ITSM Articles

TOGAF Framework 101

TOGAF Framework 101: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Get Certified

This article looks at some TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) 101 essentials including: what it is, why organizations value the certification, its benefits, how to become qualified, and the three core ways that it can help both you and your business.
Bad ITSM Data Issues

Are Your ITSM Operations Suffering from Bad ITSM Data?

It’s time that we looked at the issue of bad data in IT service management – in this article, Mikko Juola covers a variety related topics from the impact of bad data on ITSM operations to what your organization should be doing about it.
ITSM Trends for 2019

The 5 Hottest ITSM Trends and Topics for 2019

Find out what ITSM professionals would like information on, and help with, in 2019 based on our recent reader poll; and get an idea of where the ITSM industry is looking, and potentially heading, in the year ahead. The results are relatively different to those of 2018!
Professionalism in ITSM

Professionalism in ITSM – What Really Matters

You wouldn’t let someone with only 10 hours experience in a flight simulator, a theory exam certificate, and no real practical flying experience, fly a commercial jet! So why do we hire people purely based on whether they have an ITIL Foundation certificate? We need more than qualifications and certifications.
DevOps and ITIL

DevOps and ITIL: Why DevOps Won’t Replace ITIL in ITSM

DevOps is not a replacement for ITIL, in fact DevOps can complement and enhance the ITIL framework by making the processes simpler and more automated. This article looks at why DevOps won’t replace ITIL, and how it could, and should, improve – and add more agility to – some ITIL processes.
Customer service

Customer Service is the Elephant in the Room of ITSM

In Aale Roos’ opinion, not a single ITSM framework, standard, or concept is really customer-centric in the sense that customer service would be an important element in it – and so here he asks “where are we, and where should we be, with customer service in ITSM?”
Maximizing the Value of IT Support

Maximizing the Value of New (and Existing) IT Support Capabilities

Service desks have already been struggling with the likes of chat and self-service, and now in the midst of all the hype surrounding the opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chatbots in particular – we have to ask: is the average service desk going to be successful with this new technology?
Selecting the Right IT Service Provider

IT Service Provider Selection – Choosing the Right One

Third-party IT service providers are plentiful – the obstacle is in choosing the right one and the right kind of services. To help, this article shares nine important criteria to consider to help steer your organization in the right direction.
People-Related Tips for ITSM

10 People-Related Tips for ITSM Success

Here Paul Wilkinson covers the things that can help IT organizations to traverse the people-related issues and barriers to success – sharing a list of 10 critical success factors, crafted as tips, for dealing with the ABC of IT. The only questions is: how much of this are you already doing?
Automation and Digital Transformation

Getting Process Automation and Digital Transformation Right

Automation of processes (across the organization) is something that should be treated very seriously and carefully – it can be dangerous when not properly implemented and/or defined. Here we look at the key requirements for, and benefits of, successful process automation (and digital transformation).
ITSM Topics for 2019

Which ITSM Topics Will Interest You, and Your Peers, in 2019?

Which IT service management (ITSM) topics would you like to see our content focus on in 2019? Please take our quick poll and then read on to find out more about a year in the life of ITSM.tools’ content and readership, and to see how we shaped our content plan around last year’s votes.
“I Want 100% Security!”

“I Want 100% Security!” – Improving Security, the Jedi Way

Does the information security world owe a huge debt to the wisdom of Star Wars? And is there a way to improve your organization’s security approach and posture using the wisdom of Jedi? Security authority Daniel Card explores.
Agile and ITSM

Bringing Agile and ITSM Together for Better IT and Business Outcomes

Here Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord provides insight into how service desk professionals can bring together the agile methodology and IT service management (ITSM) for increased value creation; and looks at the current uptake of Agile in ITSM referencing latest industry statistics.
Incident and Problem Management

What’s the Problem with Incident and Problem Management?

Here Aale Roos questions whether the combination of incident and problem management is an obsolete model, how risk management can help, and where Cynefin fits into the equation.
ITSM Future Readiness

ITSM Future Readiness – Please Take the 2019 Survey

Building off of our 2017 analysis, this article introduces a new ITSM.tools survey that we hope will help IT service management pros to better understand where the future of ITSM is heading and what they should be thinking about (and then doing).