions about the | | | | CIO is doing in a strategic role in the first place. |
| meaning of life and the universe are answered in an | | | | - Best practices based on a packaged methodology |
| explosive epiphany. | | | | often serve as a distraction to the real work at hand. |
| On the surface, the promise of ITIL seems fair enough. | | | | Several manufacturing companies that are now out of |
| Rather than reinventing the wheel in designing and | | | | business or have been acquired by a competitor spent |
| managing an IT organization, ITIL promises a | | | | years going after ISO certifications and awards rather |
| compendium of ready-made "best practices" that can | | | | than using their supply chain to dominate their market |
| be applied to any organization, cutting costs and | | | | and win new customers. |
| increasing efficiency. Like most methodologies du jour, | | | | These factors are combined with an additional, |
| it has been successfully implemented with dramatic | | | | perhaps even more subtle nuance. The companies |
| results at several sample companies, which soon | | | | that are the poster children for a particular |
| become fodder for case studies and are held up as | | | | methodology or certification are often successful |
| proof that with a quick sprinkle of the magic | | | | companies to begin with. GE has long been an |
| methodology, your company too can become an | | | | outstanding company, and it can be easily argued that |
| industry darling. | | | | purported glories of Six Sigma are as much a result of |
| Best Practices? | | | | that success as a contribution to it. Other companies |
| Nearly every industry has fallen victim to promises of | | | | that religiously applied Six Sigma did not become the |
| "best practices" at one point or another. Usually | | | | next GE if some fundamental aspect of their business |
| concocted and hawked by consultants and toolkit | | | | remained flawed. |
| vendors, the sales pitch claims that the finest thinking | | | | So, what of ITIL? |
| from an industry is compressed into a set of guidelines | | | | How should a savvy CIO react to all the hoopla about |
| that can be applied anywhere, if you merely purchase | | | | ITIL? The simple answer is, just like any other tool, be it |
| the associated methodology and consulting services. | | | | software, hardware, methodologies or human |
| While I have spent the preponderance of my career in | | | | resources. Rather than rushing out to learn every detail |
| IT, the only true best practices I have come across | | | | of the latest and greatest version of ITIL, immerse |
| are not sticking your finger in the power outlet in the | | | | yourself in your company's business. Learn the |
| server room, and looking both ways before you cross | | | | nuances of its products, what competitors in the |
| that busy street between the office and the nearest | | | | industry are doing and what markets the company |
| coffee shop. The notion that a magic bullet exists in | | | | plays in today, and where it wishes to dominate |
| the form of some "best practice" is foolish on several | | | | tomorrow. Perhaps ITIL is a tool that can create a lean |
| levels: | | | | and mean IT organization, freeing the CIO to focus on |
| - It takes the focus of the CIOs job from | | | | using IT to enter a highly competitive new market. On |
| understanding a business' strategy and facilitating its | | | | the other hand, ITIL may be a distraction that shifts the |
| implementation through technology, to pitching the | | | | IT organization's focus away from building systems to |
| C-suite on the latest snake oil, and overseeing its | | | | support, for example, a critical new product launch. |
| application. | | | | In summary, the CIO is the organization's ultimate |
| - If the methodology is successful, it is presumed that | | | | architect when it comes to technology. He or she |
| the methodology itself carried the day. If it fails, most | | | | should be translating the vision and strategy of the |
| CEO's assume it is clearly the CIO's fault rather than | | | | company into an IT "blueprint" that will facilitate that |
| inherently flawed assumptions that are part of any | | | | vision rather than obsessing over which hammer and |
| toolkit approach, since the methodology has worked at | | | | nails are used to build what is detailed in that blueprint. |