At the end of my recent keynote presentation to the itSMF Poland, the question was asked: "how long does it take to implement ITIL V3?". This is not an uncommon question. I am probably getting this question asked on average two times per month. So I thought "let's create a post that answers this question once and for all... or not..."

As a good consultant's habit the answer to this question starts with: "it depends...". And there is a good reason for starting the answer this way; ITIL is not a cookbook that provides the same outcome regardless of where it is applied.

On the contrary ITIL provides a framework of building blocks and concepts that must be translated and implemented to each organization's unique collection of resources and capabilities. For example if the perfect organizational structure would exist, than everybody would already have it by now. And also every organization has a unique set of technologies/products to deliver and manage services with.

Even if all IT organizations would use the same resources (i.e. people, information, applications, infrastructure and financial capital) then the capablities (i.e. management, organization, processes and knowledge) which are applied to the resources would differentiate IT services (organizations) from each other.

Another point here is that ITIL is not rocket science. It often provides structure to activities you might already be doing today. So even if you have never heard of ITIL before, you can already be at a certain maturity/capability level. This provides you with a different starting point then when you are building a completely new organization from scratch.

So in other words the first steps to take are to determine where you are today (A) and were you want to be in the future (B). As IT organizations are at different capability/maturity levels and have different goals, the time it takes to get from A to B depends on your starting point and how long you want to travel.

For this purpose HP has some very good ITSM assessment services that help you to do a gap analysis and create a roadmap towards the future (I think I have earned by company bonus with this statement).

In addition chapter 5.2 of the ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement book provides some guidance on assessments as well. Interestingly the ITIL V3 books do not include a maturity model itself, but refer to other best practice frameworks such as CMMI.

Let me make a small side step here. There is an interesting difference between CMMI and ITIL; CMMI has process areas while ITIL has processes. CMMI process area have an expanding scope (read: more goals) at growing levels of maturity, while ITIL processes are described with a fixed scope (which you can see as the highest level of process maturity). 

Personaly I don't like the term maturity model for an IT organization, as it implies that you will always (strive to) reach the highest level as you get more mature. My suggestion is to use capability levels that build on each other.

Let's get back to the topic. So on the question "how long does it take to implement ITIL V3?" my answer would be "it depends on where you are today, where you want to be in the future and how much you are willing to invest in getting there". And I am not only talking about money here, also other topics like effort and willingness to adopt someone else's best practices play a role in this.

In general I think it is safe to say that it can take years to implement all ITIL V3 concepts starting from a greenfield situation. My best practice recommendation is to use projects that implement ITIL V3 concepts which are cost justified and deliver desired outcomes within periods of 3 to 6 months each.

So let me stop here and ask you: "how long did it take you to implement one or more ITIL V2 concepts? Which ones did you do?"

Regards,
Jeroen Bronkhorst