In this era of outsourcing and increased regulatory oversight, IT leaders are being urged to implement process frameworks such asIT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) or Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT). Small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding ITIL too broad in scope, while COBIT is too narrow. SMEs selecting a process framework will find that the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) is a better fit.
ITIL Too Broad, COBIT Too Narrow
ITIL, developed in the late 1980s, has emerged as the de facto standard for service management. While ITIL catalogs the best practices for IT management, it is only a framework and lacks the needed tactical prescriptive guidance for implementation. Most IT organizations find that mapping existing processes and designing new ones requires ITIL consultants to help fill in the gaps between the theoretical and tactical.
