Dear Bob … In response to Initiatives si. Fads no: The best way to manage IT is by using ITIL. ITIL breaks down all the different things that must be done into smaller easier to use functions. I have helped several organizations change from a shoot-from-the-nip/Fire Stomping mentality to a somewhat more in-control organization. It works!! Everyone in the IT field has a part to play in one of the ar Dear Bob …In response to Initiatives si. Fads no:The best way to manage IT is by using ITIL. ITIL breaks down all the different things that must be done into smaller easier to use functions. I have helped several organizations change from a shoot-from-the-nip/Fire Stomping mentality to a somewhat more in-control organization. It works!! Everyone in the IT field has a part to play in one of the areas of ITIL. Service Level Management Incident Management Problem Management Change Management Disaster Recovery Help Desk/Service Desk Release Management Configuration Management Capacity Management Financial Management Availability Management Security Management The hardest part is to change the way they do business. “No you can’t just throw that patch on that server!!!!” – ITIL AdvocateDear Advocate …I have a lot of respect for ITIL, but don’t give it a blanket endorsement, for a few reasons. (I also have to say, I have only a lay understanding of it, so it’s entirely possible some of what follows is based on a misreading. If so, please make me smarter about it.) First, ITIL is a process model of IT, and like all process models it’s inherently incomplete. Our own IT Organizational Performance Framework includes both process and four non-process categories of performance drivers, and please believe me, many of the non-process drivers are absolutely essential.Second, it fails to distinguish between support for IT infrastructure technologies and support for personal technologies. While many of the processes needed to support these two categories are similar, the latter has a social impact on the enterprise that’s entirely distinct from the former, resulting in a need for a different kind of treatment. The short version: How you support personal technologies has a colossal impact on the business/IT relationship – one of the most important (non-process) drivers of IT organizational performance.And finally, ITIL just doesn’t scale down very well. As a categorization scheme it’s fine – small IT shops still need configuration management, version management, patch management, capacity management, performance management and all the other processes ITIL catalogs. But the specifics of how they should be managed, both in terms of the steps to follow and the overall formality, varies greatly with organizational size and culture. At least, that’s my read on it. Let me know where I’m off-base.– Bob ——– Technology Industry