2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Topics and Applied Theories in IT Service Management
Thorsten Proehl
Technical University of
Berlin
t.proehl@tu-berlin.de
Koray Erek
Technical University of
Berlin
koray.erek@tu-berlin.de
Felix Limbach
Technical University of
Berlin
felix.limbach@tuberlin.de
Abstract
The corresponding standard for IT Service
Management is ISO 20000. More and more companies
seek for a certification according to ISO 20000 [15].
ITIL and the ITSM standard provide guidance for IT
organizations to manage and control the IT operations.
In order to satisfy the increasing demand on IT
governance, IT organizations make sure that their
processes are effective and efficient. Moreover, the IT
organization needs skilled staff members to manage
their IT infrastructure.
Since the last 10 years of research in IT Service
Management, the number of contributions to topics in
this field is increasing year by year. To give young and
senior IS scholars an overview about the topics, which
were discussed in published articles, conference
proceedings, and workshop contributions, a literature
review is an adequate medium.
The three research questions in this article are:
This article examines the IT Service Management
(ITSM) research literature, starting from past up to the
present. The applied research method is the literature
review, in which a search is conducted across 8 major
global, regional, and national conferences as well as
71 international journals. Furthermore, different
database searches are performed. In order to classify
the results, a morphological box is used. Moreover, a
keyword analysis is conducted to obtain an overview
about research topics in IT Service Management. The
findings suggest that research in the field of ITSM has
matured and diversified over the years. Drawing
attention to the different research areas of IT Service
Management is the specific contribution of this paper
to Information Systems (IS) research. In addition, this
paper shows, which areas and topics are explored and
which are underexplored, respectively, have not yet
been the focus of research. A research agenda will be
proposed to handle the identified areas of future
research. Furthermore, this article gives an insight
into the applied theories in IT Service Management.
(1) Which topics were already treated in the
literature?
(2) Which theories are applied in IT Service
Management?
(3) What are potential areas of future research?
1. Introduction
The first question leads to an overview about the
relevant topics in ITSM, whereas an answer to the
second question gives an insight into applied theories
of IT Service Management. Finally, this analysis will
be considered in the light of current ITSM trends and a
research agenda will be suggested.
This paper is organized as follows. In the
following section, the authors provide a structured and
documented literature review. In addition, a keyword
analysis is performed to obtain an overview about the
topics. It is followed by an agenda for possible future
research. Next, the authors reveal the related works.
Finally, the conclusion summarizes the main findings,
the future areas of research, and the limitations of this
article.
Information Technology Service Management
(ITSM) is of increasing importance to Information
Technology (IT) organizations around the world, while
Information Systems (IS) play a crucial function in
private and public sector organizations [30]. ITSM is
the paradigm shift from a traditional IT department to a
customer and service orientation. The need to align the
IT strategy with the business strategy, increasing the
transparency of IT processes, and quality while
reducing the cost of IT services are some of the reasons
why the Information Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL), as the de-facto standard of IT Service
Management, is introduced.
1530-1605/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2013.555
Ruediger Zarnekow
Technical Univeristy of
Berlin
ruediger.zarnekow@tuberlin.de
1365
1367
Table 1. Taxonomy of literature reviews
(following [12])
2. Literature Review
Baker explains a crafted literature review as the
fundament for the elaboration of a new research project
[28]. Moreover, vom Brocke et al. outline that
literature reviews tend to identify unknown literature
sources as well as “make[s] a vital contribution to the
relevance and rigour of research” [44]. The term
relevance means that a pure reproduction of a known
knowledge base should be avoided [28], however, an
effective, accurate, and precise use of this knowledge
base is necessary [22].
In order to document the literature search process
and to obtain comprehensible and resilient results, vom
Brocke et al. propose a five-step literature review
framework (Figure 1) [44]. This framework was used
to conduct the subsequent literature review on IT
Service Management and yields the structure of this
article. The definition of the review scope is thus the
first of five mandatory steps. It is followed by a
conceptualization of the topic and, as a third step, the
literature search itself. This search is conducted
according to Webster and Watson [46]. The fourth step
comprises the analysis and synthesis of the literature.
In order to classify the identified articles, a
morphological box is used. Finally, a research agenda
is derived from the findings.
Definition of
Review Scope
Conceptualization
of Topic
Literature
Search
Literature
Analysis &
Synthesis
Characteristic
1
Focus
2
Goal
3
Perspective
4
Coverage
5
Organization
6
Audience
Categories
Research
Outcomes
Research Methods
Integration
Identification of
Central Issues
Criticism
Neutral Representation
Exhaustive
Historical
Specialized
Scholars
Practices or
Applications
Theories
Espousal of Position
Exhaustive with
Selective Citation
Representative
Conceptual
General Scholars
Central or Pivotal
Methodological
Practitioners
General Public
2.2. Conceptualization of the Topic
After defining the review scope, vom Brocke et al.
suggest that a review needs to continue with a
conceptualization of the topic [44]. Figure 2 shows the
appreciable issues around the term IT Service
Management (on a meta level). These terms serve as a
basis for the different stages of the literature search
process. However, the terms Service Science, Service
Management, and Service Engineering are not
considered as they lead away from the actual goal of
the literature review. These terms are used to classify
IT Service Management per se.
HP IT Service
Management
Research
Agenda
Frameworks
IBM Tivoli Unified
Process
IT Infrastructure Library
Service Science
Microsoft Operations
Framework
Figure 1. Framework for literature reviewing
(following [44])
Service
Management
Service
Engineering
IT Service Management
BS 15000
2.1. Definition of the Review Scope
Standards
In their article, vom Brocke et al. recommend to
draw a taxonomy for the purpose of defining the
specific scope of the literature review [44]. Cooper
presents a taxonomy that comprises six characteristics
[12], which can further be described by one or multiple
categories (Table 1). Vom Brocke et al. emphasize that
some characteristics, such as perspective and coverage,
are mutually exclusive, while the other characteristics
can be independently combined [44]. In the table
below, categories gray highlighted show the focus
areas of this literature review.
ISO 20000
Staff training
Figure 2. Conceptualization of IT Service
Management
Vom Brocke et al. rephrase Torraco in their
“broad conception of what is known about the topic”
[42, 44]. Hence, a common understanding of basic
terms and definitions is mandatory in every field of
research and for every research intention. Zorn and
Campbell emphasize this statement [49]. Table 2
provides definitions of the key terms in this research
field to satisfy this demand.
1368
1366
Table 2. Terms and definitions according to
the glossary of the ITIL 2011 edition [1]
Term
Definition
ISO/IEC 20000
IT Service
IT Service
(ITSM)
Management
IT Infrastructure
(ITIL)
Service Management
Conference
Search
Library
Journal
Search
Database
Search
Backward
Search
Forward
Search
Figure 3. Five steps literature search process
An international standard for IT Service Management.
A service provided by an IT service provider. An IT service is made up of a
combination of information technology, people and processes. A customerfacing IT service directly supports the business processes of one or more
customers and its service level targets should be defined in a service level
agreement. Other IT services, called supporting services, are not directly used
by the business but are required by the service provider to deliver customerfacing services. See also core service; enabling service; enhancing service;
service; service package.
The implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the
needs of the business. IT Service Management is performed by IT service
providers through an appropriate mix of people, process and information
technology.
A set of best-practice publications for IT Service Management. Owned by the
Cabinet Office (part of HM Government), ITIL gives guidance on the
provision of quality IT services and the processes, functions and other
capabilities needed to support them. The ITIL framework is based on a service
lifecycle and consists of five lifecycle stages (service strategy, service design,
service transition, service operation and continual service improvement), each
of which has its own supporting publication. There is also a set of
complementary ITIL publications providing guidance specific to industry
sectors, organization types, operating models and technology architectures.
A set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to
customers in the form of services.
Table 3 shows the keywords which were derived
from Figure 2 and used within the five steps of the
literature search process.
Table 3. Used terms for the search
Keyword
Abbreviation
IT Service Management
ITSM
IT Infrastructure Library
ITIL
ISO/IEC 20000
ITSM Frameworks
Similar spellings respectively meanings
IT Servicemanagement, Information Technology Service
Management
ITIL V2, ITIL V3, ITIL-based, Service Strategy, Service
Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, Continual
Service Improvement, Information Technology Infrastructure
Library
ISO 20000, BS 15000
Microsoft Operations Framework, MOF, IBM Tivoli Unified
Process, ITUP, HP IT Service Management, HP ITSM
All steps were performed by two researchers, so
that the results are valid and resilient, and no important
article or contribution was overlooked. To achieve a
high degree of reproducibility, a comprehensive
documentation of the procedure and the results is
necessary.
Starting with the conference search, the authors
consider eight major global, regional, and national
conferences. The AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) was
used to browse through the AIS conferences (AMCIS
and ICIS), the AIS chapters (ACIS), the AIS affiliated
conferences (ECIS, MCIS, and PACIS), and other AIS
conferences (WI). Due to the number of ITSM-related
proceedings, the HICSS was also examined. In order to
find relevant articles, the authors manually considered
title, abstract, and keywords of the proceedings for the
whole available period. Table 3 was used as a decision
criterion, and so it was determined whether the
respective article is within the scope or not. Table 4
shows the number of results for each conference.
The Forrester report about IT Service Management
support tools shows that ITIL V2 as well as ITIL V3
have a significant market share among IT Service
Management frameworks [23]. Therefore, the authors
used the definitions of the key terms from the glossary
of the ITIL 2011 edition [1].
Moreover, Conger et al. defined IT Service
Management as focusing on “defining, managing, and
delivering IT services to support business goals and
customer needs, usually in IT Operations” [11]. Pollard
et al., on the other hand, rephrased IT Service
Management as “a strategy that focuses on defining,
managing and delivering IT services and addresses the
need for IT to become more customer-focused by
offering information systems under contract to
customers and managing IT performance as a service”
[33]. In addition, IT Service Management can be
viewed as a subset of Service Science [19].
IT Service Management is a customer-oriented
understanding of the IT organization, as opposed to the
long-established functional orientation. The IT
Infrastructure Library provides a best practice
framework for these new challenges. The goal of ITIL
is the creation of value for customers and organizations
through the provision of IT services which are aligned
with business strategy and meet business requirements
[9].
Table 4. Considered conferences
Abbreviation / Name
ACIS: Australasian Conference on Information Systems
AMCIS: Americas Conference on Information Systems
ECIS: European Conference on Information Systems
HICSS: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
ICIS: International Conference on Information Systems
MCIS: Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems
PACIS: Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems
WI: International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik
Period
2001-2011
1997-2011
2000-2011
1995-2012
1994-2011
2006-2011
1993-2011
1999-2011
13
34
12
13
5
0
8
10
95
Following the conference search, a journal search
was performed on the basis of AIS MIS Journal
Ranking. Especially journals with Average Rank
Points (ARP) less than or equal to 30 were analyzed,
therefore, 71 journals were considered. The ARP for
each journal are calculated as the average of 9
rankings. Similar to the previous stage of the search
process, the authors manually considered title, abstract
and keywords of the journal articles for the whole
available period. Table 3 was used as a decision
criterion, and so it was determined whether the
2.3. Literature Search
In order to perform an exhaustive literature search,
a five-step process according to Webster and Watson
was designed and realized (Figure 3) [46]. The idea
behind this approach is to obtain all articles and
contributions in the field of IT Service Management;
consequently, it builds an enormous body of
knowledge for the authors and other IS scholars.
1369
1367
A total of 13 articles were available but not
accessible: 10 articles from Science Direct (7 articles
for the keyword “IT Service Management”, 1 article
for the keyword “Information Technology Service
Management”, 1 article for the keyword “IT
Infrastructure Library”, and 1 article for the keyword
“Service Transition”), plus three articles from
IEEEXplore (all for the keyword “IT Service
Management”).
The penultimate step of the search process is the
backward search - to be more accurate - the backward
reference search, where the authors went through the
references of the collected articles yielded from the
journal search. The references of the references etc. are
out of this literature review scope, because that would
inflate the results gathered by the literature search.
Finally, a forward reference search was performed on
the journal search results. Figure 4 outlines the whole
literature search process and shows the number of
results for the backward as well as for the forward
search.
respective article is within the scope or not. Table 5
presents the number of results for each journal as well
as the Average Rank Points. The brackets imply that
some articles are available but not accessible. In order
to reduce the size of the table, only journals with at
least one result are shown.
Table 5. Considered journals
Abbreviation / Name
ARP
ISR: Information Systems Research
CACM: Communications of the ACM
JMIS: Journal of Management Information Systems
IEEETrans: IEEE Transactions (on Network and Service Management)
I&M: Information & Management
CAIS: Communications of the Association for Information Systems
JComp: Journal on Computing
OS: Organization Science
CMR: California Management Review
JCIS: Journal of Computer Information Systems
IBMSJ: IBM Systems Journal
WIRT: Wirtschaftsinformatik
BISE: Business & Information Systems Engineering
ISM: Information Systems Management
2.67
2.75
4.86
1
1
3 (+1)
3
0 (+1)
4
1
1
1
2
3 (+1)
5
2
8 (+6)
35 (+9)
8.75
11.89
14.00
16.00
18.00
21.00
24.86
26.00
28.00
28.00
29.00
Afterwards, a database search was performed in
EBSCOhost (Business Source Complete), ProQuest
(ASSIA, ERIC, PAIS, and PILOTS), Emerald, Science
Direct (Journals: Business, Management and
Accounting, Computer Science, and Decision
Sciences), AISeL, and IEEEXplore using the known
keywords (Table 3). The database search involves title,
text, and abstract. The number of results and the
number of new articles were recorded (Table 6). The
list of results was sorted by relevance and only the top
150 results were investigated. For the purpose of
reducing table size, only keywords which generated at
least one result are shown. The table shows not only
the results for each keyword, but also the number of
results (new ones), that were not found in previous
steps and in the overall result list.
= 95
4
2
0
1
1
0
0
0
3302
24
40
5
1
2
0
1
59
45
0
5
0
0
0
0
43
22
1
7
7
0
0
0
621
441
8
86
43
0
1
1
IT Infrastructure Library
ITIL
ITIL V2
ITIL V3
ITIL-based
Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Transition
Service Operation
Continual Service Improvement
Information Technology Infrastructure Library
452
2391
20
93
57
2254
3310
140
2990
35
368
3
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
6
0
0
0
32
118
7
37
0
4
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
63
49
0
2
0
602
1016
24
557
5
23
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
24
255
2
7
7
729
944
43
1981
2
24
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
41
0
0
1
4
22
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
300
1340
18
141
51
635
2279
223
2550
83
212
2
2
0
2
1
2
0
0
0
4
2
35
68
38
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
7
2
0
0
0
4
6
4
0
0
0
5
4
1
0
0
0
110
58
23
0
0
0
9
6
3559
2
321
0
3
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
89
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
683
0
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
23
29
4727
7
70
10
9
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
6
104 (+13)
0
8
ƒ EBSCOhost
ƒ ProQuest
ƒ Emerald
ƒ Science Direct
Forward
Search
The backward
search is
performed on the
basis of the
journal search
results.
The forward
search is
performed on the
basis of the
journal search
results.
= 35
= 104
= 21
=0
= 255
Figure 4. Overview about the number of
results obtained by each step
IEEEXplore
15
2
0
0
27
Based on AIS
MIS Journal
Ranking, for
journals with
Average Rank
Points <= 30.
Backward
Search
ƒ IEEEXplore
In this step, the gathered literature was analyzed
and synthesized to answer the research questions and
deduce a research agenda. Webster and Watson show
that a successful literature review informs the reader
about the lessons learned and founded patterns [46].
Using a morphological box, a classification of the
collected literature is achieved (Table 7). This box is
developed according to the literature taxonomy of
Cooper [12], which was already introduced in the first
step of the literature review framework (Table 1). The
characteristics focus, goal, and audience are adopted
from Cooper [12], whereas the other two
characteristics type of literature and research method
are necessary adjustments according to Alavi and
Carlson [27]. The authors counted articles applying to
the categories in order to classify the literature. It is not
in the scope of this article to list all possible
characteristics and categories; only appropriate ones,
New ones
Results
AISeL
New ones
Results
New ones
Results
Science
Direct
Emerald
New ones
Results
New ones
Results
ProQuest
EBSCOhost
New ones
Results
991
374
9
77
ITSM Frameworks
Microsoft Operations Framework
MOF
IBM Tivoli Unified Process
ITUP
HP IT Service Management
HP ITSM
Sum
Total sum
AIS related and
affiliated
conferences +
HICSS.
Database
Search
2.4. Literature Analysis and Synthesis
IT Service Management
ITSM
IT Servicemanagement
Information Technology Service Management
ISO/IEC 20000
ISO 20000
BS 15000
Journal
Search
ƒ AISeL
Table 6. Considered databases and
corresponding results
Keyword
Conference
Search
61
1370
1368
applied approach which is particularly suitable for the
ITSM research. The first step is a short, welldocumented literature review, used to obtain an
overview of the existing literature. It is followed by an
initial investigation, where the scholars use surveys,
interviews, case studies, or action research to identify
the “real-life” problem. The third step then is the
development of a concept, framework, model, or
theory. Finally, an evaluation is necessary to test the
artifact from the previous step.
which were found during the literature review, are
shown. The listed categories were not mutually
exclusive. The research method others comprises
Workshops, Action Research, Narrative inquiry, and
Prototypes.
Table 7. Morphological box for literature
analysis
Characteristic
Categories
Research Outcomes
(192 / 47%)
Focus
Theories
(61 / 15%)
Integration
(126 / 48%)
Goal
Practices or Applications
(159 / 39%)
Identification of Central Issues
(136 / 52%)
Audience
Specialized Scholars
(224 / 48%)
General Scholars
(84 / 18%)
Practitioners
(161 / 34%)
Type of
Literature
Journal Articles
(75 / 29%)
Conference Proceedings
(147 / 58%)
Workshops
(33 / 13%)
Research
Method
Literature
Review
(49 / 14%)
Case Study
(82 / 23%)
Survey
(37 / 10%)
Interviews
(27 / 7%)
Conceptual
(141 / 39%)
Literature Review
Others
(25 / 7%)
Concept
Framework
Model
Theory
Evaluation
via
via
Survey
Interview
Case Study
Action Research
Case Study
Action Research
Figure 6. Recommended research approach
Table 7 shows the results for the different
characteristics. It is interesting to observe, that the
development of theories is underrepresented in the
field of IT Service Management. Around 15% of the
articles have developed or used common theories;
Cater-Steel et al., for example, applied the institutional
theory in their paper [7]. Furthermore, a keyword
analysis shows that IS researcher in this field have
applied theories such as the actor network theory, the
contingency theory, the interdisciplinary theory, the
organizational learning, and the stratified systems
theory.
The majority of the articles is about research
outcomes. Thus, the target audience of these articles is
mainly specialized scholars. And as IS scholars in this
field are dealing with the development of concepts,
frameworks, and models, the lion's share (39%) of
these articles are conceptual articles. The findings
about the development of theories, concepts,
frameworks, and models were also noticed by
Shahsavarani and Ji [37]. Some researchers used case
studies or action research to validate their concepts.
Further on, in only 14% of the papers literature review
is used as a research method. Where it is used, the
focus is often only on a specific topic and the literature
review is rarely well-documented. The authors often
found a 2-step process (Figure 5). The difficulty of this
approach is that the concept, framework, or model
comes from an idea instead from practice.
Concept
Framework
Model
Initial
Investigation
Table 7 exhibits that 10% of the researchers
performed surveys. Marrone and Kolbe conducted an
empirical study on benefits, challenges, and processes
of ITIL [30]. This is the only comprehensive study
about these ITIL topics. Its limitations are the
geographical focus on the USA and the UK, while at
the same time mainly large organizations took part of
the study. Therefore, future research might cover
further countries and SMEs (small and medium-sized
enterprises). At the end, a comparison with Marrone
and Kolbe [30] is suggested.
During literature analysis, the authors noticed that
the analysis of critical success factors (CSFs) was
limited to countries like Australia, Germany, Norway,
Switzerland, and the USA [24, 32, 40]. However, there
are many other countries like India or China that might
need to be examined for critical success factors as well.
Ghayekhloo et al. offer aspects from Iran [20], whereas
Kanapathy and Khan studied Malaysia [26]. This is
important because local conditions might exert
influence on critical success factors. Ghayekhloo et al.
show some local constraints such as “low speed of
internet, filtering, huge amount of holidays on, one
couldn't get expected service” [20]. Moreover, they
recognized that a good localization of software tools is
important. This raises the question whether there are
constraints in other countries, too. Another point is the
influence of company size on the critical success
factors. Marrone and Kolbe mentioned that their study
solely focuses on large organizations alone [30]. An
additional examination of SMEs might therefore reveal
further barriers or obstacles, which are not found in
large organizations.
Another finding is that the considered articles
show no comprehensive cost-benefit analysis for the
implementation of ITIL projects. Deutscher and Felden
noticed that process improvements cause costs [13].
Case Study
Figure 5. Observed research approach
For the development of more reliable concepts,
frameworks, models, and theories, the authors
recommend the following research approach that is
based on their observations. Figure 6 illustrates an
1371
1369
instrument for performance measurement and
management of IT organizations respectively [29].
Gacenga et al. specify a research gap in ITSM
performance measurement by “A review of the existing
empirical literature reveals a gap in research in ITSM
performance measurement” [18].
A new topic for the IT Service Management
appears on the horizon. The ITSM is often understood
as the change from a functional to a service- or
customer-orientated IT Organization. The next change
might be the turn towards business orientation. The
Business Service Management (BSM) is a process
centric view through the use of business process
metrics [21].
Moreover, a keyword analysis was performed in
order to obtain an advanced overview of the topics in
IT Service Management. By counting the keywords of
each contribution, the analysis shows a frequency
distribution. Table 8 shows only the grouped keywords
and the corresponding number of results. The whole
keyword table would exceed the page limitation of this
paper. Some contributions are not tagged with
keywords; therefore, the overall number of keywords is
lower than expected.
Hence, Deutscher and Felden presented a concept to
identify improvement opportunities using IT Service
Management frameworks [14]. Cater-Steel et al.
explained that the implementation of a process
improvement framework needs to be case dependent
[6]. Winniford et al. presented the barriers to IT
Service Management adoption in organizations [48].
According to their findings, around 47% stated that
ITSM costs too much (multiple answers were
possible). Therefore, the authors recommend
contributions which tackle the topics cost-benefit
analysis for ITSM projects and cost-benefit analysis for
ITSM process improvements.
Moreover, the analysis offers that there are no
contributions about cloud computing in respect of IT
Service Management. But, cloud computing can be
viewed as a new sourcing strategy of IT Service
Management. However, IT outsourcing together with
IT Service Management was already discussed in the
literature [34, 36, 43, 45]. In addition, the use of ITIL
to improve the data center operations has not been
extensively studied.
Furthermore, the analysis shows that a lot of
articles are dealing with ITIL and the corresponding
processes like incident management and service level
management [2, 31, 35, 39, 43]. Thereby, the authors
noticed that there is effectively no research about an
ITIL implementation approach, which based on
finished projects and best practices. In this context, the
investigation of differences between SMEs, large
enterprise, and the public sector are interesting.
The authors observed during the literature analysis
that the integration of ITIL respectively ITSM into
Information Systems curriculum is a topic for IS
scholars. Three ways of integration, lessons learned,
and teaching cases were described [3–5, 8, 10, 25, 47].
Only a few countries like Australia, Germany, the UK,
and the USA are covered by this research. Lessons
learned and teachings cases from other countries might
bring added value.
Due to the circumstance that the literature search
was driven by the specific terms (Table 3), a subset of
the results rather belongs to IT Governance because of
the articles’ focus on Control Objectives for
Information and related Technology (COBIT). In these
articles, IT Service Management is only mentioned in
passing or is used as comparison (ITIL/COBIT
mapping), respectively as supplement to COBIT
(integrated IT management framework). Furthermore,
analysis of the articles reveals that the demarcation
between IT Operation with ITIL as a common ITSM
framework and IT Governance with COBIT is not
explicit or sharp, but rather a fluent passage. Finally,
there are explicit IT Governance tools, such as the IT
Balanced Scorecard (IT BSC), which are used as an
Table 8. Keywords analysis results
Grouped keyword
ITSM Framework
ITSM
Governance
Service
Miscellaneous
Method
ITSM Process
Standard
Modeling
Service Science
SOA
Curriculum
Alignment
Knowledge
Software
Strategy
Target area
Theory
Value
Performance
Number of keywords
141
99
56
51
48
47
37
26
26
25
18
16
16
15
15
14
13
12
12
11
Grouped keyword
Maturity
Quality
Sourcing
Customer
Country
Ontology
Information
Organization
CSF
SLA
Other Frameworks
Review of decisions
Customization
Modularization
Risk
Reuse
Compliance
Benefits
Vendor
Sustainability
Number of keywords
11
10
10
10
7
7
6
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
3
2
2
2
2
2
3. Research Agenda
Starting from the preceding literature analysis and
synthesis, a research agenda is “comprised of sharper
and more insightful questions for future research” [44].
Thereby, the following agenda aims to answer the third
research question (What are potential areas of future
research?) by showing how research might continue.
The authors propose the following research steps,
which do not claim to be exhaustive (Figure 7):
1372
1370
IT Service Management and Data Centers
Empirical study on benefits, challenges, and processes
for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Investigation of CSFs for ITIL implementations
ITIL implementation approach based on best practices
Investigation of CSFs for ITIL implementations
IT Service Management Research
IT Service Management and Cloud Computing
Further investigation of critical success factors for
ITIL implementation in small and medium-sized
enterprises and other countries like India or China.
What are the main CSFs? Which barriers arise in the
context of SMEs? Which are the local constraints? [20,
40]
ITIL implementation approach based on best
practices
Investigation of the ITIL implementation in small
and medium-sized as well as large enterprises, and the
public sector. Starting with a review of finished
projects, interviews and case studies might be suitable
to identify: How was ITIL implemented? Who was
involved? How did the implementation project start?
Are there organizational- and sectional-specific
differences (private vs. public sector)?
Development of an ITIL implementation
approach, which shows how to implement ITIL in the
context of small and medium-sized as well as large
enterprises, and in the public sector.
Validation of this implementation approach via
case studies. Is this approach helpful and does this lead
to a successful ITIL implementation?
In addition, the literature analysis and synthesis
part of this paper show further areas for potential
research, like the IS curriculum. Because of the lack of
research, however, the authors propose to focus first on
the five topics above. [38]
Figure 7. Research agenda
IT Service Management and Cloud Computing
The influence of cloud computing on IT Service
Management, especially ITIL, might be studied using
case studies. What is the effect of cloud computing as a
new sourcing strategy on IT Service Management?
What are the changes and challenges in general and
which processes are affected? Are there differences
between the supplier and customer side? [41]
In the context of community and private clouds,
how can IT Service Management support the sourcing
strategy of data centers? Which processes are
necessary for the datacenter to implement in order to
be ready for cloud challenges like data privacy and
security? [16]
4. Related Works
IT Service Management and Data Centers
The authors found only one comparable
contribution during the literature search. A literature
review by Shahsavarani and Ji [37] investigated the
research in the field of IT Service Management. The
three main findings are: “1) there is generally a lack of
theoretically driven researches; 2) the field is still
developing with a growing number of published papers
dealing with the development of concepts, constructs,
models, methods and implementations for theory
development; 3) ITSM performance issues,
justifications, and IT Infrastructure Library topics are
among the most popular topics of research” [37]. These
outcomes are confirmed by the present work, although
this paper performed another search approach. The
approach in this paper is more extensive and delivers
more relevant articles. Moreover, this paper shows
other findings based on the considered articles. These
two articles complement each other and offer a holistic
view on the research field.
IT Service Management in the context of data
centers. How can ITIL be used to improve data center
specific operations? Which ITIL processes, concepts,
or ideas provide added value for data centers? How can
a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) be
implemented and maintained to address data center
needs? How can a data center use Service Portfolio
Management to develop new services? [17]
Empirical study on benefits, challenges, and
processes for small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs)
Continuation or realization of a survey with an
increased consideration of smaller IT organizations and
countries besides the USA and the UK according to the
limitations of Marrone and Kolbe [30]. Moreover, the
disadvantages and obstacles should be recorded as part
of the survey.
1373
1371
5. Conclusion
This article analyzed the body of knowledge in the
field of IT Service Management. Therefore, the authors
have conducted a structured literature review using a
proven framework. A total of 255 articles on IT
Service Management were analyzed. The authors were
able to answer the first two research questions (Which
topics were already treated in the literature? Which
theories are applied in IT Service Management?) by
searching, analyzing, and classifying the body of
knowledge in IT Service Management and the third
research question (What are potential areas of future
research?) by suggesting a research agenda. Thus, the
authors observed that a huge amount of articles handle
issues around the ITIL framework, were developing
concepts, but only few articles have used or developed
theories. Moreover, an extended research approach was
presented. The research agenda shows five topics for
future research, whereby the topics of cloud computing
and data centers relating to IT Service Management as
well as critical success factors for SMEs and the
development of an ITIL implementation approach were
proposed for further research.
Nevertheless, a critical appraisal is always
mandatory. Although this article is based on a rigorous
and comprehensible literature search, the authors
cannot guarantee for its completeness. The authors
know two major improvements which will be
considered in the next literature review respectively for
further research. On the one hand, two other types of
backward search might be considered: backward
authors search and previously used keywords.
Moreover, the level of the backward references search
might be extended. On the other hand, a forward author
search might be conducted to reveal more
contributions. In order to obtain more results from
forward as well as backward search, the researcher can
omit the limitation to conduct both kinds of search only
on the journal search results. One additional limitation
is the missing access to content found in Science
Direct. If this review was to be extended, it could be
done by updating the conducted searches with results
published after April 2012.
6. References
[1]
APMG,
http://www.itilofficialsite.com/InternationalActivities/ITILGlossaries_
2.aspx, accessed 6-4-2012.
[2] Arora, A. and W. Bandara, "IT Service Desk Process
Improvement - A Narrative Style Case Study", PACIS
2006 Proceedings(78), 2006.
[3] Bandara, W., J. Cornes, and M. Rosemann, "Business
Process Redesign in Information Technology Incident
Management: A Teaching case", ACIS 2005
Proceedings(22), 2005.
[4] Bentley, J., "Integration of ITIL into the IS Curriculum",
ACIS 2006 Proceedings(51), 2006.
[5] Cater-Steel, A. and M. Toleman, "The Role of
Universities in IT Service Management Education",
PACIS 2007 Proceedings(49), 2007.
[6] Cater-Steel, A., W.-G. Tan, and M. Toleman, "Challenge
of adopting multiple process improvement frameworks",
ECIS 2006 Proceedings(177), 2006.
[7] Cater-Steel, A., W.-G. Tan, and M. Toleman, "Using
Institutionalism as a Lens to Examine ITIL Adoption
and Diffusion", ACIS 2009 Proceedings(73), 2009.
[8] Cater-Steel, A., R. Zarnekow, and J. Wulf, "IT Service
Management In The Academic Curriculum: Comparing
An Australian And German Experience", PACIS 2011
Proceedings(33), 2011.
[9] Conger, S., "Information Technology Service
Management and Opportunities for Information Systems
Curricula", International Journal of Information Systems
in the Service Sector, 1(2), 2009, pp. 58–68.
[10] Conger, S., A. Urbaczewski, and R. Venkataraman, "IT
Services Management in the Curriculum: Challenges,
Realizations, and Lessons Learned", AMCIS 2010
Proceedings(465), 2010.
[11] Conger, S., M. Winniford, and L. Erickson-Harris,
"Service Management in Operations", AMCIS 2008
Proceedings(362), 2008.
[12] Cooper, H.M., "Organizing Knowledge Syntheses: A
Taxonomy of Literature Reviews", Knowledge in
Society, 1(1), 1988.
[13] Deutscher, J.-H. and C. Felden, "Model Concept to
Determine the Optimal Maturity of IT Service
Management Processes", Proceedings of the 8th
IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Computer and
Information Science, 2009, pp. 543–548.
[14] Deutscher, J.-H. and C. Felden, "20P. Concept for
Identification of Improvement Opportunities Provided
by ITSM Frameworks to Address Specific Needs of
Organizations", CONF-IRM 2010 Proceedings(44),
2010.
[15] Disterer, G., "ISO 20000 for IT", Business &
Information Systems Engineering, 1(6), 2009, pp. 463–
467.
[16] Drucker, P., "Self Service, the Cloud and ITSM… One
Big Happy Family?", At yor Service (itSMF), 2(1),
2012.
[17] Fry, M., "5 questions about ITSM and cloud
computing", Whitepaper, 2010.
[18] Gacenga, F., A. Cater-Steel, W.-G. Tan, and M.
Toleman, "IT Service Management: Towards a
Contingency Theory of Performance Measurement",
ICIS 2011 Proceedings(5), 2011.
[19] Galup, S.D., R. Dattero, J.J. Quan, and S. Conger, "An
overview of IT service management", Communications
of the ACM, 52(5), 2009, pp. 124–127.
[20] Ghayekhloo, S., M. Sedighi, R. Nassiri, G.L. Shabgahi,
and H.K. Tirkolaei, "Pathology of Organizations
Currently Implementing ITIL in Developing Countries",
ICCEE 2009 Proceedings, 2, 2009, pp. 7–10.
1374
1372
[21] Gyory, A., W. Brenner, and F. Uebernickel, "Finding
the Right Balanced Scorecard for Business-Driven IT
Management: A Literature Review", HICSS 2012
Proceedings, 2012, pp. 5023–5032.
[22] Hevner, A.R., S.T. March, J. Park, and S. Ram, "Design
Science in Information Systems Research", MIS
Quarterly, 28(1), 2004, pp. 75–105.
[23] Hubbert, E., "Market Overview: IT Service
Management Support Tools", Forrester Report, 2010.
[24] Iden, J. and L. Langeland, "Setting the Stage for a
Successful ITIL Adoption: A Delphi Study of IT
Experts in the Norwegian Armed Forces", Information
Systems Management, 27(2), 2010, pp. 103–112.
[25] Jarman, R., "Progress in Introducing ITIL into an
Information Systems Curriculum", AMCIS 2011
Proceedings(396), 2011.
[26] Kanapathy, K. and K.I. Khan, "Assessing the
Relationship between ITIL Implementation Progress
and Firm Size: Evidence from Malaysia", International
Journal of Business and Management, 7(2), 2012, pp.
194–199.
[27] M. Alavi, P.C., "A Review of MIS Research and
Disciplinary Development", Journal of Management
Information Systems, 8(4), 1992, pp. 45–62.
[28] M.J. Baker, "Writing a Literature Review", The
Marketing Review(1), 2000, pp. 219–247.
[29] Marcos, A.F., J.I. Rouyet, and A. Bosch, "An IT
Balance Scorecard Design under Service Management
Philosophy", HICSS 2012 Proceedings, 2012, pp. 4972–
4981.
[30] Marrone, M. and L.M. Kolbe, "Impact of IT Service
Management Frameworks on the IT Organization",
Business & Information Systems Engineering, 3(1),
2011, pp. 5–18.
[31] Muhren, W.J., G. van Den Eede, and B. van de Walle,
"Organizational Learning for the Incident Management
Process: Lessons from High Reliability Organizations",
ECIS 2007 Proceedings(65), 2007.
[32] Pollard, C. and A. Cater-Steel, "Justifications,
Strategies, and Critical Success Factors in Successful
ITIL Implementations in U.S. and Australian
Companies: An Exploratory Study", Information
Systems Management, 26(2), 2009, pp. 164–175.
[33] Pollard, C.E., D. Gupta, and J.W. Satzinger, "Teaching
Systems Development: A Compelling Case for
Integrating the SDLC with the ITSM Lifecycle",
Information Systems Management, 27(2), 2010, pp.
113–122.
[34] Ricardo, B. and M. Toleman, "Outsourcing IT: Views
from the Vendor's Side", ACIS 2003 Proceedings(38),
2003.
[35] Sauve, J., R. Santos, R. Reboucas, A. Moura, and C.
Bartolini, "Change Priority Determination in IT Service
Management Based on Risk Exposure", IEEE
Transactions on Network and Service Management,
5(3), 2008, pp. 178–187.
[36] Schermann, M., T. Böhmann, and H. Krcmar,
"Integration of IT services: Towards a pattern-based
approach for eliciting service integration requirements",
AMCIS 2006 Proceedings(312), 2006.
[37] Shahsavarani, N. and S. Ji, "Research in Information
Technology Service Management (ITSM): Theoretical
Foundation and Research Topic Perspectives", CONFIRM 2011 Proceedings(30), 2011.
[38] Spremic, M., Z. Zmirak, and K. Kraljevic, "IT and
Business Process Performance Management: Case
Study of ITIL Implementation in Finance Service
Industry", International Conference on Information
Technology Interfaces, 2008.
[39] Tamm, G. and R. Zarnekow, "Umsetzung eines ITILkonformen IT-Service-Support auf der Grundlage von
Web-Services", Wirtschaftsinformatik Proceedings
2005(34), 2005.
[40] Tan, W.-G., A. Cater-Steel, and M. Toleman,
"Implementing IT service management: a case study
focusing on critical success factors", The Journal of
Computer Information Systems, 50(2), 2009, pp. 1–12.
[41]
Tomoda,
K.,
http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/MAG/vol464/paper03.pdf, accessed 9-11-2012.
[42] Torraco, R.J., "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews:
Guidelines and Examples", Human Resource
Development Review, 4(3), 2005, pp. 356–367.
[43] Unterharnscheidt, P. and A. Kieninger, "Service Level
Management - Challenges and their Relevance from the
Customers' Point of View", AMCIS 2010
Proceedings(540), 2010.
[44] Vom Brocke, J., A. Simons, B. Niehaves, K. Reimer, R.
Plattfaut, and A. Cleven, "Reconstructing the giant: On
the importance of rigour in documenting the literature
search process", ECIS 2009 Proceedings(161), 2009.
[45] Wan, S.H. and Y.-H. Chan, "Improving service
management in outsourced IT operations", Journal of
Facilities Management, 5(3), 2007, pp. 188–204.
[46] Webster, J. and R.T. Watson, "Analyzing the Past to
Prepare for the Future: Writing a literature Review",
MIS Quarterly, 26(2), 2002, pp. 13–23.
[47] Whittleston, S., "IT Service Management Practices in
Education; a new breed of IT Professional Concept
Paper", UK Academy for Information Systems
Conference Proceedings 2009(51), 2009.
[48] Winniford, M., S. Conger, and L. Erickson-Harris,
"Confusion in the Ranks: IT Service Management
Practice and Terminology", Information Systems
Management, 26(2), 2009, pp. 153–163.
[49] Zorn, T., "Improving The Writing Of Literature Reviews
Through A Literature Integration Exercise", Business
Communication Quarterly, 69(2), 2006, pp. 172–183.
1375
1373