Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) provides operational guidance that helps organizations to achieve mission-critical system reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability with Microsoft products and technologies. MOF helps organizations to assess their current IT service management maturity, prioritize their processes of greatest concern, and apply proven principles and best practices to optimize the management of the Windows Server platform.

MOF describes proven team structures and operational processes and applies best information technology (IT) practices to improve the efficiency and quality of IT operations. It is based on an internationally accepted IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), published by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC), and extends ITIL through the inclusion of guidance and best practices derived from the experience of Microsoft operations groups, partners and customers.

The foundation elements of MOF are:

The MOF Process Model provides the description of processes that operations teams perform in order to manage and maintain IT services. It is organized around four quadrants and twenty Service Management Functions. The Team Model simplifies the view of team roles and helps management focus on organizing people effectively. It supports the Process Model by providing guidelines for organizing people into operational teams, or role clusters, and describes the key activities within each role cluster. The MOF Risk Model helps organizations manage risk while running their business. It is composed of a set of guiding principles and a risk management process.