As usual, this post was inspired by a LinkedIn question. Somebody asked about the need for ITSM tooling certification specifically aligned to ITIL. I talk too much for the post character count so here it is 🙂

There have been many tools over the years. Some of them have been excellent, and some not so much. However, this post is not intended to differentiate between those or promote/malign.

I guess my key question here is why are we focused on tools that align to a framework? My thinking is the burning need for alignment is broadly speaking one of these:

• A desire to proclaim that your tool set is ITIL aligned
• A misunderstanding that a competent tool will fix the problems in your current processes
• A misunderstanding that deploying the tool will immediately make you an ITIL organisation
• A misunderstanding that ITIL compliance is a thing
• A misunderstanding that gluing yourself purely to ITIL without considering the value of other approaches means ‘you got this’

The reality is that if you want to derive proper value from your tooling investment, the correct question is not what can it do. Instead, ask more how can it do it and what other value can I derive from it?

As an example, there is a tool on the market that has an asset management/CMDB capability. The capability in question is not specifically designed for that. However, its wider functionality is based on relationships. Therefore, it can be tailored for that purpose. Its added value is that it is not boxed in by ITIL process. It can be used for any business process where relationships between components are required.

If you require specific ITIL driven outputs then of course you must verify the tooling can do this. However this doesnt necessarily have to be a ticklist of ITIL functions vs sales blurb.

My personal preferences when looking at tools would be:

• Does the tool address one or more identified business needs / issues / pain points
• Is it easy to deploy – do we need squadrons of project people or is it click and run / templated
• Is it easy to maintain – can we do it in house or is it a dark art that requires epic amounts of cost
• Is it easy to use – is it user friendly both from an end user and support personnel perspective
• Is it scalable – Can I grow the system (and shrink it!) if required without a major overhaul
• Is it resilent – Does it offer a genuine resilience solution (not hover over an SQL snapshot and pray)
• ROI – Back to point one, if it costs significantly more than it saves why are you doing it?

There is nothing wrong with wanting tools to enhance, automate or generally increase flow in your service delivery. There is also nothing intrinsically wrong with looking at tools that are ITIL aligned. The key point is to ensure that you are doing it for the right reason, focussing on the right drivers and making your assessment looking through the correct lens.