Challenges in adapting ITIL in it service management: An explanatory study

Difficulties faced in maintaining the ITIL based service desk within the scope of IT service management are investigated in this thesis. The literature reports need for a guide, such as ITIL in IT service management. However, to our knowledge, there are limited studies focusing on the adaptation problems of the ITIL to the daily needs of institutions. In fact, many problems are experienced in the implementation and maintenance of ITIL processes in IT departments even when a service management software system is used. Hence, the challenges experienced by the IT departments of universities in the formal management of IT services under the guidance of ITIL V3 including processes of incident, request and problem, are discussed in this thesis. To overcome these problems, ITIL awareness should be created within an organization, primarily. In addition, continuous improvement should be considered since demands change over time. Difficulties are found in IT service management underpinned by ITIL V3 guidance. However, upgrading to higher versions will not be easy and doing so could bring other problems. Lack of ITIL knowledge has also been found in institutions. Therefore, in addition to the requirement for appropriate IT service management tools and continuous user trainings for these tools, role-based trainings should be taken and superior management support is needed. Experiences in service management, especially the ITIL service desk process, were highlighted with this study. Findings recommend ITIL be adapted to the corporate culture and that IT service management take a holistic approach. Limitations of the study include the financial and legal aspects. As conclusion, the challenges faced in adoption an ITIL-based service desk are caused mainly by users' lack of knowledge of the framework and not by ITIL itself. Keywords: Service Desk, Incident, Request, Problem, Knowledge Base