ITIL 4 and The Operations Gap

As most of you have probably heard by now, "ITIL 4 Foundations" is out. Some of you have probably even made the pilgrimage to AXELOS and PEOPLECERT central to get your new foundations certificate.

For those that haven't here is a quick synopsis of what's changed. 

First, let's address one misconception upfront; this is not ITIL version 4, this is ITIL 4. The "4" stands for the fourth industrial revolution. To recap for those that slept through history class; there have been three industrial revolutions preceding this one — steam and water power, followed by electricity and the third being computerization. The fourth, which is happening now, is cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Systems. This revolution is where ITIL 4 with its new modular-based and value proposition driven model are attempting to create structure, effectively updating ITIL for the cyber-physical age.

So far only the foundations book has been released with the remaining more detailed books still under development. For those CERT junkies, a bridge course for ITIL V3 Experts is in the pipeline according to AXELOS.

So, what's in the new book that makes ITIL 4 ready for the new revolution?

ITIL 4 has been restructured around the value proposition with four key elements. Those four key elements are the four dimensions, the seven principles, the Service Value System, and the ITIL practices (formerly known as processes).

ITIL 4 has four dimensions - Organizations & People, Information and Technology, Partners and Suppliers, and Value Streams and Processes. The four dimensions combine to create products and services which, if done correctly, enable outcomes for customers and co-create value.

These four dimensions, in turn, have seven guiding principles. Principles defined as an essential fundamental truth in all cases. They are:

1. Focus on value,

2. Start where you are, 

3. Progress iteratively with feedback, 

4. Collaborate and promote visibility, 

5. Think and work holistically,  

6. Keep it simple and practical

7. Optimize and automate.

The co-creation of value is accomplished through the new Service Value System and the corresponding Service Value Chain that make up the modular mechanisms. The, now, 34 practices are how the service value chain executes its promise. 

So this is outstanding right? ITIL 4 gets even more strategic then ITIL v.3 was. 

Except...except it doesn't appear that the vast majority of the IT world is paying much attention and still hasn't learned the lessons of ITIL v.3.

For example, in a recent study conducted by TeamDynamix of the education, government, and healthcare verticals, the bulk of them are still focused on ITIL as an operations framework. Indeed the top five processes continue to be (in order); Incident, Knowledge, Change, Problem, and Asset Management. 

Except for Knowledge Management, these are many of the same suspects that we were all working on in ITIL 2. 

The 2018 HDI Technical Support Practices and Salary survey further supports this conclusion. Measuring responses from 488 organizations in 20 industry verticals the results are much the same. Less than 50% of the organizations measured are executing any of the strategic processes at all. 

Indeed many studies and surveys portray a highly operations centric focus on ITIL adoption efforts even 30 years after the initial set of volumes were released. Most organizations have failed to make it to the strategic level, continuing to view IT as a cost center vice the value creation enabler it is. IT Financial and Strategy Management clocked in at 9% and 10% respectively at the back of the pack. That's just over 40 organizations out of 488 who are bothering to manage IT strategically. 

Of course, this is not to imply that strategic thinking and financial management are entirely absent. It does mean, however, that in the organization's own words, they are either not using the framework or worse doing it in an ad hoc fashion. Twenty-seven years of work in this field seem to bear out the latter vice the former.

Fundamentally, this implies that we are still running an IT MASH unit vice managing a preventive healthcare system, ultimately driving up costs to everyone on the enterprise.

The promise of the cyber-physical age will be lost if we are unable to get the C-suite to alter its approach to IT. IT Directors and CIOs should all take note; the organizations that understand the strategic nature of IT in this new age will likely survive or even prosper. The rest are probably destined to be fond memories of the distant past.