The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has hit back at criticism that its popular ITIL best practice guidelines for managing organisations' IT service provisioning are too prescriptive and technologically outdated, insisting an updated version addressing these concerns will be launched next summer.
Despite enjoying soaring adoption rates in recent years, ITIL has also been the subject of considerable criticism. For example, Siki Giunta, president and CEO of IT management software specialist Managed Objects, recently argued that some firms were guilty of following ITIL guidelines too closely.
John Collins of analysts Macehiter Ward-Dutton agreed ITIL could prove too restrictive, arguing that while it delivers many benefits it can also limit an IT department's flexibility and block high risk but beneficial IT projects. " Projects like airline check-in desks would never have got through under ITIL," he said. "The last thing you want is your IT department constantly saying 'we can’t do that, we have a process to stick to'."
Meanwhile, other critics have argued that the pace of technological development has left ITIL looking increasingly outdated.
However, Pippa Bass, director of knowledge, innovation, standards and skills at the OGC, argued much of this criticism was unfounded and insisted ITIL version 3 would further allay any concerns IT directors have about the framework when it is launched next summer.
Bass explained that the new document will include more technologically up-to-date examples such as better guidance on mobile, wireless and internet technologies. "For anything to be useful as best practice guidance it needs to refreshed on a regular basis" she said. "And in the IT environment, where change is rapid, it is particularly important."
Version 3 will also be restructured to ensure the guidelines better follow the IT services lifecycle through developing strategies, designing services, transition, operating them and then undertaking continuous service improvement. "Fitting topics into a lifecycle makes it far easier for firms to follow ITIL," said Bass. "Especially as more and more firms outsource part of the process and have to manage the interaction between the different parts of the IT service lifecycle."
Bass added that ITIL had always been structured to allow firms to adapt the guidelines to suit their scenarios and that it was unreasonable of critics to brand the framework too dogmatic.
But Ken Turbitt, global best practices director at IT management specialist BMC, said there were signs that version 3 may in fact be more prescriptive than the previous version. "The OGC has hinted that the next version will be more detailed, and from that you could infer that it'll be more prescriptive," he said. "However, there are two sides to this debate. You could argue the more detailed it is the better as it'll mean less variation and make it easier for [management software] vendors to automate parts of ITIL."
Paul Gostick, market development manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa at change management software specialist Tripwire, agreed there was a case for a more prescriptive version. "Currently, ITIL tells you what to do but not how to do it," he said. "Specific guidance on how to implement ITIL measures would help firms better realise the benefits."
Separately, the OGC also dismissed criticism that ITIL's independence had been undermined after it recently renegotiated its contracts with publishers and accreditation and training providers. "There's been a lot of talk in the ITIL community about it going too commercial and the training providers just trying to make money out of ITIL," said Turbitt.
But Bass insisted that the government had always outsourced parts of the ITIL processes and that the ITIL brand remained under the fully independent control of the OGC.
