Definition
ITIL is a "framework of best practice approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality IT services". It outlines an extensive set of management procedures that are intended to support businesses in achieving value for money and quality in IT operations. These procedures are supplier independent and have been developed to provide guidance across the breadth of the IT infrastructure"
ITIL (the IT Infrastructure Library) is essentially a series of documents that are used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT Service Management. This customizable framework defines how Service Management is applied within an organization.
Although ITIL was originally created by the CCTA, a UK Government agency, it is now being adopted and used across the world as the de facto standard for best practice in the provision of IT Service. Although the ITIL covers a number of areas, its main focus is on IT Service Management
History of ITIL
It was initially developed during the 1980's, by the CCTA, and was widely adopted in the 1990's. This in turn led to the development of a number of standards.
ISO and ITIL
ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard for ITSM, and aligned generally with ITIL. It comprises a 'specification' (part 1) and a 'code of practice' (part 2)
ISO 20000-1: This is the Specification for Service Management, the 'cerifiable' element of the pair.
ISO 20000-2: This is the 'Code of Practice for Service Management', which designed to work with the Specification, and outlines requirements, etc.
These two parts specify service management processes and form a basis for the assessment of a managed IT service.
Part 1 may typically be used by:
Organizations seeking tenders for outsourced services
Organizations that require a consistent approach by all service providers in a supply chain
Existing providers to benchmark their IT service management
As the basis for formal certification; and so on.
Part 2 provides guidance to auditors, implementation staff and others.
The ISO 20000 Toolkit
Implementation of any major quality standard is a complex operation. In addition to the learning curve, which can be steep, the demands of international standards are often rigorous. For this reason, a specific kit has been designed to aid both implementation and understanding.
The contents of the toolkit are both diverse and comprehensive, covering all the major processes. Included are the standards themselves, templates, guides, presentations and checklists.
How is ITIL organized?
ITIL is organized into five core publications that revolve around the service lifecycle. These provide best practice guidance for an integrated approach to IT service management.
The five core titles are:
1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement
To reflect this practice based approach, ITIL actually is formally known as 'ITIL Service Management Practices'.
Version 2 Background
The previous version of ITIL was organized into a series of sets, which themselves were divided into two main areas:
1) Service support
2) Service delivery:
Service Support was the practice of those disciplines that enabled IT Services to be provided effectively.
Service Delivery covered the management of the IT services themselves. It involved a number of management practices to ensure that IT services were actually provided as agreed between the Service Provider and the Customer.
ITIL is a "framework of best practice approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality IT services". It outlines an extensive set of management procedures that are intended to support businesses in achieving value for money and quality in IT operations. These procedures are supplier independent and have been developed to provide guidance across the breadth of the IT infrastructure"
ITIL (the IT Infrastructure Library) is essentially a series of documents that are used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT Service Management. This customizable framework defines how Service Management is applied within an organization.
Although ITIL was originally created by the CCTA, a UK Government agency, it is now being adopted and used across the world as the de facto standard for best practice in the provision of IT Service. Although the ITIL covers a number of areas, its main focus is on IT Service Management
History of ITIL
It was initially developed during the 1980's, by the CCTA, and was widely adopted in the 1990's. This in turn led to the development of a number of standards.
ISO and ITIL
ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard for ITSM, and aligned generally with ITIL. It comprises a 'specification' (part 1) and a 'code of practice' (part 2)
ISO 20000-1: This is the Specification for Service Management, the 'cerifiable' element of the pair.
ISO 20000-2: This is the 'Code of Practice for Service Management', which designed to work with the Specification, and outlines requirements, etc.
These two parts specify service management processes and form a basis for the assessment of a managed IT service.
Part 1 may typically be used by:
Organizations seeking tenders for outsourced services
Organizations that require a consistent approach by all service providers in a supply chain
Existing providers to benchmark their IT service management
As the basis for formal certification; and so on.
Part 2 provides guidance to auditors, implementation staff and others.
The ISO 20000 Toolkit
Implementation of any major quality standard is a complex operation. In addition to the learning curve, which can be steep, the demands of international standards are often rigorous. For this reason, a specific kit has been designed to aid both implementation and understanding.
The contents of the toolkit are both diverse and comprehensive, covering all the major processes. Included are the standards themselves, templates, guides, presentations and checklists.
How is ITIL organized?
ITIL is organized into five core publications that revolve around the service lifecycle. These provide best practice guidance for an integrated approach to IT service management.
The five core titles are:
1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement
To reflect this practice based approach, ITIL actually is formally known as 'ITIL Service Management Practices'.
Version 2 Background
The previous version of ITIL was organized into a series of sets, which themselves were divided into two main areas:
1) Service support
2) Service delivery:
Service Support was the practice of those disciplines that enabled IT Services to be provided effectively.
Service Delivery covered the management of the IT services themselves. It involved a number of management practices to ensure that IT services were actually provided as agreed between the Service Provider and the Customer.
What is ITIL Toolkit?
The ITIL Toolkit is a collection of resources brought together to accompany ITIL.
The materials included are intended to assist in both understanding and implementation, and are therefore targeted at existing ITIL users and beginners.
The toolkit includes:
A detailed guide to ITIL and service management
The ITIL Fact sheets - 12 two page documents, serving as a concise summary of each of the ITIL disciplines
A management presentation, inclusive of speaker notes
An ITIL audit/review questionnaire and reporting set based on MS-Excel
Materials to assist in the reporting of the above results (eg: presentation template)
What is ITIL Triangle?
This is a diagram that describes the relationship between ITIL, the ISO20000 service management standard, and your own in-house procedures.
Essentially, this top down illustration starts at the highest level with ISO20000, the BSI standard specification for IT service management. The next level presents a code of practice for ITSM (e.g.: PD0005, which was produced by CCTA, ITSMF and DISC/BSI). ITIL itself is the third layer, with in-house procedures represented by the bottom layer.
