Dynamic lifecycle management of IT services in corporate information systems

Abstract

In information technology (IT), a serious problem is the lack of a single integrated, logically consistent model of the corporate information system that has been adopted by business and by the IT community. Numerous publications on this subject provide only a qualitative idea of the individual components within the corporate information system: the business pro� cesses and their simulation; the design of systems for implementation of the business processes; and the corresponding technologies for software development. There are considerably fewer publications regarding the simulation and design of dataprocessing centers, the introduction of information systems, and the orga� nization of corporate IT services. The lack of a generally accepted integrated model of the corporate information system does not mean that there are no efficiently operating IT organiza� tions. However, it means that the operation of most such organizations is far from perfect and is accompa� nied by unproductive discussions of the value of IT services to corporations; raiding of the IT budget by top management; disorganized system development and introduction; poor organizational structure of the IT services; the lack of highquality models of hard� ware operation in dataprocessing centers; and defec� tive IToutsourcing decisions. The fundamental concepts that permit the integra� tion of the basic IT components into a single logically consistent model of the corporate information system include business service, IT service, and service lifecy� cle. The concepts of service and its lifecycle permit satisfactory representation of the operation of the cor� porate information system as a logical sequence of processes and functions and provide the basis of the effective solution of many pressing IT problems. They also clarify the relation between the business and IT and, correspondingly, clarify such concepts at IT strat� egy, IT investment, and IT outsourcing. Thus, the methodology of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) is based on the concepts of service and the lifecycle of service and its stages, as well as description of processes and functions intrinsic to each stage—from notification by the business that a service is required to its implementation. These con� cepts have been introduced in the third version of the ITIL library (2007) (1). We now outline the basic principles of the control model for ITIL services.