The book “Designing and Transforming IT Organizations is chosen “Book of the month 2013″ by itSMF Denmark. Reviewer is Michael Imhoff Nielsen, President at itSMF Danmark, Publications Committee. The article in Danish is on the itSMF Denmark web page (click), the same article in English is here:

January 2013
By Michael Imhoff Nielsen, Publications Committee

 

In January, we have chosen a new book with the title “Designing and Transforming IT Organizations” by Job ten Hagen from The Netherlands. The book is published by TSO. Among the reviewers you will find Ulla Zeeberg from the competence development committee of itSMF Denmark.

 

The book addresses the “people” P. One P of the four P’s of ITIL. *) This “P” is neglected in many ITSM projects and the focus is often Processes and Products.
This topic is also only sporadic dealt with and spread out in the existing ITSM and ITIL literature. In this book ten Hagen successfully assembles the entire area including organization, positions, roles and responsibilities.
There are Of course references to ITIL books, but also to ABC, Kotter, CMMI and other well known frameworks and methods.

 

The book is divided into the following sections for the 220 pages:

  • Chapter 1: Context
  • Chapter 2: Organization
  • Chapter 3: Roles
  • Chapter 4: Accountability
    Chapter 5: Human Factors
  • Chapter 6: Governance
  • Chapter 7: Organization development and design
  • Chapter 8: Example: organization are improvement using teams
  • Chapter 9: Organization change
  • Chapter 10: Implementation approach to ITSM

All in all relevant areas, presented in the right context with good examples and suggestions for practical implementation with one very important message: Do not attempt to define processes and assign roles in processes before the organization is defined.

 

If this makes you curious, you can find more information on the book at http://www.designing-it-organizations.com/ including a teaser with contents, the first chapter, index and references.

 

The book is the first in a series on this area. Future titles will include:

  • Roles and Responsibilities in Service Level Management
  • Roles and Responsibilities in Incident Management
  • Roles and Responsibilities in Application Management

The Publication Committee looks forward to these titles. We’d love to hear from you if you have read the book or if you have questions.

 

*) According to ITIL applies it to balance the so-called four Ps when implementing Service Management.
The four Ps are:

  •  1st P rocesses
  • 2nd P eople
  • 3rd P roducts / Technology
  • 4th P artners / Suppliers.

Click for homepage and a SAMPLE of the book