CHIPS Articles: Fleet Cyber Command Establishes Enterprise Information Technology Service Management Governance

While the ITSMO's efforts are currently focused on coordinating and governing the NEN Program Office's ITSM efforts for the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), the partnership formalizes a critical relationship between network operations and an IT acquisition program and represents a significant milestone and shift in culture for management of Navy IT networks.

The Navy's IT networks are vital to enabling traditional business and administrative functions, and more importantly, executing the warfighting and national security mission. As such, greater visibility and control of the Navy’s IT networks and resources are required to make informed decisions concerning the employment of those resources and, ultimately, to optimize the value to fleet operational missions.

Increased visibility and control requires enhanced IT governance and increased government roles and responsibilities. Historically, management and governance of Navy IT networks and services have been shared among multiple, often independent, government organizations, acquisition programs and vendors. This impedes enterprise visibility and control of networks and resources, creates gaps or conflicts in accountability for critical IT functions, limits enterprise-level interoperability across programs and systems, and contributes to operational inefficiencies and increased management costs.

To address these challenges, provide a structured approach to enterprise governance and ITSM, and ensure alignment between IT services and fleet operational missions, FLTCYBERCOM partnered with Naval Enterprise Networks to stand up the Navy Enterprise ITSMO.

"Establishing an enterprise-wide IT governance framework will enable the government to achieve our goals of gaining situational awareness and command and control over our networks," said Mr. Eric Markland, FLTCYBERCOM deputy CIO for enterprise architecture.

Enterprise ITSMO Vision, Mission and Goals

The ITSMO's vision for Navy IT is to establish a mission-focused, integrated set of IT functions and supporting competencies that deliver optimal value to the Navy missions they support. To accomplish this, the ITSMO is championing the adoption of a comprehensive ITSM framework based on industry and government best practices and international standards, including COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies), ISO 20000 and 38500, and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library known as ITILv3.

This framework will clearly define the enterprise-level IT management policies, standards, processes, roles and responsibilities required to inform and guide IT acquisition programs and service management initiatives.

When asked about the impact of the ITSMO's efforts, ITSMO's chairman, Lt. Cmdr. Todd Glidden, said, “In order to foster standardization of ITSM architecture, we needed to adopt controls and develop an ITSM reference architectural model and tool kit, which can be used by process design teams across the enterprise.”

This framework is consistent with the DoD Enterprise Service Management Framework (DESMF) and serves as a key enabler to Navy's Naval Networking Environment (NNE) and Joint Information Environment (JIE) strategies.

As chartered by Mr. Markland and NEN Program Manager Capt. Shawn P. Hendricks, the ITSMO's mission is “to coordinate and govern the development and execution of a customer-focused, enterprise-wide approach to IT service management that drives improved service quality and interoperability across Navy enterprise networks to support the Department of the Navy (DON) information management (IM)/IT strategic goals and efficiency initiatives.”

The ITSMO's key goal "is to ensure that IT services delivered to IT customers are fit for purpose, stable, reliable and fully support the Navy’s mission and business needs."

Today, in addition to chairman Lt. Cmdr. Todd Glidden of FLTCYBERCOM, the ITSMO consists of principal membership from the FLTCYBERCOM office of the CIO, NEN Program Office and Naval Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM). Adjunct membership also includes representation from U.S. Marine Corps Enterprise IT Service Management (E-ITSM); Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command (NCDOC); Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR); SPAWAR Systems Centers Atlantic and Pacific; ONE-NET; Echelon II Contract Technical Representatives (CTRs); the Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program office; U.S. Fleet Forces Command; and U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Core office functions include: Governance, Architecture and Integration, Quality Management, and Strategic Communications. Governance is foundational to the office, and in its role as the ITSMO Governance Board, the board is charged with overseeing and aligning command and program-level ITSM initiatives and resources.

The board meets monthly to provide direction, facilitate decision making, and charter subordinate ITSM governance boards, including the Process and Service Owners Councils. Architecture and Integration (A&I) is focused on the development and management of an enterprise ITSM reference architecture and supporting standards. The A&I team conducts architecture reviews with ITSM design and implementation teams and facilitates integration and prioritization of ITSM initiatives to ensure interoperability.

The Quality Management function is working to establish a quality management system that defines the approach and methodology for achieving quality in all provisions of services and processes across Navy ITSM initiatives.

Strategic Communications manages communications with members, stakeholders and governance bodies. This function is focused on development of training and awareness programs and facilitation of ITSM team mentoring and training.

NEN ITSM Efforts Underway

In May 2012, the NEN Program Office released the NGEN Transport and Enterprise Services request for proposal (RFP) that establishes the Navy’s acquisition approach for NGEN. In preparation for the development and release of the RFP, NETWARCOM developed the NGEN NetOps Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and Strategy for Network Command and Control (C2) over the the Navy’s portion of the Global Information Grid (NAVGIG). These documents formalize the Navy’s strategy and framework for the government to achieve increased operational control of NGEN. With added control, the government increases its responsibilities for service management and delivery. FLTCYBERCOM and the NEN Program Office have acknowledged that this shift in responsibility requires the Navy to develop and establish an effective, skilled ITSM workforce.

The ITSMO has made significant progress supporting NGEN government operational readiness (GOR) efforts focused on the development and implementation of critical ITSM competencies and capabilities. Notable progress includes the development and establishment of ITSM governance, reference architecture, standards, and supporting resources, including subject matter expert support, training and design guidance, as well as tools and templates.

The ITSMO successfully launched the ITSMO Governance Board, designated NGEN ITSM "Process Owners" and chartered the ITSM Process Owners Council. The ITSM PO Council serves as the central coordination forum for Process Owners to correct cross-process issues and risks affecting delivery and quality of IT services, as well as issues caused by internal or external service providers. The Process Owner is a critical role that is accountable for the proper design, execution and continual improvement of an ITSM process and holds the responsibility and executive authority for the overall process results across the enterprise.

The ITSMO is actively drafting and evaluating charters for the ITSM Service Owner Council and Tools Advisory Group. The ITSM Service Owner Council is responsible for coordinating and governing IT service ownership. The "Service Owner" is accountable for the proper design, execution, and improvement of one or more IT services and holds the responsibility and executive authority for all aspects of the end-to-end strategic management of the service throughout its entire lifecycle. The Tools Advisory Group is responsible for guiding decisions concerning the identification and fulfillment of ITSM tools and technology requirements.

The ITSMO also developed, signed and promulgated an architecture policy directing consistency and alignment with the NGEN ITSM reference architecture — the Navy NGEN Process Definition Model (NNPDM). The ITSMO has conducted numerous architecture reviews with NGEN government operational readiness ITSM design teams and provided meaningful feedback and guidance to ensure compliance with standards, consistency across design efforts and products, and alignment with the NNPDM.

ITSMO Way Ahead

As described in its charter, the ITSMO is charged with developing and executing an enterprise-wide approach to ITSM that enables standardization and operational efficiency across Navy IT organizations and programs. To do that, additional levels of governance above the ITSMO are required to empower the ITSMO to extend its reach beyond NGEN and across Navy organizational and program boundaries.

Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) Adm. Mark Ferguson said, “We no longer have the resources to let each command optimize their organization at the expense of the enterprise. We need to develop and implement a governance model that controls the number of decentralized decisions at lower levels in our organizations that are producing sub-optimal outcomes and higher transactional costs.”

In addition to continuing to provide support and guidance to NGEN transition efforts in the near-term, the ITSMO is developing a comprehensive Enterprise ITSM Governance Model to help drive consistency and alignment beyond NGEN to other IT networks, acquisition programs, and efficiency initiatives, including, but not limited to, ONE-NET, CANES, E-ITSM, and the Department of the Navy's Data Center Consolidation effort.

The ITMSO is also exploring the development of a Naval Networking Environment Process Reference Model to serve as the single, authoritative reference model for all Navy ITSM efforts across the enterprise.

Eric Markland is the Fleet Cyber Command deputy CIO for enterprise architecture.

ITSMO Contact Information & Inquiries - Lt. Cmdr. Todd Glidden: todd.glidden@navy.mil or https://www.portal.navy .mil/fcc-c10f/cio/1/ITSMO/default.aspx