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 Five reasons ITIL Version 3 is not "Best Practice"
Blog entry submitted by skeptic
 on Thu, 2007-11-29 07:32. [nid:419] in
Over a year ago, the IT Skeptic argued that ITIL is not best practice. Now Version 3 is upon us, has anything changed?
Back then I said best practice is one of those terms where the meaning gets gradually eroded by constant misuse, especially by vendors, analysts and consultants—the phrase gains currency and pretty soon everyone uses it. By now, “best-practice” has been so abused perhaps it does only mean “we wrote down a way of doing it." But ITIL is two decades old so let us assume that when ITIL was first created they really meant best-practice. OGC [still] defines best-practice as “Proven activity or processes that have been successfully used by multiple organisations. ITIL is an example of best-practice.” This strikes me as evasive: What has this to do with “best”? The itSMF has in the past defined best-practice as “the best identified approach to a situation based upon observation from effective organisations in similar business circumstances.” Now itSMF have wimped out to something just as limp-wristed: "A Best Practice approach means seeking out ideas and experiences from those who have undertaken similar activities in the past, determining which of these practices are relevant to your situation, testing them out to see if they work, before incorporating the proven practices in your own documented processes." What do "relevant", "if they work" and "proven" have to do with best? Wikipedia (the Skeptic’s favourite source of the Zeitgeist) defines best-practice as “a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc.” Yes, that is what "best” means, isn’t it? “More … than any other …”. Calling something best-practice is (or was) a brave statement. It led with the chin. “This is superlative. There is no better way of doing it.” So why are OGC's and itSMF's definitions nowadays so wimpy? Because ITIL isn’t best-practice. It is good practice. It is generally accepted practice. But it isn’t "best." There are good arguments why ITIL is not the ultimate approach to IT operations:
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Isn't it so that for 1) we
Isn't it so that for 1) we can say that optimality is not something that doesn't need a change. Isn't it something ITIL is all about - constant change, etc. Business is changing, new opportunities present themselves, shouldn't the best practice (optimal way of doing things) change, when the things, needed to be done, change?
For 5) I must say that ITIL is becoming quite popular in Asia as well, for instance. Some of the parts of ITIL, including PDCA, are not foreign to modern Asian society.
I don't think 2) and 3) are relevant at all. On the other hand, I totally agree with 4), although I cannot propose a better way of getting things done - too much chefs can ruin the meal, you know.
on what grounds
Hi Kaimar, and thanks for commenting.
I agree (1) is a bit wobbly, but on what grounds do you dismiss (2) and (3)?
As for (5), in the past I have mainly looked at the cultural fit of ITIL from a national or ethnic point of view, but I think there is an even more important cultural mis-match: with organisations that are collaborative/touchy-feely/soft cultures. They see ITIL as a blunt instrument: hard-edged, number-driven, confrontational, personally threatening.
Hmm ... Number (2) is
Hmm ...
Number (2) is something like "we are not sure breathing is the most efficient way to acquire oxygen and we have no way to compare it to other methods". If ITIL has survived, and it has, with no other relevant methodologies on the same level to compare it to, doesn't it show it's the best? Survival of the fittest, etc. It's as with science, we have the best model known to man at all times, although it might prove to be totally ridiculous when more is known (in 10, 50, 1000 years).
In number (3) - evidence can be seen even without 'rigorous research'. If you experience once that method A doesn't really work for you, will you continue using it or will you try to improve/change the method? Or ... if you see that method A is inefficient (too costly, too time demanding, etc.) you should try to improve it. Will you conduct research on this or just use your experience, depends on you (and the resources available).
For (5) I don't think ITIL must act as a blunt instrument at all times. It might make sense to use the blunt instrument on some organizations, where the softness is not an asset, but a threat, to improve the overall efficiency. For the others, ITIL is not a standard - it doesn't have to be implemented (100%). You can choose what to take into use and what not to. If the hard edges don't suit company X, there is plenty of good practice, still, that can be learned and made use of.
ITIL on Wiki
Your use of Wikipedia in the article prompted me to think about the possibilities that might be opened up if itSMF were to make the ITIL books available for Wiki style editing by ITSM practitioners. Would that not be a way of achieving part of their limp-wristed definition of best practice - "seeking out ideas and experiences from those who have undertaken similar activities in the past"?
The results would certainly address at least 3 of your 5 arguments.
But of course OGC and all the rest might not be so sympathetic...
It has been done
It has been tried unsuccessfully a number of times: OpenITIL, the ITIL Open Guide and the ITIL Wiki, not to mention Wikipedia itself
IT Service Management Institute has a forum
Ian Clayton (IT Service Management Institute) has his Forum for discussing the IT Service Management Body of Knowledge. Not a Wiki exactly. But, within certain obvious limits the most open discussion of IT Service Management of which I'm aware.
Based upon the ITSMBOK, but comparisons to ITIL, CobiT, ITAMBOK and others are inevitable.
Wikipedia says ....
... Best Practice is a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. No where in the article is ITIL mentioned.
You can find plenty other
You can find plenty other Class-B versions:
- "Best practices are good practices that have worked well elsewhere. They are proven and have produced successful results." GSA Office of Policy.
- "Best practices are those that have been shown to produce superior results, have been selected by a systematic process and are judged as exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated." American Productivity and Quality Center
- "Best practices are systematic processes that have been demonstrated and validated to yield competitive advantage for organizations that employ them." American Management Association
And you'll find others from Gartner, Oxford Dictionary and so on.
Along with the Wikipedia definition, it seems impossible to define "best practice" without creating a tautology or being trite or specious. Deming himself bristled at the term - for many of the reasons demonstrated by the Wikipedia* definition.
This is likely why v3 initiated a shift away from 'best practice' to 'good practices'.
(*Far too much trust is placed on sources like Wikipedia. I eagerly await the day where the ITSkeptic evolves away from provincial topics like this thread and into the bigger, more meaningful IT issues such as "Wikipedia: can't trust it" or "Net neutrality: keeping the telcos honest" or "IT Management and the Manson family: coincidence or consequence?")
This blog will diversify
In the past the IT Skeptic has examined such topics as Web 2.0, call centres , VOIP and open source. I'd like to do more but ITIL and itSMF provide such fertile fields. Something to do with what they sprinkle on them...
Elsewhere I've also looked at topics as diverse as geeks, technological complexity, mindless faith in computers, professional mediocrity, corporate "training", and today's topic: best practice.
The blog will diversify in 2008... promise.
BTW, my V3 books are at work right now so I can't do a review of use (abuse?) of the term best practice, but the new itSMF V3 Introduction pocket book cannot be accused of shying away from it.
ahem...don't they call it good practice now?
Not to disagree, but the trend I see in V3 is more around ITIL provides good practice. You can then use these practices to develop your own organizational aligned best practice.
If everyone uses a best practice in multiple verticals with varying needs, does it not become by definition an average, or baseline. Thats how I use ITIL, as a yardstick and as a compass, to identify what is working well, identify any gaps, then aligning to the drivers in the organization, (business, government, or otherwise) develop solutions to manage the gap.
Best practice means
"Best practice means looking like everyone else"
Mark Di Somma
does 'best' really matter?
I'm not sure this debate about 'best' or 'good' really matters. If a body of 'knowledge' is published, I can decide what's 'best', what's 'good' and what's not relevant for me.
Frankly, if you're up to your ass in alligators 'halfway decent' may be a significant improvement. If I can rally the troops around a 'vision' and get everyone pulling the rope in the same direction I may not care if it's the 'best'....in fact, ongoing debate about "what's best" only makes belief in the vision more difficult.
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where --' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Of course we don't want to be road kill, but I'd rather risk grazing a few trees than getting run over. Improvement only happens when you DO SOMETHING.
John M. Worthington
MyServiceMonitor, LLC
Is it really a practice?
This topic - "best or not", has been already discussed, and all the arguments already known. But I'd like to point to the other word of "best practice" phrase - is ITIL really a practice?
Do all those trainers on ITIL Foundation or ITIL Manager or whatever - do they really have any real-life experience in IT Service Management? How many ITIL trainers do you know who implemented processes they so enthusiastic about? Capacity management, anyone?
They present a theory in which they (I hope honeslty) believe. In this case they can use any cliche they like - "best practice", "descriptive not prescriptive", "management framework", "collective experience", "coherent approach", "de facto standard" and so on.
It's just what they've been told.
A proportion of them
Well when I was a trainer I certainly had real life experience of service management, having been lucky enough to have spent the early years of my career in a very professional mainframe shop. In addition, like many trainers, if I wasn't training I was implementing ITIL with clients. Generally though the majority of trainers seem to have a bias towards the old service support processes, rather than the service delivery side of things, and there are a proportion of trainers out there who do seem lacking in real world experience.
Is it theory though? It might be to individual trainers, but when I look back at that mainframe shop we were doing most of what was in ITIL v2 22 years ago. The only major area we weren't doing well was financial managment.
My personal view is that v3 has shifted more towards theory
As a trainer I certainly do
As a trainer I certainly do have many years practical experience and still carry out assignments in the real world implementing what I preach. My experience makes me a better trainer, and my trainer makes me a better implementer. Like James, much of my earlier experience was in mainframe shops, doing most of what I later found out was in ITIL V2 (but after all, ITIL came out of existing good practices). Yes, my experience is biassed towards SS, with my SD experience mostly Service Level Management and some IT Service Continuity Management. But there have never been that many actual Capacity/Availability managers out there - these were just aspects of people's jobs, not jobs in themselves.
There is an issue with inexperienced trainers - more of an issue I think, is the lack of practical experience of those who write the books!
Liz Gallacher
Freelance Trainer and Consultant
How about "growing practice"?
Skep,
May not be best practice, but Computerworld reports that adoption is growing:
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=10838
The article wasn't exactly flattering, but then again, it's representative of what real people (versus talking heads) are saying.
kengon
Do you trust those figures
THose figures for v3 adoption and traing seem very high to me - I wonder if the questions were somewhat ambiguous. 31% clainming to be using v3, but only 10% saying they like the lifecycle approach - doesn't add up to me. And that figure of under 10% liking the lifecycle approach should be really worrying somebody.
Faith in Numbers...
James,
Of course I trust those numbers; after all, I read it in *Computerworld*!!! LOL
OK, OK. On a more serious note, I was not as impressed with the numbers themselves, as I was with the candid comments (or shall I say commentary) that made it into the body of the article.
I also believe you're right. If it were my product that was being represented like that, I'd be sweating bullets (and wondering when I'd be getting fired). I'm thankful it's not!
kengon