On Dec. 24, 2015, DoD Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen issued a memo establishing policies, assigning responsibilities, and providing procedures for the Defense Department’s Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) framework.
The instruction sets forth the governance mechanisms required to develop DoD ITSM standards, to develop integrated capabilities, and to monitor conformance across the Defense Department.
Focusing on a DoD-wide standard ITSM for the “implementation and management of high quality IT standards,” the instruction draws from the DoD Enterprise Service Management Framework (DESMF), known as the single service management framework for the DoD. The DESMF provides the standard service quality measurement model in the ITSM framework to support comparison, evaluation, and improvement of DoD IT services. The directive states that IT services will be defined, categorized, published, and measured based on the DESMF.
The DESMF further describes the manner in which ITSM is to be performed in the Joint Information Environment (JIE) in accordance with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "Joint Information Environment (JIE) White Paper," from Jan. 22, 2013.
The memo also calls for the continual improvement of the DESMF to lead to efficient integrated enterprise service management capabilities, improved IT service quality, and better IT investment decisions.