While there are many new concepts, terms, and ideas to look at in ITIL 4, nothing that existed previously has been discarded or disproved-what you learned in ITIL v3 or earlier versions still has immense value. ITIL v3 vs ITIL 4: From “processes” to “practices” Now, onto ITIL-let’s look at what’s new, what’s different, and what’s stayed the same. Recognizing this main principle, ITIL 4 maps everything it does back to that main principle: helping the business achieve its vision. Managing these services well-ensuring they provide the greatest possible value to the business-is critical. There’s no such thing as a service that is not, in some form or other, enabled by IT. Today, as we know, it’s virtually impossible to draw a line where the business stops and IT begins. The latest version, ITIL 4 premiered in February 2019 with a new focus: co-creating value with the business. We’re on the fourth iteration of the ITIL framework, which is formally owned by Axelos. The framework has shifted from being IT-centric to aligning more with business to integrating closely with the business. Over time, ITIL evolved into a more formal framework or a set of guidelines for good practice in ITSM. (This name has since been dropped in favor of the simpler ITIL.) The library also inspired ITIL’s name: The IT Infrastructure Library. Many concepts were taken from IBM’s Information Systems Management Architecture. At this point, ITIL was a library of information that outlined the best ways to manage an IT department. Both public and private sector IT departments, searching for structure around ITSM, adopted ITIL. In response to inefficient and expensive IT services serving the UK government, the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) developed a skeleton framework called the Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management (GITIM).īy the end of the decade, GITIM transformed into ITIL, with the first book published in 1989. What we know today as ITIL started in the UK in the 1980s. Here, I’ll cover a little history to give our ITIL understanding some helpful context. Remember: ITIL is merely meant to guide you-it’s not something you can purchase and deploy, in hopes that it fixes your problems. When this happens, the initiative will invariably fail and the organization is likely to steer clear of ITIL in the future.Īt one organization I worked with several years ago, the manager commented that they had “bought ITIL, but it didn’t work”, and they had no interest in trying it again. This is usually due to overly zealous individuals who’ve read the guidance, taken some training, and gone back to work ready to change the world, all in one big bang. I find myself constantly nagging on about this because, sadly, ITIL has sometimes received a bad reputation and become a “four letter word”.

That’s how ITIL efforts become successful. You pick the parts that work for you, adapt them to how your business works, and constantly improve them. ITIL takes this learned experience, organizing it so that others may extract value from their own IT services.Ĭonversely ITIL is not something you pick up and “implement”.

These smart people have tried different approaches, sometimes succeeding-and sometimes failing-in creating value.

A framework that presents the collected wisdom of a lot of very smart people who have been working in service management. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.) An ITIL disclaimerīefore we wade into the practices and changes in ITIL 4, I want to remind everyone what ITIL is: simply a set of guidelines. (This article is part of our ITIL 4 Guide. ITIL 4: The 4 dimensions of service management Introduction to ITIL 4: transformation in ITSMĪ big ITIL change: The ITIL 4 service value system Read in full, or head directly to the section you need with the table of contents. In this article, I am going to clear up this confusion, sharing what’s really changed from ITIL v3 to ITIL 4-and why. You may hear conflicting information about how it differs from the ITIL v3 we know and, possibly, love. Unless you’re brand new to IT service management, you’ll have heard a lot about the new version of ITIL ®, known as ITIL 4.

Itil v3 process model pdf