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ITIL - INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE
MANAGEMENT
ITIL is an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It
consists of a library of reference books outlining best practice guidelines for IT
Service Management.
IT Infrastructure is defined as all of the hardware, software, networks, facilities, and
so on, that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control or support IT
services.
IT Infrastructure
documentation.

does

not

include

the

associated

people,

processes

and

ITIL OBJECTIVES

Focuses on descriptive guidance on IT Service Management that is easily

adapted.
Emphasizes on Quality Management Approach and Standards.
ITIL guidance recognizes this dependency and suggests that IT should be
delivered to the organization in the form of Services.

ITIL GOALS

Consistence, comprehensive and hygienic set of Best Practices guidance.

Platform independent processes.
Common language and standardized vocabulary.
Flexible framework that is adaptable to different IT environments.

WHAT IS SERVICE MANAGEMENT?

The IT infrastructure sits at the heart of most organizations, consequently, and more
importantly, the organization relies on IT to support almost all of its day-to-day
business operations. ITIL guidance recognizes this dependency and suggests that IT
should be delivered to the organization in the form of services.

WHAT ARE SERVICES?

ITIL defines Service Management as a set of specialized, organizational

capabilities, providing value to customers in the form of services.
There
1.
2.
3.
4.

are four key words in services, namely:

Organization,
Capability,
Value, and
Customers.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF ITIL

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The need for reliable IT Services in UK Government Departments triggered the CCTA
(Central Computers & Telecommunications Agency), now known as the OGC (Office
of Government Commerce) to sponsor the ITIL development project. The outcome
was the IT Infrastructure Library. The first library included 34 books which were
published between 1992 and 1998.
The books contained comprehensive guidance on how ITIL concepts, processes and
products could help organizations to manage their IT Services and the supporting IT
infrastructure.
By the late 1990s many large organizations and government agencies throughout
the world used ITIL best practice guidelines for IT Service Management.
ITIL v2 was published in 2000 and became the worlds leading Service Management
reference source. There is now a global community of users sharing the principles
and concepts embedded in the framework.

ITIL TODAY

So the ITIL v3 project began in 2004, and involved extensive world-wide

consultations with hundreds of IT Service Management practitioners from the public
and private sectors, including vendors, qualification bodies, exam institutes and
education providers.
May 2007 saw the launch of ITIL v3, confirming ITILs place as the worlds most
credible framework for IT Service Management. Importantly ITIL is now supported by
the international ISO/IEC20000 standard.
Since its inception, ITIL has expanded from a library of books into a whole industry,
with many organizations offering related products including training, consultancy
and management tools.
In September 2009 OGC announced its intention to update ITIL once more. The
quality criteria required the updates to be written in plain English and be free from
inconsistencies across all five titles, and therefore beneficial to the end user and the
training community.
The ITIL updates were released in July 2011. At the same time the APM Group
announced to the world that the Intellectual Property rights for the ITIL framework
would move to the UK Governments Cabinet Office.

ITIL COURSE OVERVIEW

This course has been designed to provide you with an overview of ITIL based
IT Service Management.
This course is based on ITIL Best Practices as described in the ITIL Service
Management publications. The course highlights how plans, processes,
functions, roles, responsibilities and knowledge management all work
together to help organizations to plan, design, transition, operate and
improve the IT services that will deliver agreed benefits.
In addition, the course provides the ideal background knowledge for anyone
intending to operate in an ITIL based Service Management environment.

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ITIL QUALIFICATION SCHEME

INTERMEDIATE LIFECYCLE MODULES

Service Strategy

Service Design

Service Transition

Service Operation

Continual Service Improvement

INTERMEDIATE CAPABILITY MODULES

Operational Support & Analysis

Planning,
Production
&
Optimization

Release, Control & Validation

Service Offerings & Agreements

COMPETENCE AND SKILLS FRAMEWORK

Standardizing job titles, functions, roles and responsibilities can simplify

service management and human resource management.
Many service providers use a common framework of reference for
competence and skills to support activities such as audits, planning future
skill requirements, organizational development programs and resource
allocation.
The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is an example of a
common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop
effective IT services, information systems and technology.
SFIA defines seven generic levels at which tasks can be performed, with the
associated professional skills required for each level.

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Second dimension core competencies that can be combined with the

professional skills.
SFIA is used by many IT service providers to identify career development
opportunities.

COMPLIMENTARY STANDARDS

Service Management is also supported by several internationally recognized

standards, including:

ISO/IEC20000 - This standard covers any enterprise offering IT services to

internal or to external customers. It is often a mandatory requirement in any
outsourcing tender.
ISO/IEC27001 - Specifies the requirements for establishing, and maintaining
a documented Information Security Management System within the context
of the organization's overall business risks.
ISO 9001:2008 It is one of the standards in the ISO 9000 family. It requires
the accredited organizations to define, follow, monitor, record and improve
the procedures that cover all their key business processes.
BS25999 - Assists in implementing business continuity management.
ISO/IEC19770 This is the Software Asset Management processes standard.

These approaches to quality are in wide use and support the ITIL approach to
Continual Service Improvement.
This list is not definitive, however by using the standards combined with the skills,
knowledge and understanding that you and your organization already have,
provides you with the framework for best practice operations and effective Service
Management.

ITIL EXAMINATION BODIES

ITIL is a recognized global IT industry best practice. ITIL provides common

processes, language and terminology that can be used by IT Service Management
professionals anywhere.
In 2006, the UK governments Office of Government Commerce appointed the APMG
as the accrediting body for ITIL. The APMG accredit the ITIL examination bodies, and
authorized training organizations.
ITIL qualifications are recognized by organizations worldwide, and have become a
prerequisite for appointments in many of the worlds blue chip companies.
The ITIL qualifications and examinations are administered in the UK by ISEB, which
form part of the British Computer Society, and the APMG. Other examination
institutes include EXIN, Loyalist College, CERT-IT and PEOPLECERT Group.

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WHY IS BEST PRACTICE NEEDED?

Many organizations operate in a rapidly changing environment. As such they

recognize the need to learn, adapt and improve. Whilst it is always possible to
improve, there are always trade-offs. For example, to halve the pizza delivery
service time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes might require less pizza choice and a
much higher charge.
The same principle applies to an IT service. For example, a faster response time to a
customer enquiry requires higher performance technologies to support it.
Ultimately, someone has to pay for that technology. If the customer demands the
performance improvement then the customer must pay for it.
Whether you decide to improve or not to improve, may depend on how you
compare with other organizations operating in similar conditions.
To compare one organization against another may involve benchmarking.
Benchmarking helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses in one organizations
products, services, processes or other areas and compares them against another
similar organization.
The reason why ITIL is so successful is that it is vendor neutral, it is nonprescriptive, and it is scalable. It is also based on the adopt and adapt
approach which means it can be made to suit your organizational needs.

BENCHMARKING

One simple way to benchmark is to compare your approach to delivering and

supporting to IT services with the approach used by other similar organizations.
Their approaches (and yours) may be documented in case studies and Best
Practice guidance. Best practices are accepted ways of doing things successfully.
Because they are successful they are copied, improved and adapted.
ITIL is documented best practice. You can adopt it, you can adapt it or you can say
we are perfectly happy as we are.
You can do this because you will know what you do well and what could be done
better.

COMPLEMENTARY BEST PRACTICES

There are many other frameworks and methods that complement the ITIL library.

COBIT or Control Objectives for IT

Whilst ITIL describes, what to do and the processes required to do it the
complimentary COBIT concentrates on the governance frameworks that help
define how to do it. Combine ITIL with COBIT and you should have the ideal
governance framework.
CMMI or the Capability Maturity Model
CMMI assists in the delivery or acquisition of products and services. Many
organizations who wish to outsource their IT services require the supplier to
be audited to level 5. This is the ultimate optimizing level, where the focus is
very much on process improvement.
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Six Sigma
Includes concepts which can be applied within problem management to help
identify and remove the causes of defects.

This list is by no means definitive and you may want to research others include
EFQM and Deming (Plan, Do, Check and Act).
Importantly in September 2009, OGC announced its intention that the next version
of ITIL will become more aligned with PPRM guidance - in particular MSP, M_o_R,
PRINCE2 and P3O, and good practice would also consider academic research,
training and education and proprietary experience of staff. Practices built around
how we deal with people or cultural change may also exist.

ITIL BEST PRACTICES PORTFOLIO

ITIL CORE FRAMEWORK

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