Hank Marquis has an excellent article in the DITY newsletter describing the changes. 

In case you missed it, Microsoft has updated the MOF Self Assessment tool. 

Tool Overview

The Microsoft Operations Framework Self-Assessment Tool is based on the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices. It guides you through the development of a detailed problem-and-impact analysis of a targeted IT service or operational process. This tool is designed to enable you to:

•	Better understand the effectiveness of the IT services and processes in your organization.
•	Define a specific problem or opportunity regarding your IT services and/or processes
•	Identify a variety of follow-up actions based on information you provide.

Once you complete a 15- to 20-minute assessment, you receive a detailed report including the assessment data, a problem statement, a summary of impacts on the organization, and a customized next-step list of recommendations to help remediate the identified problem.

On this site are links to concepts, training, products, forums, and more.

• IT Portfolios and Business Agility
• Enterprise Architecture as Strategy
• IT Risk and Oversight
• IT Governance and Leadership
• IT-Enabled Change: The Human Dimension

For those with an IT governance focus, these classes are a must.  It is by far the best training, from an IT mgmt perspective, that I have attended.  The classes were very well structured with pertinent and dynamic guest speakers including:

• Jeff Sampler, Oxford University
• Rob Cohen, Vice President of Information Systems & Chief Information Officer, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
• James Cash, Board Member, GE, Microsoft, Wal-Mart
• Pat Hewlett, Chief Information Officer, Exxon Mobil
• Omar Baig, Senior Information Officer, International Finance Corporation
• Martin Curley, Director, IT Innovation, Intel Corporation
• John Petrey, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, TD Banknorth
• John Cross, Former Group CIO, British Petroleum

In addition to the guest speakers, there is a wealth of information presented by:

• Peter Weill, Director, CISR & Senior Research Scientist
• Jeanne Ross, Principle Research Scientist
• George Westerman, Research Scientist

Kudos to Peter, Jeanne, and George.  They provided some excellent information that I highly recommend.  I will be summarizing and posting more on specific learnings in future posts.

“Get the hands-on guidance you need to understand how to work with the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), Version 4. MSF is a deliberate and disciplined approach to technology projects based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, guidelines, and proven practices from Microsoft. MSF has a long history of helping teams and organizations become more successful in delivering business-driven technology solutions to their customers.”

“In February 2004, Microsoft consultants descended on ACC’s operations center for a one-week assessment of help-desk procedures for managing problems, changes, configurations and upgrades. The Microsoft team then issued a report, 10 percent of which was a snapshot of observations and 90 percent of which offered recommendations the command could act on.  Center officials immediately started implementing the recommendations, and their work continues. Among the improvements:

• IT managers are better able to identify and prioritize resources for the most critical IT infrastructure problems.
• Managers can track relationships between system changes and network availability.
• A formalized process now exists for requesting, analyzing and approving configuration changes.

What can MOF do for you?

You can find the list by clicking here.

The goal of the MOF Continuous Improvement Roadmap (CIR) is to make this continuous improvement actionable and achievable to help ensure that you are successful with process changes to IT operations.

In addition, the MOF CIR assists IT service management staff by identifying areas of improvement based on business value, impact on IT personnel, and the ability to gain a “quick win” versus a long term improvement project.  Once these areas have been identified, then the CIR prescribes concise direction for focusing your service improvement efforts where they can benefit you the most.

The MOF CIR  is based on the best practice guidance contained in MOF version 3, and is positioned for compatibility with future releases of MOF and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It has three distinct components:

1. MOF Service Management Assessment

2. MOF Service Improvement Program (SIP)

3. MOF Service Management Guidance

In case you are unfamiliar with DCM, this solution will allow you to automate the validation of configuration management data that you are collecting with SMS.  DCM also ties into Service Monitoring and Control by utilizing MOM to alert on any “out of compliance” items.

From the documentation, “Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) enables you to author desired configuration manifests, and to monitor and report on compliance of your computers against a desired configuration. DCM strengthens the Microsoft systems management platform by checking for undesired configuration changes across multiple configuration sources.”

It mentions that some in government circles “are finding that ITIL is renewing the focus on serving customers needs. The consolidation movement sweeping the nation would be utterly pointless if it didn't improve the functions of an organization. And in government, the primary function is serving the public.”

If you are new to ITIL and why this is becoming such a hot topic, this article is a good starting point.