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Showing posts with the label Microsoft Operations Framework

Six Reasons to Read the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)

The Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) is a well written, meaningful, asset-rich framework that is often overlooked in favor of its higher profile cousins ITIL, Cobit and ISO/IEC 20000.   Unfortunately, the big "M" that stands in front of the framework has created the perception that MOF is only relevant to Microsoft environments.  Nothing could be further from the truth - Microsoft has invested a great deal of resource and effort in creating MOF intellectual property and assets - giving it all away for free for anyone, in any environment, that is interested in learning more.  In fact, Microsoft considers you a Microsoft customer if you are working at a desktop or laptop running a Microsof operating system. Microsoft's goal in developing MOF was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of IT service providers, thereby enabling those providers to get a better return on their infrastructure, applications and tools.   Here are six good reasons to consider learning

MOF's Question Based Guidance

During a discussion in a recent Intro to MOF class, we talked about some of the best practice guidance from MOF that we would use in our ITSM improvement initiatives.  We had an enthusiastic “YES” that the MOF question based guidance will be a most welcome addition in our toolkit.  Let’s talk a little bit about MOF and what this guidance entails. MOF is a Microsoft Solution Accelerator that helps integrate IT best practices, governance and risk, compliance, and team accountabilities for managing key functions across the IT service life cycle. In the documents, MOF provides scripted questions to help organizations drive service improvements by process or stage or activity. For example, the MOF Reliability Accelerator offers direction on understanding, setting targets and measuring IT service reliability. It addresses creating plans for the following areas:  Confidentiality Integrity Availability Continuity Capacity Here is an example of the question based guidance from MOF 4.0 w

MOF, ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000

Microsoft has recently published two interesting whitepapers mapping its Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) to ITIL V3 and ISO/IEC 20000: Cross Reference ITIL® V3 and MOF 4.0 Using MOF for ISO/IEC 20000 I have always been a big fan of MOF - it makes sense, is filled with question-based guidance and it's free. Microsoft has graciously provided free job aids, templates and whitepapers such as the ones referenced above. I like to think of MOF as "service management for the masses." As the whitepapers describe, MOF can be used to complement ITIL implementations and/or fulfill the minimum critical activities required for ISO/IEC 20000 certification. Frankly, MOF's biggest obstacle is the big "M" that sits in front of the framework. There is a common misconception that MOF only applies to environments that are heavily invested in Microsoft technologies. The truth is that the best practices in MOF apply to any environment. The guidance is very generic and is not