Page 375 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

3-166 CRC Handbook of Modern Telecommunications, Second Edition

On the other hand, ITIL cannot really cope with the versatility of IT services and the consequential
variety of viable approaches to IT service management. This is further aggravated by the rapid change
in the number and types of IT services. While in the 1980s operation of an IT service was a serious
and formal effort affordable only to huge and well-funded organizations like government agencies or
telecommunication companies, recently we have seen innovative IT services started after one night of
“hacking” on a PC in a college dormitory and evolving into billion-dollar businesses that practically
drive the Internet of today. Clearly, IT service management principles that apply to mainframes are not
applicable in today’s typical environments.
ITIL does not seem to be successful in responding these challenges; indeed, as many critics say, it
became rather indoctrinated (especially with release version 3) by merging into details and producing
lengthy documents that are less and less applicable to modern, high-quality IT services.

3.6.10.2 Matching ITIL to eTOM
As seen, eTOM and ITIL are frameworks with many similarities, and the confluence of IT and telecom-
munication technologies obviously raises the question of a possible coexistence of the two frameworks
at a telecommunication provider.
This topic has been researched and discussed actively, and many, often sharply different views have
emerged. Still there is an overwhelming consensus that as IT (including networking) serves as the tech-
nological basis of modern telecommunication services, the most useful and practically implementable
aspects of ITIL should be applied as the foundation of telecommunication operations specified by eTOM.
In short, eTOM is a business framework, while ITIL is a technology management framework.
The TeleManagement Forum itself has also started a working group to investigate ITIL—eTOM com-
pliance. This group created the document named Application Note V.: An Interim View of an Interpreter’s
Guide for eTOM and ITIL Practitioners (GB 921 V). This document provides and overview of mapping
eTOM and ITIL processes in both directions (Figure 3.6.3).
The essence of these mappings is described in Figure 3.6.3. The position of the ITIL bubbles reflects
the level of correlation: for example, the Service Configuration and Activation eTOM Level 2 process
is strongly related to Change Management and Release Management, while it is partially related to
Configuration Management.
The document also investigates mapping from another aspect and at a more detailed level: how certain
ITIL processes can be possibly implemented by eTOM level 3 process elements. Such an investigation
is available for three of the most typical ITIL processes: Change Management (for a software release),
Incident Management (infrastructure failure), and Customer Service Request for preapproved changes.
Although following two process structures simultaneously causes a number of potential conflicts
(e.g., naming, documentation patterns, process definitions), as the above-referenced examples demon-
strate, at least in some cases the two frameworks can coexist, delivering the added (albeit partially over-
lapping) advantages of both approaches.

3.6.11 Summary and Trends
The telecommunication industry has embraced the TMN model as a way to think logically about how
the business of a service provider is managed. The model itself is simple, although its implementation is
complex. The sheer number of standards now available that address the various interfaces among man-
agement systems sometimes makes it difficult to see and appreciate the big picture. These ITU standards
are mainly concentrated in the Element Management and Network Management Layers. They have been
developed from the bottom up, making it difficult to apply the standards as part of a business case. It is
also difficult to have a customer-centric focus.
eTOM is a holistic, business-driven approach to implementing support processes for service provid-
ers. It provides investment direction as well as development specifications needed to produce man-
agement systems. It starts with a layered model, but goes much further, to address concrete business