What is ITIL Version 3?

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a collection of best practices that has been carefully arranged and edited, provides readers with information and structure to help plan, implement, maintain, and improve service delivery to customers.

 

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which owns ITIL prince2 manchester, is trademark and copyright protected. ItSMF, the IT Service Management Forum, is the largest independent non-profit organization. Its members around the world are responsible for promoting and exploiting the benefits of ITIL.

 

Many times, people hear the same themes when they first read one of the core ITIL V3 book: "ITIL is just common sense" and "yeah we do that already around there - so what?"

 

Guess what?

 

ITIL V3 is commonsense, but it is not often used in Service Organizations.

 

ITIL V3 is based on a core group of five books, first published in 2007: Service Strategy, Design, Transition, Service Operation, and Continuous Service Improvement. Every book outlines processes, roles, metrics, and much more that organizations can use to customize and configure to suit their needs.

 

Please note that the ITIL V3 authors don't have magic wands and this text is intended to serve as a starting point for your organization. You should consider the following best practices in light of your organization's strategic goals, and then adapt them to your own working practices.

 

ITIL V3 was developed over the past 20 years by a variety ITIL, Service and Process experts. This is what ITIL stands for - it is a best-practice starting point. It should be carefully considered, reworked, and implemented in an organization to meet the business's needs.

 

Any organization will not achieve more than 10% effectiveness if it implements style verbatim and to the letter-of-the book. Every location is unique. Every business is unique. Every customer is unique.

 

Over the past ten years, thousands of IT Service professionals provided feedback and helped improve the core OGC ITIL text - so you can be assured that it's THE #1 place to begin when implementing strategic IT Service Management.

 

The International Standards Committee has 'fast tracked the ISO/IEC 20000 standard for IT Service Management to allow Service Providers to be certified in the standard over the past few years. Although not required, many ISO20000 require key ITIL elements to be implemented. These include the ITIL V2 IT Support and IT Services Delivery processes. Not all ISO20000 requirements require ITIL to be certified. However, it is an essential starting point for adopting best practices.

 

Here are some facts about ITIL that I have seen implemented in many forms by clients over the past 10 years.

 

ITIL is a large investment of time, effort, and people's energie.

ITIL is a complex process that requires skilled and experienced people. ITIL foundation and ITIL management certifications are required

ITIL requires a program to transform smaller but still important projects.

ITIL requires senior buy-in. ITIL is not possible without buy-in. It's just that hard.

ITIL requires that ITIL be understood at senior levels. Therefore, the ROI of ITIL must also be planned and realized.

ITIL is transformational change. This means that people are able to change their roles and communicate new ways. The organization starts to embed the voice of customers into IT/Technology.

Here are some additional considerations:

 

* It's hard to do; people play politics and protect their empires; people resist change; functional silo's are protected.

 

* Time is required to plan, design, build, test, and 'DO'.

 

You must change the engine of the 'planes while it is in flight. This means that you need to transform the way Technology delivers Service - but not affect the quality or availability of Service.

 

ITIL is all about Service. Not tools. Not technology. Not Technology. They are, in my opinion, just necessary components of the ultimate goal.

 

[Incidentally, there is NO ITIL compliant tool. ITIL is a collection of best practices, not a standard that must be followed. Vendors often incorrectly claim that their tool is compliant. Gartner also agrees with me.

 

ITIL forces you to think about who is doing what, when, and how with which tools. How well are they doing? What could they do better? How does the customer perceive them... These are just some of many constant questions you will be asked every day when you implement and manage an ITIL-based Organization.

 

These are the right questions to ask for IT Service Success! These are the right questions for IT Service Success!

 

There are many benefits to ITIL, but these are the most common:

 

ITIL helps to break down functional silos, get people and information moving; gets people talking; all in the interest of the Customer (service receiver).

ITIL is a tool that helps IT/Technology be more customer-focused. All roles, responsibilities and reporting requirements are converged to provide timely and meaningful information towards the right customer interfaces.

ITIL enables people to think from a Service perspective, not a technology silo view.

ITIL helps to reduce costs and automates the process of reducing cost. ITIL allows you to do more with less time, thereby avoiding future staffing costs.

ITIL can be used to roll out best practices in groups to achieve organizational quick wins.

ITIL should be enjoyable. This is a way to do things with everyone involved in the process and taking part in key decisions.

This is it.

 

The IT Service Analyst.Manager will do the right thing at the right price, at the best time and in the highest quality - to fulfill their role in delivering the service the customer has paid for. Keep doing it right the first time. And improve where necessary.

 

Is ITIL a 'holy grail?

 

There is no way.

 

Does ITIL exist?

 

Yes! There are many companies that use ITIL. ITIL has been around for many years.