To understand which framework suits more, we should see the difference between ITIL and COBIT.
The difference were already posted in ITSM blog 2 , however after detail study of sources , i could see that there are few similarities which needs to be considered.
VR technology requires, development, testing and support of management which is entire IT service modules. Comparision between ITIL and COBIT are stated below and discussed in class.
(Integrating ITIL and COBIT 5 to Optimize IT Process and Service Delivery (.pdf) Look at ‘ITIL v3 – COBIT 5 Mapping’ processes.)
There are big overlapping of things like the primary objective in ITIL is service strategy where we understand the business goals and the same is done in governance of COBIT in evaluate direct and monitor phase, however, additional direction to goals is dealt in governance phase but cobit doesn’t address few things like financial and business relationship which are dealt in align, plan and organize phase.
Service design and transition of ITIL is similar to build, acquire and implement phase of COBIT.
Monitor phase of ITIL tasks are similar to Monitor, access and evaluate of COBIT.
Things that needs to be considered while choosing the tech are:
COBIT is generalized and can be applied in any industry , however , ITIL is more suited for IT environments only.
Scope of modules when considered, COBIT has an advantage since it covers more modules than ITIL.
COBIT primary focuses on governance modules, even though it applies both governance and stratergy and follows top-down approach. ITIL follows bottom to up approach focusing mostly on management sides of ITIL.
COBIT aligns business goals and it services with set of rules . It includes risk analysis ,resources and efficiency of it systems. ITIL manages it services and departments and provides continous oppurtunity to operate .
COBIT provides benchmarks in case of failure. ITIL uses service design and transition phase to provide resources .
Now, observing these differences and similarities as a team we compared the technology requirement and i feel COBIT as best suit but hybrid is what as a team suggested, We would like to work on hybrid structure if time permits.
challenges faced in implementing were well described and i shared with team to have a look before deciding
It is a governance and management framework for information and related technology, It is developed by ISACA and is majorly on the terms of IT Corporate Governance. For Organizations to acheive IT governance and management goals COBIT provides a comprehensive framework.
History of Cobit:
It was initially developed for audit purposes, later on several modules were added and updated to adapt by other services. Below is the chart explaining different modules which the version has concentrated on.
Currently, we are using COBIT 5 which primarily focuses on governance of enterprise IT.
Principles of COBIT
The COBIT 5 is supported on five fundamental principles:
Meet the needs of stakeholders – Understanding the business needs and objectives that needs to be fulfilled. Translate the enterprise goals in to IT relevant goals to align IT with Business. Stakeholders can be both internal and external
cover the entire organization – End to end coverage of enterprise, not restricted to IT wing alone , it considers information and relevant content as an asset that needs to be dealt with any other asset by everyone in the organization. Organization should work as an Unit rather than dissembled system.
Apply a single integrated IT governance and management model to the organization- It can integrate and align with other frameworks and best practices. It has the flexibility to adjust and overarching other frameworks.
Allow a holistic approach- defines set of enablers(policies,culture, structures of organization) to support implementation of governance and management policies by considering interacting components.
Distinguish governance from management: Governance is to achieve stakeholders need by monitoring the performance and setting of goal. It is taken care by board of directors. Management is where we plan , build, run and monitor enterprise activities with aligning to governance body. It is taken care by CEO’s and executive management.
Enterprise enablers:
Efficient and effective IT governance and management requires a holistic approach that must take into account its various components. Based on this principle, COBIT 5 defines a set of seven categories of enablers . Enablers are factors that, individually or together, influence whether something will work, in this case the corporate governance and management of IT.
The category Principles, Policies and Models are means for explaining desired behavior with practical guidelines for daily management. Processes describe a set of practices and activities to achieve certain goals that produce results to achieve those goals. Processes and activities are understood as elements that contain all the information about how, when and who makes the work flow . Organizational Structures are the decision-making entities of the organization. In the category of Culture, Ethics and Behavior are factors related to people.
The Information includes the information produced and used by the organization; At the operational level, information alone is often the main product. Services, Infrastructures and Applications are the factors that provide the organization with IT technology and services. The People, Skills, and Competencies category are people-associated resources and are essential for successful activities and proper decision making.
These last three categories of enablers are the organization’s IT resources or capabilities that must be managed and governed in a systemic and integrated manner with the other enablers. Effective management and utilization of these resources in conjunction with other practices leads to the creation of IT value, that is, each enabler needs information from others to become effective. For example, processes need information and organizational structures for skills and behaviors to be properly implemented.
The below video clearly explains the principles and enablers in layman terms
Enabling processes
COBIT has distributed the entire process in to two governance and management .Below diagram illustrate the modules covered in each.
Evaluate , direct and Monitor – are parts of governance where objectives are evaluated based on stakeholders needs , options and conditions. This sets direction of how they can be acheived and monitor the progress , performance and compliance of the objective.
Align ,plan and organize – how to align IT services to business goals and objectives. It works on how to obtain optimal results by using IT services as well.
Build, Acquire and Implement- Identification of IT requirements, acquiring required technology and implementing it with company’s business processes.
Deliver, service and support – It covers how the services needs to be delivered to business. How applications needs to be deployed in IT System and holding of support processes for efficient performance of these systems.
Monitor, Evaluate and Assess -monitor whether the companies goals are met, Evaluate the performance of the IT system and assess for improving the effectiveness of IT system.
Benifits of using Cobit 5
Accepted globally as a set of tools that ensures IT is working effectively
Functions as an overarching framework
Provides common language to communicate goals, objectives and expected results to all stakeholders
Based on, and integrates, industry standards and good practices in: –Strategic alignment of IT with business goals –Value delivery of services and new projects –Risk management –Resource management Performance measurement
Group Activities:
COBIT seems like a big module with lots of content in it. It has general terms of business but lot of components to deal with. Basil, mahesh and me worked on understanding the framework and a small brainstorming exercise was done .
Later we tried implementing with the technology and it was quite confusing. We tried to pick few processes and enablers to assist the COBIT process.
Since we were struck with project there wasn’t much time we could allocate with NET701 unfortunately and since it’s more research and irrelevant to course these doesn’t excite team much.
Reference:
Bernard, P. (2012). COBIT® 5-A management guide. Van Haren.
Pereira, C., & Ferreira, C. (2015). Identification of IT value management practices and resources in COBIT 5 / Identification of IT value management practices and resources in COBIT 5. Iberian Journal of Information Systems and Technologies, (15), 17-33. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.nmit.idm.oclc.org/docview/1707142482?accountid=40261
Mangalaraj, G., Singh, A., & Taneja, A. (2014). IT governance frameworks and COBIT-a literature review.
As mentioned in the previous blog, ITIL is the most used framework in business.Lets see more details of it,ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework of ITSM which standardize the planning, selection , designing and management of IT Services.
Primary goal is for increasing efficiency and gain the required service delivery. ITIL enables IT administrators to act as business service partner instead of back end support. ITIL Guides and practices help in aligning IT department actions with business needs and update them as per business growth.
History of ITIL
In 1980, Data centers were decentralized and adopted more diverse architectures more geographically for redundancy. This arised discrepancies in terms of process and deployment effecting the customer relationship.Then, United Kingdom’s (CCTA) Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency recognized the importance of noticing IT as a service and applying steady practices across IT service lifecycle and established Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management (GITIM). ITIL Version 1 was released.
In 2000, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) released ITIL v2. ITIL v3 emerged in 2007 and later updated in 2011 for including feedback from the user and training community, and also to resolve errors and inconsistencies.
The U.K. Cabinet Office and Capita PLC formed the business in 2013. The organization’s mission is to “make individuals and organizations more effective by providing practical guidance, content and qualifications distilled from real-world experience and developing practices.”
Global best practice company Axelos currently maintains ITIL development. They announced the latest ITIL guidelines in 2017. This organization is releasing ITIL v4 throughout 2018 and 2019.
Here is a small video discussing about ITIL framework which i find the coolest of all.
Certification
ITIL Certificates
ITIL Certification provides organized expertise staff to businesses. Trainings and assessment for the level is organized by AXELOS. The below main certifications are:
Foundation: foundation course with entry level which provides overview of ITIL lifecycle concepts.
Practitioner: one step above foundation and below intermediate which allows employees to adopt and adapt ITIL in organization.
Intermediate: It consists of plenty of modules providing different focuses on IT-service management. It is not mandatory to certify in all modules for Intermediate certificate, a few would do. It provides indepth knowledge than the foundation and practitioner.
Expert: Completing 17 credits from previous certs and exam would help in gaining this , it requires knowledge on all modules and skill base in ITIL best practices.
Master: Practical examinations should be done to obtain this level certification, where selection and application of ITIL services need to be discussed.
ITIL Policies
ITIL has five phases in lifecycle, which are documented in five books. This covers end to end process of Service life cycle. These volumes provide a complete guidance and process information.
Service Strategy (SS): strategy(plans, patterns to understand customer ) defines what a service provider needs to do for customer satisfaction.
Initiate how we can get there
Describe where we are
Identify where we like to be
Service Design(SD):
SD is the guidance on designing IT practices, services, procedures, and policies to provide quality service and customer satisfaction with cost effectiveness.
Infrastructure is fit for purpose
Infrastructure is fit for use
Service Transition(ST): Advises on change management for updating the current architecture and release practices for improving the service provided ; It guides admins in case of environmental interruptions and changes.
Service Operation(SO): Day-to-Day operations and management of the business’s IT services. All the strategies for services are realized through SO.
Continual Service Improvement(CSI): CSI does not mean crime scene investigation — even though this seems appropriate! It links improvement outcomes and efforts with service strategy, transition, design, and operation.
Cycle of ITIL with policies involved
In my prospective, this Animated video briefing about each policy by relating with constructing of a house is a best source to understand these concepts .
Building a new house , what to achieve is strategical decision: Service strategy
Blueprint of House, talking about money to build it, space required,Timeline of completion, suppliers availability for raw materials : Service Design
Project management expert who can assist in building new house and procure, plan duration and support for construction and evaluate efficiency , sponsor for funding: Service Transaction
Dealing with day to day updates, like buying furniture and other articles in house, house safety, Incident and service request management :Service Operation
Step wise improvement , upgrading our household articles when new technology is available in the market:Continual service improvement
Benifits:
Alignment with business needs – IT organization can proactively recommend solutions to business. Provide science offerings as per business growth.
Negotiated achievable service levels – at acceptable cost business and IT service provider can deliver the realistic service making them the true partners.
Predictable, consistent processes – Customer requirement are set and met through predictable practices applied consistently.
Efficiency in service delivery : well defined process help in attaining efficiency in terms of deploying and maintaining helping to provide healthy relationships of business and IT.
Measurable, improvable services and processes : repeated process can be monitored and automated, which results in improving of service.
A common language : Terms are defined as per both business and IT provider.
Which companies use ITIL?
Literally, companies in more than thousands worldwide and industries of all sizes and shapes has adopted ITIL. For example:
Large technology companies : Microsoft, HP, Fujitsu, IBM
Retailers : Target, Walmart and Staples
Financial services organizations : Citi, Bank of America, Barclays Bank
Entertainment entities : Sony, Disney
Manufacturers : Boeing, Toyota, Bombardier
Life sciences companies : Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
Since ITIL being a ‘framework’, can be adapted to suit the company’s organizational structure and requirements. It can be easily adopted across the lifecycle or inside particular process to enable IT organization a true strategic asset for business the IT supports.
Group Activities:
ITIL framework is generalized approach to issues. Since there was a lot to understand further we divided the principles among ourselves and research about them was done. Mahesh has worked on service strategy and design, basil on transition and operation. I worked on examples of implementation and continuous improvement module.
Later we had a discussion on how these can help the technology we opted which is VR.
References:
Duarte, J. C., & Lima-Marques, M. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE.
Kabachinski, J. (2011). Have you heard of ITIL? It’s time you did. Biomedical instrumentation & technology, 45(1), 59-62.
Arraj, V. (2010). ITIL®: the basics. Buckinghampshire, UK.
Information technology enterprises provides IT Services to customers .A service is providing what customer needs by taking the responsibility of risk involved. Customer gives the ownership to IT Enterprise and its there duty to provide better services for better business and customer satisfaction. Management of these services through predefined standards help business to achieve better results.
What is ITSM?
ITSM stands for IT service management.The fundamental concept of how IT delivers the services to customers. It includes defining, delivering and supporting IT services.
ITSM Services
It helps in optimizing IT Services and acts like a bridge between management and IT Staff. It is supported by frameworks . Here are the few benefits of ITSM from both IT and business prospective
It ensures in increasing efficiency by managing process workflow , efficient use of resources, service based incident management and reports. It also helps to prevent from issues, bounce back from issues and provide high availability.
What is framework?
In general, framework is set of rules defined to achieve the required. Pre-defined frameworks help in providing an orderly method for implementation of ITSM.
“A process framework describes best practices that can be used to define and continually improve a given set of processes. Process frameworks also provide a common vocabulary that organizations can use when describing and executing processes .”
As per forbes Insights chart, In surveyed companies, ITSM frameworks and processes most used:
Percentage
Framework
Description
47
ITIL
Information Technology
Infrastructure Library
36
COBIT
Control Objectives for Information
and Related Technologies
36
eTom
Business process framework used by telecom
providers generally
34
MOF
Microsoft Operations Framework
ITIL
ITIL is most used among others which is a continuous improvement strategy while providing IT services. It is widely used framework . It is developed by United kingdom’s Central computer and telecommunications agency in 1989. currently Version 4, released in 2017 is being followed by organization which was updated based on business and customer feedback.
Service Strategy: defining the business goals and customer necessities and alignment of objectives.
Service Design: IT policies production, architecture and designing policies.
Service Transition: change management and release practices advices.
Service Operation: Periodic basis of IT Service which can be monthly, weekly or yearly.
Continual Service Improvement: Improve the framework for healthier efficiency.
ITIL Framework with steps involved
COBIT
It is initially developed by financial audit group but later adapted and expanded . IT stands for Controlled Objectives for Information and Technology. Created by (ISACA) Information systems Audit and control Association . It ensures quality, reliability and control of Service in an organization. cobit 4.1 consists of following steps
Planning & Organization – defines how the service should be adapted.
Delivering and Support – defining the delivery and hyper care for continuous service.
Acquiring & Implementation – defines the method of deploying and owning the service.
Monitoring & Evaluating – defines how to observe the status and evaluate the service for further improvement.
Currently, COBIT 5 was the latest framework followed by companies .It includes the following:
Principles definition and more detail of these frameworks will be defined in later blogs.
Both these frameworks are important and has distinct yet complementary goals. They do not have any blueprint to follow .However, both provide practices to adapt .
Detail study about each of these frameworks will be in forthcoming blogs.
Group Study:
ITSM frameworks were being discussed among our team . Briefing of COBIT and ITIL was done by Dimitri in class .
This assignment is most confusing since it doesn’t has to do much with the Technology rather understanding of framework and IT services are required.
As a team, we are making a list of IT services that needs to be handled and understanding what services are relevant to the technology . It was more like a brainstorming in figuring out services required for technology.
Reference:
Shahsavarani, N., & Ji, S. (2011). Research in information technology service management (ITSM): theoretical foundation and research topic perspectives. In International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM) (pp. 1-16).
A word mostly used by IT professionals and academics .There are numerous definitions available but are not agreed on completely.Lets break the word to understand the meaning of it,
Technology:Technology is where we apply scientific knowledge to achieve something, which can be a sum of skills, processes, methods or approaches. These make human life easier and even more productive.
Emerging : Emerging means which recently entered into the market and rising in other words to become prominent .
In short , Emerging technology means a new trend of science which is uprising .
Dmitri (Enterprise infrastructure tutor) shared few definitions of Emerging technology in class and the one which driven my attention and simple to understand was “Science-based innovation that has the potential to create a new industry or transform existing ones”
Emerging Technology
During my research of understanding, I found the below more stimulating:
Mohanad Halaweh, [1] stated that emerging technology doesn’t mean new. They are tagged emerging based on domain, place or application since an old technology in developed countries can be found new in poor or underdeveloped countries. So, a technology which is not widespread and can cause a radical change to industry, business or society can be called Emerging technology (ET).
For example, extinct of DVD’s because of iPods,MP3 players, in this scenario the MP3 players and Ipods are considered as ET’s.
Examples of ET’s
Examples of Emerging technologies
Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, VR, 3D printing, Robotics are most common ET examples as per sources like CompTIA, Techrepublic and many other sources of internet. They can be considered to be in implementing and developing phase.
Artificial Intelligence (AI):
If machines can learn and solve problems like humans, how is it gonna be? AI is all about the same. It mimics the human, developing problem-solving techniques and learning on its own. A much-recommended video, expressing lots of AI content dealing even with the branches of it in a short video.
Internet of things:
Things responses are picked and triggered as actions. Say for example if a sleeve is used to change the slide of the presentation, how will it be?Hard to believe? here is the video demonstrating how things around can be changed using IoT with the sleeve implemented.
Virtual Reality:
As a name indicates its about virtual world created around us. This has become quite popular even in the market because of VR headsets available at low prices for gaming using smartphone. Here is a video talking about difference of VR and AR. We will see more details about VR in later section.
Which technology captured my interest and why?
Virtual Reality which is an interactive computer . Using computer graphics to create a realistic world.In other words, Real time interactivity. There are 3 Is of virtual reality which is basically immersion, imagination and interaction which forms the base triangle of Virtual Reality. Inputs are received and virtual reality is updated instantaneously .
It started in 1960 where Heiling designed simulation mask to create 3D Slides. He used head mounted machines (HMD) to acheive . NASA was facing difficulties to train its astronauts, since there cannot be similar environment created,infact impossible. Using LCD’s (Liquid crystal display) placed close to eyes and tracker to detect head motion , they recreated the environment in very low budget.
These two principals are still used in todays VR head sets . An Audio , Head mounted device and glove for input sets up a VR . It is changing every field of work in to a new dimension. Architectural view can be visualized before construction, test drive, training doctors treatment for phobia’s , training police and military, treatment of mental illness .
Major players in Virtual Reality are Oculus, HTC, Sony. Video games are widely using VR technology for better user experience .
This is widely spread in market with a large application range . This helps in doing most impossible things possible for example training an astronaut by replicating a space environment in such a low budget or viewing a building before it is even constructed . Mainly doctors can practice before undergoing a critical surgeon exited me . since health care is never ending field in this world.
How to proceed further?
I have discussed my thoughts about the same with the team (Mahesh , basil and me) .Mahesh is exited are ready to implement the methods in VR Technology.
We are going to understand the ITSM Framework. Then ITIL, COBIT basics and few examples with implementations .
Assume that an enterprise is implementing the VR technology , then what practices should they implement and why ? what will be advantages.
In next post i will detail my understanding of ITSM Frameworks.
References:
Halaweh, M. (2013). Emerging technology: What is it. Journal of technology management & innovation, 8(3), 108-115.
Burdea, G. C., & Coiffet, P. (2003). Virtual reality technology. John Wiley & Sons.
Isdale, J. (1998). What is virtual reality. Virtual Reality Information Resources http://www. isx. com/~ jisdale/WhatIsVr. html, 4.
In Assignment 2, as a team of three we are going to work on deciding a best framework for technology basically cobit vs itil.
We opt an emerging technology first by compare different technologies and scope of it.
Assuming a company which is going to run business related to this emerging tech is assumed and Information technology service provider is brought in to picture.
Understanding what is IT service management we decide the modules required for running the technology.
We research and get an overview about widely used frameworks namely, ITIL and COBIT . later, compare between them to understand the best suit for technology.
In this blogging , I am going to write
1st blog is on emerging technology and selection of technology
2nd is about ITSM and services
3rd about ITIL framework
4th about COBIT framework
5th differences and observation of frameworks and which one as a team , we decide to implement.
This seems exiting and also annoying because it is going to be more a research module rather than a technical learning . It helps to adapt in business environment once we start working and would be helpful to understand work culture, however,currently , there are lot of technologies which an enterprise infrastructure is using and integration of other services with VMWare would have helped us to prepare more for market trend and a big add on to our resume rather than research module is what i personally feel.
Net701: Enterprise Infrastructures 