All About ITIL® 4 - IT Service Management Framework

ITIL is the most widely accepted IT Service Management approach in the world. ITIL has led the ITSM industry with guidance, training, and certification programmes for more than 30 years. ITIL 4 brings ITIL up to date by re-shaping much of the established ITSM practices in the wider context of customer experience, value streams, and digital transformation, as well as embracing new ways of working, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps.

ITIL 4, the latest edition of ITIL, provides the guidance, organisations need, to address new service management challenges and utilise the potential of modern technology. It is designed to ensure a flexible, coordinated and integrated system for the effective governance and management of IT-enabled services.

History of ITIL

ITIL was created over 25 years ago by the British Government – since then it has been improved, constantly looking at taking good practice and distilling it into best practice.

• 1989 - First ITIL book published, Service Level Management, then Help Desk (incorporating the concepts of Incident Management), Contingency Planning, and Change Management.
• 1990 - Problem Management, Configuration Management and Cost Management for IT Services published.
• 1991 - Software Control & Distribution published.
• 1992 - Availability Management published.
• 1993 - First ITIL exams were offered by EXIN.
• 2000 - Version 2 released.
• 2007 - Version 3 released.
• 2011 - The updated version of the framework released, comprising of 26 processes and four functions across five lifecycle stages of Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.
• 2013 - AXELOS, a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Capita plc. founded, to become the custodians of ITIL, taking responsibility for developing the framework to equip organizations with the knowledge and skills to face today’s business challenges.
• 2019 - ITIL version 4 was released. The main changes were: to consider end-to-end Service Management from holistic and value-centric perspectives, to align with philosophies such as Agile, DevOps, and Lean, and to reduce the emphasis on IT Service Management in favor of general Service Management.

The ITIL 4 Foundation Handbook

ITIL 4 has different levels and areas of study and each one of these has dedicated publication.

• The ITIL 4 Foundation Study Guide
  • Defines fundamental content of ITIL Foundation
  • Is definitive source for ITIL Foundation exam
  • Supports training and foundation exam
• Structure of the handbook:
  • 5 Chapters
  • 1 Appendix

Service and Service Management

• ITIL defines a service as:
  • A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks.
• ITIL defines service management as:
  • A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form of services.

7 ITIL Principles for Effective Service Management

A guiding principle is a recommendation that guides an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure. A guiding principle is universal and enduring.

1. Focus on value
2. Start where you are
3. Progress iteratively with feedback
4. Collaborate and promote visibility
5. Think and work holistically
6. Keep it simple and practical
7. Optimize and automate

The ITIL Management Practices

In ITIL, a management practice is a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. The origins of the practices are as follows:

1. General management practices (total of 14) have been adopted and adapted for service management from general business management domains.
2. Service management practices (total of 17) have been developed in service management and ITSM industries.
3. Technical management practices (total of 3) have been adapted from technology management domains for service management purposes by expanding or shifting their focus from technology solutions to IT services.

Why ITIL 4?

1. Features and benefits of ITIL 4:
   1. Support business outcomes: IT in many cases is the enabler for the business, and must be able to support the requirements and needs of the business to be successful and grow. ITIL helps IT organizations support their business by delivering the best possible services
   2. Continually improve: continual improvement enables organizations to deliver better services to customers by identifying the relevant improvements and facilitating the change in small steps
   3. Enable business change: it is important in an environment of ever increasing change, that organizations must continue to deliver high quality service levels. ITIL enables organizations to effect business change with minimal or no impact to day to day business
   4. Show value for money: as organizations look to do more with less, demonstrating value is critical. The framework helps organizations deliver value for money for the services that are offered to customers
   5. Show value for money
   6. Manage risk in line with business needs: business is not without risk, it is ever present in any situation. What is important is that the business can operate and able to make decisions based on an awareness of the risks that exist. It is possible in addition to this, to begin to mitigate and manage any risk that exists
   7. Optimize customer experience: in the age of the customer, where expectation and demand is higher than ever, customer experience is crucial for success. Couple this will an increasing range of buyer choice, poor service levels are no longer acceptable.

Why ITIL 4 Foundation Training and Certification?

1. Features and benefits of ITIL 4 Foundation training and certification:
   1. Understand the fundamentals of what a service is, how value is delivered and how it is measured
   2. Learn the global language used within ITSM to effectively communicate with colleagues and other ITSM professionals
   3. Gain an understanding of the processes within ITIL and what their purpose is within ITSM
   4. Take the first step on the journey to become an experienced and recognized ITSM professional
   5. Join a community of millions around the globe gaining value from the ITIL framework and guidance

ITIL 4 Training and Certification

ITIL 4 certification trainings are provided by PeopleCert's Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs) across the globe. Tecknologia is also a PeopleCert Accredited Training Organization (ATO) offering ITIL 4 Foundation certification trainings across the globe and in various formats.

Click on the links for certification levels to explore the pre-requisites, exams and other details.

In comparison: Control Objectives for Information Technology (COBIT) 2019

• COBIT is more strategic, focusing on governance while ITIL is more operational focused.
• COBIT focuses on governing and managing enterprise I&T to create value for stakeholders, as well as mitigating risks and optimizing resources. ITIL 4 focuses on value co-creation through service management.
• COBIT aims to align IT goals and values with business objectives while ITIL aims to optimise IT services to best support the business.
• COBIT has 6 principles while ITIL has 7 universal principles.
• COBIT has 6 principles while ITIL has 7 universal principles.
• COBIT defines IT activities in a generic process model within four domains. These domains are Plan and Organise, Acquire and Implement, Deliver and Support, and Monitor and Evaluate. ITIL has 34 practices divided into three types: general management practices, service management practices and technical management practices.