Efficient IT Service Management

Recent studies show that 80% of the IT-related work consists of IT-Service Management. IT Service Management (ITSM) is costly, and plays a critical role in supporting and satisfying business requirements. However, a challenge is that this important service sector is considered as inefficient by the customers. Both academia and industry need a better knowledge of IT serve management work practice, and how it can be made more efficient and effective.

Start date: 2010-04-01

End date: 2013-03-31

Recent studies show that 80% of the IT-related work consists of IT-Service Management.. IT Service Management (ITSM) i.e. maintaining and operating an IT infrastructure (information infrastructure) is costly, and plays a critical role in supporting and satisfying business requirements. However, a challenge is that this important service sector is considered as inefficient by the customers. Both academia and industry need a better knowledge of IT serve management work practice, and how it can be made more efficient and effective. The IT work practice has existed more than 40 years, but IT service management, i.e. IT maintenance and IT operations, has mostly been ignored by IT research.

Questions that we wish to address in this project are:

How can the size and complexity of the maintenance object be described and measured?
How can the efficiency of ITSM be evaluated?
How can the effectiveness of ITSM be evaluated?
How can ITSM be governed in an innovative way to make it more efficient and effective?
What competencies are needed in order to make ITSM more effective and efficient?
How can the ITSM work practice be described and comprehended in a better way?

In order to answer the questions posed above, we have chosen a scientific approach based on three theoretical sources: work practice, evaluation, and service theory. It is based on a co-evaluative research approach and on a multi-stakeholder perspective. The idea with the project is to develop an evaluation method based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The method should be used as a tool and incentive for developing the IT Service Management sector in an innovative way. The evaluation methodology will be based on instrumental, conceptual and symbolic uses of the evaluation findings. However, it will especially acknowledge the process use that take place during the ongoing evaluation. This will help us to better understand and appreciate such evaluation processes for their capability to generate change. Another important goal with the project is to establish a network of partners, and a community on the internet, which will be used as a platform for knowledge distribution about evaluation, KPIs and best practices for IT-Service management.