IT Service Management (ITSM)

ITIL, formerly an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. In its current form (known as ITIL 2011 edition), ITIL is published as a series of five core volumes, each of which covers a different ITSM lifecycle stage. Although ITIL underpins ISO/IEC 20000 (previously BS 15000), the International Service Management Standard for IT service management, there are some differences between the ISO 20000 standard and the ITIL framework.

ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are not organization-specific, but can be applied by an organization for establishing integration with the organization's strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.

Since July 2013, ITIL has been owned by AXELOS, a joint venture between Capita and HM Cabinet Office. AXELOS licenses organisations to use the ITIL intellectual property, accredits licensed examination institutes, and manages updates to the framework.

ITIL 2007 edition (previously known as version 3) is an extension of ITIL v2 and fully replaced it following the completion of the withdrawal period on 30 June 2011.^[4] ITIL 2007 provides a more holistic perspective on the full life cycle of services, covering the entire IT organization and all supporting components needed to deliver services to the customer, whereas v2 focused on specific activities directly related to service delivery and support. Most of the v2 activities remained untouched in 2007, but some significant changes in terminology were introduced in order to facilitate the expansion.

A summary of changes has been published by HM Government. In line with the 2007 edition, the 2011 edition consists of five core publications – Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL 2011 is an update to the ITIL framework that addresses significant additional guidance with the definition of formal processes which were previously implied but not identified, as well as correction of errors and inconsistencies.

Twenty-six processes are listed in ITIL 2011 edition and described below, along with which core publication provides the main content for each process.

ITIL 2007 has five volumes, published in May 2007, and updated in July 2011 as ITIL 2011 for consistency:

1. ITIL Service Strategy: understands organizational objectives and customer needs.^[5]
2. ITIL Service Design: turns the service strategy into a plan for delivering the business objectives.^[6]
3. ITIL Service Transition: develops and improves capabilities for introducing new services into supported environments.^[7]
4. ITIL Service Operation: manages services in supported environments.^[8]
5. ITIL Continual Service Improvement: achieves services incremental and large-scale improvements.^[9]

Due to the similarity between ITIL v3 of 2007 and ITIL 2011, no bridge examinations for ITIL v3 certification holders were created or made available for ITIL 2011 certification.

The ITIL approach considers the service desk to be the central point of contact between service providers and users/customers on a day-to-day basis. It is also a focal point for reporting incidents (disruptions or potential disruptions in service availability or quality) and for users making service requests (routine requests for services).

A service desk handles incidents and service requests, as well as providing an interface to users for other ITSM activities such as:

• Incident management
• Problem management
• Configuration management
• Change management
• Release management
• Service-level management
• Availability management
• Capacity management
• Financial management
• IT service continuity management
• Security management