To cope with the challenge of creating consistent and workable processes for managing operational risks, organizations need to adopt a "risk management culture" that emphasizes at all levels the importance of managing risk as part of each person's daily activities. The goal of creating a risk management culture is to create a situation where staff and managers instinctively look for risks and consider their impacts when making effective operational decisions.

The MOF Team Model organizes an IT operations organization into several role clusters; these are individuals or groups who perform related activities to accomplish a particular component of an IT service. These role cluster assignments are based on industry best practices for structuring operations teams. MOF then provides additional guidance that applies collectively and individually to the role clusters, describing:

• Key activities and competencies of each role cluster.
  
• Recommendations for scaling the teams for different sizes and types of organizations.
  
• Effective combination of roles for smaller teams.
  
• Interaction of MOF operations teams with MSF development teams.
  

Building successful, efficient operations teams requires more than just role and responsibility descriptions. It also requires shared principles that instill a sense of business priorities and establish set guidelines for how the team should function. The five primary principles and guidelines that apply to all role clusters within the MOF Team Model are:

• To provide timely, efficient, and accurate customer service.
  
• To understand the business priorities and enable IT to add business value.
  
• To build strong, synergistic virtual teams.
  
• To leverage IT automation and knowledge management tools.
  
• To attract, develop, and retain strong IT operations staff.