FIREFIGHTING AND HEROICS TO PROCESS AND
PLANNING: STARTING UP AN ITIL INDUCED
ORGANIZATION
Beth Schaefer and Mark Rank | March 16, 2010
UW-MILWAUKEE
Enrollment
30,455
Undergraduate
25,239
Masters & Doctoral
5,216
Faculty & Staff
3,756
Central IT staff
125
IT student staff
175
Schools & Colleges
12
Programs:
Undergraduate
84
Masters
48
Doctoral
24
TODAY WE WILL BE COVERING

Our motivations

What are we doing now

Where we are going

The challenges we’ve faced
MOTIVATION

We had fires burning…




Off hours emergencies
Unstable infrastructure
New initiatives appearing out of no where
We threw up our hands and said “What are we
going to do to fix it”
DISRUPTIVE OPPORTUNITY

At the architecture level we were trying to
understand our current state, but we were
struggling with a framework

And then some staff went to an ITIL presentation
by George Spalding

A division wide Operations Team was being
formed
DISRUPTIVE OPPORTUNITY

Budgets were getting tight

Expected to "Do Less with Less" but to do things
with higher quality and effectiveness

Needed a framework to link requirements
engineering, project mgmt and strategic
communication efforts
WE HAD PARTS OF THE PICTURE

Architecture frameworks
 Project management best practices
 Requirements engineering
Operational aspects weren’t covered
 Needed a framework to tie things together

THE KICKOFF

A proposal was drafted in Feburary 2009 to
implement the ITSM/ITIL best practices framework

Proposal was circulated among the CIO
Leadership Team, Architecture Team and newly
created Operational Team
WHY ITIL?

There was not a systematic choice to use ITIL
 Local Peers started to implement ITIL
 ITIL V3 was a “Hot Topic" at the time
 "As good as anything to start with"
 “Drank the Kool-Aid”
HOW WE ORGANIZED THE EFFORT

Played the ITIL "Hot Potato" game with
Leadership teams

Ended up forming coordination team composed of
a few members from the leadership teams

Decision to have a “managed organic” process
WHERE WE STARTED

Identified three items that we were already doing
that were ITIL'ish to start the conversation

Introduction of the topic at all staff meetings

Waves of ITIL online orientation

Feedback sessions after the orientation
 Got the manuals so people could start reading
WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW

Service Catalog/Service Portfolio

First steps at basic portfolio management

First steps at service design

First steps at change management (Change
Advisory Documents)
WHERE ARE WE GOING

Better basis for gathering metrics

Process for new services and retirement of old

Gaining better communication within the campus
community about our services

Framework with project management,
requirements gathering and ITIL
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE CHALLENGES

Managing the amount of change




Keeping it in the bounds of what can be accepted
Iterating processes without frustrating staff
Getting enough people oriented to the terminology,
concepts and definitions
Giving already overcommitted staff time to follow through
on new initiatives
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE CHALLENGES

Changing the culture


"Rewarding fire fighting" to "Rewarding successful
service management”
Chicken and egg problem of service catalog and
portfolio


Deciding what should initially be defined
Defining service owners
LESSONS LEARNED SO FAR

Figure out who will coordinate early
 Introduce the concepts and listen for feedback,
especially from any training or orientation
 Start to use the terminology as soon as possible
 Have a basic portfolio management process from
the start, even if you don’t have a portfolio
QUESTIONS TO ASK

Why do you want to implement ITIL?

What are the goals you are trying to accomplish?

Where can you can a quick win for your
organization?

What are the processes you have already for a
base to start with?
QUESTIONS
beths@uwm.edu
rankm@uwm.edu
THANK YOU