The response of the IT industry to Information Technology Infrastructure Library

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is basically a set of practices and notions used for managing IT operations and services. Basically it puts forward instructions and detailed descriptions of diverse IT practices. Further, it also supplies the industries with tasks, tactics and procedures that an IT organization can use in accordance with the needs that surface from time to time. The information and instructions are published in the form of text books, each covering a single IT management topic. In response to the growing dependence of the IT sector, the UK Government’s CCTA developed few recommendations in 1980. It realized that there needs to be some standardized practices that government and private sectors should undertake to avoid confusions. Prior to this, the agencies were independently creating IT management practices for their organization. ITIL is said to have built around process-model based view of scheming and operations which is credited to PDCA cycle of W. Edwards Deming. The first version was an extremely technical one. It dealt with topics like network services management and cabling infrastructure strategy. The second version took a sophisticated view that integrated the technological pieces into a service management framework with components such as service delivery and service support. The third version has been launched recently and it has taken an even higher-level view, integrating IT and business processes with the core components of the IT sector. The IT sector has given mixed responses to the implementation of the ITIL concepts. It has been appreciated as well as criticized on several fronts. Several management organizations have actually favored ITIL and its practices. Some organizations consider ITIL to be a compilation of optimum practices with an agenda. It realizes that every organization has its own set of potency, talents and culture, so it is designed to adapt every kind of organization. ITIL helps IT organizations in various ways.

• ITIL modifies functions and processes to suit the needs of a particular organization.
• It describes and defines IT work flows and processes required to sustain and uphold business processes.
• Define tasks and errands so that people gets to realize what is expected of them and how their job contributes to the success of their company.

On the other hand, few IT industries consider ITIL to be unfavorable. The reasons encompass various dimensions.

• The books are not reasonably priced for non profit-making organizations.
• Allegations that a number of ITIL advocates consider it to be "a holistic, all-encompassing framework for IT governance";
• Accusations that promoters of ITIL indoctrinate the tactics with 'religious zeal' at the expense of expediency.
• Implementation and credentialing ITIL requires precise training

As Jan van Bon (author and editor of many IT Service Management publications) notes,

‘There is confusion about ITIL, stemming from misunderstandings about its nature. ITIL is, as the OGC states, a set of best practices. The OGC doesn’t claim that ITIL’s best practices describe pure processes. The OGC also doesn’t claim that ITIL is a framework, designed as one coherent model’.