What are the Critical Success Factors for ITIL ?

Much of what has already been written about ITIL is based on the premise that it's some kind of 'magic wand' or 'silver bullets' that will quickly improve and bolster an organizations service delivery capability.

Unfortunately, this ITIL consultant knows different.

Let's begin with a tour of the critical success factors for ITIL and I will highlight key considerations as we go.

The purpose is to quickly establish that implementing, running and improving an ITIL based service delivery organization is just as hard work, if not more, than one that has never been near ITIL.

The benefits, as we shall see, however make this all worth while.

Critical Success Factors for ITIL:-

- Proven best practices used by many top private and public companies that delivered results.

- It gives a good structure for the organisation as far as development of processes and procedures.

- Increased knowledge on the processes and systems across departments and offices.
Consistency in the use of processes and procedures.

- Better tracking, increased customer service, management control quality product and services

- Increased moral and better adaptation to change.

- Alignment to business need.

- Management and staff belief in ITIL vision.

- Required budget available.

- Plan that provides regular stream of wins during implementation.

- Building on existing practices rather than starting anew.

- Common terminology and definition of processes and functions is the primary success factor.

- Repeatability.

- No need to re-invent the process flow.

- Good base information.

- Clearly defining the processes.

- Monitoring the performance of processes.

- Reviewing and improving.

- Standardisation.

- Comprehensiveness.

- Relatively easy to understand.

- Adaption of common processes.

- Ability of an organisation to compromise and accept standards.

- Support from upper management.

- Establishing culture of service management.

- Ability to build and maintain configuration database.

- Understanding what your services are.

- Building a reasonable cost model.

- Understanding how the framework can be applied to your business.

- Reduce data duplication and redundancy.

- Improve process understanding.

- A foundation against which to measure.

- Buy in and tailoring Support from senior management/CIO.

- Training for all/most IT staff.

- Evangelise.

- Demonstrate to business the benefits of user pays.

- Do it better/ Do it cheaper than competitors.

- Management support from the top.

- Effective leadership and desire for improvement is fundamental.

- There must be a real, communicatable vision with the realistic timeframes set.

- A organisational change management program is essential.

- The business also has to be willing to embrace change and possess a holistic view of the benefits to be gained over the long term, not just immediate.

- The framework is there, it is best practice, you can talk to others about their experiences as it is.

- Cost savings.

- Service Continuity.

- Increased assurance is provided to the business that processes are in place to give an efficient and business focussed IT Service.

- ITIL describes very well the relationship between processes and brings an organisational focus to the work of individuals.