In the kick-off event of the APMG series on the USM Revolution, we received more live questions than we could handle online. Let's now answer Live Question 6:
"If USM is a method - as the USMwiki says - is it something like simplified TOGAF dedicated for ITSM?"
The short answer is "I hope not". TOGAF is a framework that supports the development of an 'enterprise architecture'. The main components of TOGAF are a PDCA-like improvement model for developing this architecture, various best practices, and an information-based modeling technique. TOGAF is not based on Systems Thinking, and it provides an information-based view on business activities.
The longer answer would be "USM and TOGAF are complementary and completely different". USM covers the architecture for Service Management, and provides a universal Management System for managing every activity that justifies the existence of the organization: creating value by delivering services.
TOGAF uses a typical layered model that doesn't reflect the system nature of an organization. USM is based on Systems Thinking, explaining how any customer-provider interaction model can be reproduced with a universal link: the management system of the actor in a service supply chain or a service ecosystem.
TOGAF can be used to model parts of what USM is about. In that sense, TOGAF can be very helpful to specify the architectural details of USM. But, on the other hand, if we look at TOGAF's definition of a 'business service', we find "A business service represents explicitly defined behavior that a business role, business actor, or business collaboration exposes to its environment." This rather vague view on the concept of service is not in line with USM, as we hope to explain in the second webinar of the USM Revolution series, on August 20.
Furthermore, TOGAF is very much information-driven. It provides an information perspective on how business can be described. USM covers the management of any type of services, by any team of any size in any organization in any line of business, so USM is not about ITSM (although it also applies to ITSM). USM explicitly supports Enterprise Service Management, up to nation-wide service ecosystems. That generic scope applies to both, and TOGAF and USM can both be called methods, but USM definitely is not 'a simplified TOGAF dedicated for ITSM'.
Which caries us back to the short answer: "I hope not".
If you want to learn more about the new thinking of USM, please join the next webinars in the USM Revolution series.