In 1970, Erik Erikson defined identity as a: “…a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image.” Now, seeing how I am not a theorist and I have shamelessly grabbed this quote from the works of one of the leading psychological theorists of the twentieth century, I feel somewhat obligated to explain.

In its latest incarnation, ITIL version 3 has formally linked the processes of identity and access management into the service lifecycle. Access Management provides the right for users to be able to use a service or group of services based on policies and actions defined in Security and Availability Management. If access is not granted for the use of a service, service levels will ultimately be affected. Moreover, if excessive rights are not revoked we introduce security risks.

If an IT department is truly to provide a consistent and continuous business service, it must ensure that identity and access is managed in accordance with ongoing changes to the business and IT environment. Large-scale service introductions and upgrades through formal Requests For Change (RFC) must trigger appropriate updates to affected users’ access rights. Moreover, requests from Human Resources or from department managers to provide access to users should be processed as Standard Changes or through automated Service Requests.

It is our job in IT to support a “belief in the sameness and continuity” of our IT services. Integrating identity and access management into a Business Service Management approach will avert identity crises and lead to consistent and high quality business services.