One of my passions with technology is learning more about Information Technology management. I have been managing IT’ for close to twenty years now but have never seen or experienced any form of formal IT management methodology and have pretty much figured things out as I went. This is probably because I have typically worked for small companies reporting into a Finance Director which is a useful and valuable  supporter to have in the business – however I hae never had direct experience of a dedicated IT mentor.

In accounting there are standard procedures, standard reports, and standard ways of working that are recognisable from one industry to another. The same could be true of Human Resources and other areas, however Information Technology does not seem to have one particular way of addressing this. The approach to IT can often be different depending on where you work. Perhaps it is because IT is still a relatively new kid on the block or perhaps because IT changes so frequently whilst the others tend to change more slowly and less dramatically.

I have been receiving weekly ITIL emails from Computer Associates  including their Fundamentals in IT Service Management documentation which I have been reading with great interest. The ITIL Service Management documentation focuses primarily on the issues of Service Support and Service Delivery, whilst recognising other areas such as Planning, Application Management, Infrastructure Management, Security Management, Administration including Budgeting.  There seems to be a lot of detail related ot ITIL documentation however much of it is focused on detailing fundamental ways of working which is really quite interesting.