ITIL 4 in 10 minutes
A quickstart guide to the latest
ITSM framework
START
You want to learn more
about ITIL 4
You could start with the 212 pages of the ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4
Edition book. Or, if you have more exciting plans for the weekend,
read this ebook to get a quick appreciation of ITIL 4, the latest
version of the most popular global IT service management (ITSM)
best practice framework. See how ITIL 4 can help your organization.
2
So, what is ITIL?
This might hurt your head for a moment, but it does get easier.
Quick tip ITIL is defined by the ITIL 4 Foundation book as:
“Best-practice guidance for IT service management.”
ITIL hasn’t officially been referred to as the “IT Infrastructure
Library” since the publication of ITIL v3 in 2007; however, you’ll That begs the question, What is IT service management (ITSM)?
probably still see this obsolete term in use. The ITIL 4 Glossary defines ITSM broadly as:
“A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for
customers in the form of services.”
And a service is defined 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.”
We did warn you about the head-hurting thing.
The plain-English translation.
Hopefully, the following helps—you can think of ITSM as:
“Improving business performance and outcomes through better IT
delivery and support practices” with ITIL proven best practice
guidance on how to do that.
3
How does ITIL work?
Between 2007 and 2018, ITIL v3 involved something called “the
service lifecycle,” which was comprised of 26 ITSM processes and four
functions. The processes were grouped across five areas:
• Service strategy
• Service design
• Service transition
• Service operation
• Continual service improvement (CSI).
ITIL v3 (2011 Edition) has now been superseded by ITIL 4 and its new
approach to service management. Yet, it’s worth noting these older
terms as they’ll no doubt come up in other helpful ITIL content you
might access.
There are other differences between ITIL v3 and ITIL 4,
with the key changes including:
• ITIL 4 focuses on service management, not just ITSM, and on the
co-creation of value
• There’s now an ITIL service value system and service value chain
• The ITIL v3 processes are now ITIL 4 management practices.
The latter two bullets are covered in the following section.
4
The ITIL service value system
Understanding how ITIL 4 fits together starts with the service value “The ITIL service value system describes how all the components and
system—this is the means for turning demand and opportunities into activities of the organization work together as a system to enable
stakeholder value. Or, as the ITIL Foundation book explains it, value creation.”
The ITIL service value system is comprised
of five elements:
Guiding principles
1. The service value chain
2. Management practices Governance
3. Governance
4. Guiding principles Opportunity Service value chain Value
/demand
5. Continual improvement (no longer continual
service improvement).
Practices
Continual
improvement
Source: AXELOS, “ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition” (2019)
5
Quick tip
The aforementioned ITIL v3 service lifecycle can be replicated in the ITIL 4 service value chain as follows:
Engage – Plan – Design and transition – Obtain/build – Design and transition – Deliver and support – Improve
According to the ITIL Foundation book, the service value chain, at value realization through the creation and management of products
the heart of the service value system, is “an operating model which and services.” These key activities are shown in the next diagram.
outlines the key activities required to respond to demand and facilitate
The six activities with the ITIL service value chain are:
Plan
1. Plan–to ensure a shared understanding of what your
service-provider organization needs to achieve, plus
how.
Design & transition
2. Engage–the engagement with stakeholders to achieve
an understanding of their needs and to ensure that
these needs are being met.
Demand Value
Engage Product &
3. Design and transition–the creation of new/changed Deliver & services
Obtain/build support
services that meet stakeholder expectations across
quality, cost, and time to market.
4. Obtain/build–the creation of service components, also
ensuring that they’re available when and where they’re
needed and that agreed specifications are met. Improve
5. Deliver and support–to ensure that services are
delivered and supported according to agreed
stakeholder specifications and expectations.
6. Improve–to ensure the continual improvement of Source: AXELOS, “ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition” (2019)
products, services, and practices
6
ITIL 4 practices
The ITIL 4 Foundation book defines a management practice as “…a
Quick tips set of organizational resources designed for performing work or
accomplishing an objective. The origins of the practices are as follows:
1. ITIL is merely guidance and not an industry standard. It’s
intended for organizations to take and use as needed • General management practices have been adopted and adapted
via an adopt and adapt approach. for service management from general business management
domains.
2. While the below and other ITIL 4 practices might appear
new, your organization will likely already be doing some • Service management practices have been developed in service
of the best practices (even if improvements can be made management and ITSM industries.
to the status quo).
• Technical management practices have been adapted from
technology management domains for service management
purposes by expanding or shifting their focus from technology
solutions to IT services.”
The full set of 34 ITIL 4 management practices are listed in the table on
the next page.
7
The full set of 34 ITIL 4 management practices
General Management Practices Service Management Practices Technical Management Practices
Architecture management Availability management Deployment management
Continual improvement Business analysis Infrastructure and platform management
Information security management Capacity and performance management Software development and management
Knowledge management Change control
Measurement and reporting Incident management
Organizational change management IT asset management
Portfolio management Monitoring and event management
Project management Problem management
Relationship management Release management
Risk management Service catalog management
Service financial management Service configuration management
Strategy management Service continuity management
Supplier management Service design
Workforce and talent management Service desk
Service level management
Some of the most commonly adopted ITIL v3 processes, now ITIL 4 practices, are explained in the next section.
8
Commonly-adopted ITIL management practices
The following table is based on ITIL v3 process adoption levels. All practice purpose descriptions are taken from the ITIL 4
Foundation book.
Management Practice Purpose
Availability management To ensure that services deliver agreed levels of availability to meet the needs of customers and users
Capacity and performance management To ensure that services achieve agreed and expected performance, satisfying current and future demand in a cost-effective way
Change control To maximize the number of successful changes by ensuring that risks have been properly assessed through to managing the change schedule
Continual improvement To align practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing improvement of products, services, and practices
Deployment management To move new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other component to live environments
Incident management To minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible
Knowledge management To maintain and improve the effective, efficient, and convenient use of information and knowledge across the organization
Monitoring and event management To systematically observe services and service components as well as record and report selected changes of state identified as events
Portfolio management To ensure that the organization has the right mix of programs, projects, products, and services to execute the organization’s strategy
Problem management To reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying causes of incidents as well as managing workarounds and known errors
Release management To make new and changed services and features available for use
To provide a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings and to ensure that it is available to the
Service catalog management
relevant audience
Service configuration management To ensure that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the configuration items that support them, is available
Service desk To capture demand for incident resolution and service requests. It should also be the entry point and single point of contact for users
To support the organization’s strategies and plans for service management by ensuring that financial resources and investments
Service financial management
are used effectively
Service level management To set clear business-based targets for service levels and to ensure that delivery of services is properly monitored and managed against them
Service request management To support the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner
9
Next steps
Are you ready to help your organization adopt ITIL to achieve improved IT service delivery
and business operations as well as better outcomes? ITIL best practice has already
improved IT service delivery and support capabilities for tens of thousands of companies
worldwide. Now, it’s your turn.
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