How did you become involved and how were you appointed?

I first heard about the role of Chief Architect from a colleague of mine in the IT service management industry who asked me if I would be interested in putting my name forward. I submitted my details not thinking I would be chosen and was surprised when I was asked to attend an interview.

The Chief Architect recruitment involved a very competitive process. My interview in September 2004 was in front of a select panel: the then Director of Best Practice at OGC (Tony Betts); Chief Editor of the Refresh; the President of the Institute of Service Management; the CEO of itSMF International.

As part of the interview I was asked to give a presentation on how I would improve the current ITIL. I indicated in my presentation that I thought one person alone was not able to decide improvements to the product, it needed to be done from the viewpoint of the international community. I felt that what was wanted was an international feel not a UK centric initiative.

It would appear OGC agreed as I got the job, I think my public sector background helped having been Director in IT Services in a Canadian government department responsible for 90,000 ITIL users.

Things moved quickly and in November 2004 I moved to Norwich, the location of OGC's office, to begin my six month contract to define the scope and development plan for the refresh of version 2. After the six months I was asked to stay on to see the plans through to their conclusion, over two years later I am still Chief Architect and have travelled all over the world spreading the Refresh message.

What does your role involve?

My role as Chief Architect has involved developing the project plans, which includes devising the funding model, scope, development plans and communication strategy. I have also assembled the various support teams from the community to give the project a truly open, consultative flavour and I have undertaken the public consultation, which in turn has developed the key requirements for updating ITIL. This has involved a very competitive recruitment process for the authors.

I am also responsible for ensuring alignment to the broader aspects of the project such as qualifications and standards. Ultimately I am accountable for the end product.

What is different about this Refresh?

There are significant changes in this approach to the refresh, which have introduced various complexities to the project.

This Refresh is more globally focused. Perhaps the key difference is that OGC have recognised that ITIL has become a globally used product and, as such, they have committed to ensuring the next version of ITIL reflects the needs of the global community. Although this has introduced complexities with regards to languages and the different users of ITIL, we have achieved the international viewpoint to date through the public consultation exercise.

We have a mammoth task ahead delivering one set of publications and also overhauling the content. ITIL version 2 publications were released a book at a time and when interest was shown in a specific subject. For version 3 we are delivering an entire product set in one hit. We are also working towards a completely restructured ITIL, utilising the lifecycle approach whilst trying to weave in content from version 2.

With past refreshes OGC have informally approached peers and asked them to be involved in the Refresh. With this Refresh we have undergone a competitive tendering process and then contracted paid authors, allowing us to stick to a tight timescale.

The visibility of the project has been enormous in terms of communication. The community has been kept informed every step of the way. This is something I was keen to ensure happened.

So why refresh ITIL?

Version 2 was developed in the late 1990s. Since this point IT has matured at a fast rate and with the new business approach and developments in technology it has meant that what was Best Practice is now probably "good practice" and as such we need to refresh ITIL to ensure it meets the needs of the community today.

Since the project began there has been a major initiative to outsource services. We learned that this needed to be addressed, there were gaps in the guidance, which needed to be plugged. The other element we needed to address was the shift to operate IT more like a business. The business was asking for business cases, wanting to see a return on investment in their IT services and this was something the community was crying out for which is not addressed in version 2.

So when did the project start?

The actual project began in November 2004 but we had been busy developing the project
plan since September that year.

Who is involved and what are their roles?

The Refresh board has changed over the past two years and with the Commercial Activities Recompetition (CAR) project we have had some recent additions.

In hierarchical order, we have the OGC, sponsors of the project who provide funding and the investment decisions for the project.

We then have the ITIL Refresh Development Programme Board, which comprises the following community sector representation:
» itSMFi – representing the major stakeholder groups
» Examinations boards EXIN, ISEB and more recently APMG – representing the qualification sector
» ISO 20000 – supporting alignment
» TSO – the official OGC publisher
» OGC's Jim Clinch as Chief Editor
» And me, Chief Architect.

Our role is to ensure the broader issues of alignment in terms of certification, examinations and standards are considered within the development.

Then there is the Editorial Board comprised of Jim Clinch, OGC and Chief Editor, myself as Chief Architect, Janine Eves and Christina Thomas, TSO as managing editors. The Editorial Board is supported by project coordination and technical support from TSO. We are charged with evolving work packages into publishable products. This Editorial Board has decision authority and accountability for the final content of each V3 product.

Reporting to the Editorial Board are the Author teams, 10 world class experts with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. Two author are assigned to each core
book along with two mentors fromthe ITSM community. They produce the actual content of the books.

These mentors are drawn from the ITIL Advisory Group (IAG) comprised of 35 members from a global IT service management stakeholder group. They support the project by reviewing and giving feedback on the approach, structure, direction and scope of the ITIL Refresh.

There are also the two ancillary teams: the Qualifications Board, formerly the ITIL Certification Management Board (ICMB), made up of stakeholders, itSMFi, ISEB, EXIN and now APMG to help ensure the alignment of the qualifications. Plus IPESC who OGC have asked to endorse the publications.

The newly appointed Communication and Marketing Team made up of TSO, itSMFi, OGC and APMG is responsible for ensuring the IT service management community is kept up to date with the developments on the Refresh. This newsletter is the first in a whole host of initiatives aimed at doing just that.

All in all it's a very large team all with different roles.

What is the role of itSMFi?

ItSMF played a major part in ITIL over these past 20 years acting as stewards and providing expertise.

They are intrinsically involved in the project. They are at the heart of the Refresh on the Development Board and have played a core part in the public consultation allowing us to reach the international community. itSMF have invited us to attend their various conferences and events allowing us to remain engaged with the IT service management community.

How can you be sure the needs of the community are met?

This is a very complex challenge as there is a broad spectrum of users from the novice to the experienced and we need to ensure we meet all users' requirements. As a result, it is key to this project to keep in touch with the community.

The results of the public consultation have allowed us to develop a set of prioritised revisions needed to meet with the demands of the community. This has become critical in relation to our key performance indicators, which we ensure we are delivering against every stage.

Our open development approach involving the whole community and our quality assurance process ensure we constantly meet the needs of the community.

Our open dialogue with the community in terms of presentations, communications and our extensive reach into the community over the last two years have been key to our success.

By the end of this year we will have presented to over 16,000 people on version 3. There have also been countless articles, interviews
and webcasts to ensure we are keeping the community up-to-date.

As I originally stated a little over two years ago in my interview presentation, no one person can deliver this, it's a globally used product and the refresh needs to be done from the viewpoint of the community.