Exploring the Relationship between Information Technology Infrastructure Library and Process Management: Theory Development and Empirical Testing

This paper investigates whether information technology (IT) departments that implement the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes also employ process management. This is a pertinent issue, as ITIL not only implies a time-limited program for redesigning vital IT processes according to best practices but a complete transformation to ITIL also implies that processes are managed on a daily basis. Without process management, ITIL will not be a success beyond its initial implementation. A survey of 444 Nordic ITIL experts was conducted to examine if there is a correlation between the implementation of ITIL processes and process management. The results are unambiguous and promising for sustainable success; firms that are implementing ITIL are also implementing process management. The results show that the level of process management increases as the implementation status of the ITIL processes increases. The relationship is strongest for process documentation, process monitoring, and process certification, and weakest for process improvement and process ownership. Overall, however, IT departments are still in an early stage with their ITIL and process management implementations. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.