IT Service Management Forum

The IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) is an independent, internationally, not-for-profit organization of IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals worldwide.^[1] Around the operation of IT services the itSMF collects, develops and publishes “best practice”, supports education and training, discusses the development of ITSM tools, initiates advisory ideas about ITSM and held conventions. The itSMF is concerned with promoting ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), Best Practice in IT Service Management^[2] and has a strong interest in the international ISO/IEC 20000 standard. The itSMF publishes books covering various aspects of Service Management through a process of endorsing them as part of the itSMF Library. The itSMF is a brand and trademark with a focused vision and goal,^[3] which is often copied by partners,^[1] members, local chapters^[4] and other.

History

At the CCTA in UK starts 1986 the idea about a GITTIM - Government IT Infrastructure Management Method; that turned in ITIL. The program manager was John Stewart, who assigned Brian Johnson as responsible at CCTA site to create a user group, which was established in 1991 – the birth of itSMF. It was initially called the IT Infrastructure Management Forum (ITIMF). The change to itSMF was around 1994/5 in relation with the birth of the first “oversea” chapter in the Netherlands. The exact story was in this times not documented, but there is a blog^[5] with the remembers of Brian Johnson and Ivor Macfarlane.

The itSMF UK takes at this time the international coordination. With a growing number of national chapters a real international umbrella was needed. The itSMF International was created in 2004.^[6]

Context

Organizations in correlation with the work around ITIL:

• The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is part of the Efficiency and Reform Group of the Cabinet Office, a department of the Government of the United Kingdom.^[7] Primordial the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) was the name of the unit, which developed ITIL and established the itSMF. In 2000 it was subsumed into the OGC.
• The Stationery Office (TSO) is the privatized publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. TSO is the publisher of ITIL.
• Axelos is the official accreditor for qualifications based on their Best Practice guidance portfolio.
• ISACA is an international professional association, well known for COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) as framework for IT Management and IT Governance.^[8]

Topics beyond ITIL, which are part of the work in the itSMF, were:

• ISO/IEC 20000 - The international standard for organizations, which will show their performance in ITSM.
• ISO/IEC 15504, also known as SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination) - The international standard for capability in information technology process measured with a standard assessment method.

International Organization and Activities

In June 2008 there were 58 officially national itSMF Chapters^[9] worldwide. Collectively, they own the itSFM International as umbrella organization. Each chapter is a separate legal entity governed by the rules in the Chapter Agreement that is agreed by the chapters at the AGM. The national chapters offer their services around the membership for their members. The members in the national chapters were entire companies or individuals. The members are

• organizations, which are interested in ITSM and use ITIL, TOGAF, Cobit, ISO/IEC 20000 or similar, as a framework
• service provider, which are looking for a quality in providing their services for its customers
• training companies, which provides the standard course for ITIL, TOGAF, Cobit, ISO/IEC 20000 or other best practices and standards
• tool developer and supporter for all supporting ITSM such as incident and problem management, work flow tools, monitoring, service design, service portfolio, software distribution and other aspects of service management
• individuals and companies, which offers consulting in ITSM, TOGAF, Cobit, ISO/IEC 20000, ITIL or similar areas.

The itSMF International company consists of an Executive Board of six directors with a company secretary, registered in the UK.

Typical activities in the national chapters were:

• Conferences - Many national chapters offer their members an annually Conferences. They often include an exhibition. In addition the itSMF chapters were partner of conferences of other organizations (e.g. Gartner “Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit 2013” in Australia ^[10]).
• Events and knowledge exchange – There were regional events to discuss and work together about topics around ITSM, ITIL and more.^[11][12] For special interest groups were regular appointments for meetings.^[13][14] The special interest may by some industry, a single topic out of the ITIL or the relation to other organizations like the ISACA.
• Development and research – The collective development of white papers and publications are regular activities in the chapters.^[15][16] The work groups in the chapters acts even as collectors of information. The national glossaries of the ITIL are typical results of the work in the chapters.^[17] The chapters were even active in research. There were own studies or together with other, well known research organizations (e.g. “Drive Service Management Adjustments With Peer Comparisons”^[18] from the itSMF USA together with Forrester Research, Inc.)

The professionals aligned with the itSMF are requested speakers at conferences, member of discussions^[19] and publisher of books and white papers. In companies like IBM,^[20] HP,^[21] T-Systems^[22] and other communities around ITSM were established and interlinked with the itSMF.

National Chapters

The following list of some national chapters is taken for example to show individual activities.

itSMF Poland (PL)

itSMF Poland is actively involved in projects related to the statutory objectives. The most important of these include:

• creation of an English-Polish dictionary with ITIL definitions
• cooperation with Polish Committee for Standardization in standard ISO/IEC 20000 area

itSMF New Zealand (NZ)

The New Zealand chapter was founded 2005 is a registered and legal not for profit organization that was incorporated in Auckland. The chapter holds an annual conference.

itSMF Australia Inc (AU)

The Australia chapter was founded 1998 and operates as registered and legal business entity that was incorporated in Victoria; based in Melbourne. The chapter holds an annual conference – the 16th in 2013 – with the title “LEADit”. The chapter provides in five categories annual itSMF Industry Awards for Excellence in IT Service Management. For the member's a quarterly communique as “The itSMF Australia Bulletin” is printed.

itSMF Germany (DE – itSMF Deutschland e. V.)

The German chapter was founded 2001 in the constitution of a registered association (German: eingetragener Verein; e. V.). The daily operations is covered by an extra company, the itSMS GmbH, a 100 percent affiliate of the association. The board get supervision by an advisory board. The work groups develop and publish a list of books and position papers.^[16] The most productive group in count of published books is special interested group Public Sector (German: Öffentliche Verwaltung). There were three books about “ITIL in the Public Sector” (“ITIL in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung”^[23]), “Organization Model for the IT in the Public Sector” (“Organizationsmodell für die IT in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung”)^[24][25]) and “Service Level Management in the Public Sector” (“Service Level Management in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung”)^[26]). The work group about the alignment between CobiT and ITIL develop and publish in the second edition a detailed mapping for the both frameworks: “Praxis Reference Book ITIL-COBIT-Mapping” (“Praxishandbuch ITIL-COBIT-Mapping”). The position papers covers topics like Service Strategy, Cloud Computing, Mediation, Sourcing- und Outsourcing-Frameworks and Stability

Annually in December the chapter celebrates a two-day congress. Topics were provided in different formats with typical keynotes,^[27] four or five parallel user sessions, which presents three 20-minute-speeches in a row and a joint discussion, and some open world café discussions.

During the year typical two one day meetings were held – name itSMF Live! - with different, actual topics. A special event for the Public Sector is the event FIT-ÖV.^[28]

The chapter award since 2009 the ITSM project of the year. The first awarded project was “ITIL 2010” of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Germany).^[29]

itSMFsa South Africa

itSMF South Africa Logo

The itSMFsa Logo uses the national flag ball device devised for the itSMF 50th Chapter celebration in 2010. The Logo also employs the alternative definition of the 'black' for 'it' that was adopted by the itSMF in January 2010 in recognition of the importance of the growing Asian involvement in Service Management - the logo uses the principles of Feng shui to produce more harmony in the colours of the logo, reflecting the need for more harmony in the operation of the organization itself.

itSMF South Africa was the third chapter to be formed - after the itSMF UK and the itSMF NL.

itSMF UK

As founding chapter of the itSMF movement the itSMF UK takes a leading role. Beside a board it has established a staff team for operation.

The itSMF UK holds an annual conference with an associated exhibition. In 2012 the 21st conference took place in London with around 900 participants.^[30][31] The chapter provides some Service Management Awards: Outstanding Contribution to ITSM Service Management, Service Management Project of the Year, Service Innovation of the Year, Service Management Team of the Year and more.

There were six regional groups actual in place (December 2012(.^[11] Additionally there were five special interest groups^[13] dealing with Transition Management, Service Level Management, Continual Service Improvement, Problem Management and Service Design. The itSMF UK publish the magazine “Service Talk” and “eNews” as quarterly informations around ITSM. Books developed and published by the itSMF UK were the “ITIL Foundation Handbook (2011)”^[15] or the “Service Level Management - a Practitioner's Guide”, written by the itSMF UK SLM special interest group.

Notes