We often get asked, "what is the best ITSM Team Structure?". Is it an ITIL PMO? An ITSM Center of Excellence? An ITSM Program Office?
In our opinion, the best way to organize your team is under the umbrella of a Service Management Office (or Enterprise Service Management Office in larger organizations).
The Service Management Office (or SMO for short) is the ultimate service management organization structure.
The SMO combines specialized skills to perform a broad range of service management activities and ITSM software implementation. Key roles include:
- Service Management Director
- Process Owners
- Process Managers
- Process Designers
- Business Analysts
- ITSM Tool Specialists
The SMO, depending on your company's size and culture, can adopt either a centralized or decentralized (matrix) structure. Learn more about the Service Management Office.
Either way, the SMO is responsible for the following ITSM activities.
Service Management Activities
- Establishing a process design approach
- Choosing process design software
- Designing, documenting, and implementing ITSM processes
- Developing a service management architecture
- Selecting and implementing ITSM tools
- Process governance
- Continual process improvement
- ITSM training
- ITSM / ITIL Implementation
ITSM Software Implementation
We've seen many examples where the people responsible for ITSM software implementation are not part of the Service Management office. This oversight results in a disconnect between process requirements and what gets implemented.
Watch this webinar on how Columbia has implemented their SMO.
The best practice is to include the ITSM platform team as part of the Service management office.
Bottom Line: We believe that the optimal ITSM Team Structure is a Service Management Office. The SMO is your focal point for all things ITSM, including; process design, implementation, governance, and continual improvement.
Originally published Oct 26, 2018 13:21 PM, updated Jun 2, 2022
