Unknown's avatar antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 8:19 pm on January 31, 2020  

Reframing ITIL: A Systems Thinking Look at IT Service Management 16 Jan 2020 – book by Steve Hales (Author), Patrick Hoverstadt and Tony Korycki (Contributors)

Disclosure: written by three friends and fellow directors of www.systemspractice.org (Systems and complexity in organisation, the systems thinking practitioner network, a UK charity). I have bought a copy and hope to review in due course.

 

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51L%2Bz6eP1gL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Reframing ITIL: A Systems Thinking Look at IT Service Management

16 Jan 2020

by Steve Hales (Author), Patrick Hoverstadt (Contributor), Tony Korycki (Contributor)

179 pages

available in 3 formats (amazon.co.uk links):

colour paperback £19.95;   blank and white paperback £12.95;   Kindle eBook £7.95

amazon.com search: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Reframing+ITIL%3A+A+Systems+Thinking+Look+at+IT+Service+Management&ref=nb_sb_noss

It is possibly the worst time to release a book about ITIL, in the middle of the ITIL 4 roll-out!  However, this book isn’t just another book about ITIL; For a start the focus is ITIL version agnostic – the points made apply equally to ITIL 3 and 4. It  will give you a completely different way of looking at ITIL and some very practical suggestions for its implementation.

This book is for readers who already have some familiarity with ITIL and/or work in IT service organisations. Managers, consultants, ITIL specialists and trainers will find it useful to provide context and solutions to everyday problems of planning, organising and implementing ITIL & ITSM.

Reframing ITIL turns the usual approaches to ITIL and IT service organisations on their head by using a systems (thinking) frame. This shows what ITIL processes really do in operations and management and how their combination produces IT Service Management organisations.

The investigation starts with the change/control loops that deliver and support IT Service Operation systems and finds loops and processes that are missing in ITIL. It looks at the functions and processes that support services with a focus on the service desk and workflows. It addresses the processes involved in developing a service and especially communications.

The remaining ITIL processes that manage the service and the service organisation respectively are investigated regarding their roles in resource provision, requirements definition, reporting, coordination, innovation and governance. Next there is an in-depth look at designing the organisational structures used in delivering IT Service Management.
Finally IT outsourcing is presented and some of the difficulties associated with it – and how to fix them.

Paul Billany (IT Solutions Architect) says: "Reframing ITIL" is much more than a useful pocket guide to the ITIL processes. I would recommend this to anyone involved in the planning and deployment of services within an organisation or as a service provider to that organisation. The book provides a gentle introduction to the pursuit of "Systems Thinking" as a tool to managing and operating successfully within any organisation combined with a refreshing review of ITIL processes operating dynamically via feedback loops rather than as a set of activities being conducted in series with each other (as is often portrayed). Once the reader has digested the Viable Systems model and approach, they can start to understand where ITIL processes fit in their own situations and how they can assess the gaps that create and exaggerate issues in delivering services. I found the chapter on outsourcing a particularly refreshing review of the real-world scenarios I have seen as both a consumer and provider of outsourced services. Using this book as guidance could save time, effort and money in many organisations! Highly recommended.