IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)V3: Overview and Impact

by Bill PowellIT Service Management Portfolio ManagerITS Strategy and Architecture, Global TechnologyServices

The IT Infrastructure Library(ITIL) routinely comes up as a customer requirement for outsourc-ing services, consulting servicesand software. ITIL has recentlybeen updated to version 3, and thisarticle provides an overview ofITIL, explaining what is differentin the new version.

Overview of ITILITIL V3 is the third version of a

globally popular library of booksregarding best practices for servicemanagement. Version 1 of ITILleveraged content from IBM’sInformation Systems ManagementArchitecture, documented in theYellow Books as “The ManagementSystem for the InformationBusiness.” In version 2, the library of more than forty books was consol-idated to seven primary books with afocus on IT service managementprocesses. Version 3 concentrates on“Service Management” — managingservices, throughout the servicelifecycle. It begins with issues like:What market space are you in? Whois your customer? What services doyou provide? What services shouldyou provide? How do you managethose services? ITIL V3 booksemphasize more best practices thanITIL V2 (refer to Figure 1).

The U.K. Office of GovernmentCommerce (OGC) owns the copy-right for ITIL, which are commer-cial, for-profit publications designedto increase revenue into the generaltreasury of the U.K. government.The OGC awarded ITIL publicationrights to “The Stationery Office”(TSO), a private commercial servicesorganization, while awarding ITILeducation and certification rights tothe APM Group. These rights wereawarded through the OGC’sCompetitive ActivitiesRecompetition (CAR) project.

CertificationsThe ITIL personal certification

scheme has been changed but isstill aimed at recognizing individualcompetency with ITIL® practices.Because there is no organizationalcertification included in ITIL,there is no official way to certifythat an organization “is ITIL” or“is not ITIL” or is of a certain“ITIL maturity level.” Variouseducation or consulting servicesproviders, including IBM GlobalServices, offer proprietary “ITILmaturity assessments.”

The development of ITIL V3included ten authors, an ITILAdvisory Group (IAG) of 23 leadingexperts, an extended team of review-ers, and a project team including achief architect. I participated as amember of the IAG and as a mentorto the authors of the Service Strategybook. Ivor Macfarlane, GTS Strategyand Architecture Service ProductLine, participated as an author ofthe Service Transition book, whilemany IBMers (including myself)participated as reviewers of all thebooks. The details of who partici-pated in the development of ITILV3 are listed in the beginning ofeach book.

Version 3 differencesBased on the influence of ITIL

V2 foundation exams and personalcertifications, Service Managementhad come to be described as“10+1” (10 processes plus servicedesk, as described in the ServiceSupport and Service Delivery V2books). ITIL V3 introduces moremanagement disciplines and prac-tices to ITIL education and per-sonal certification programs.

The Service ManagementLifecycle is described in five corebooks: Service Strategy, ServiceDesign, Service Transition, ServiceOperation and Service ContinualImprovement. The lifecycle con-cept in ITIL V3 is based on theapproach described in the ITILV2 Application Management bookthat was co-written by authors fromIBM and Microsoft. The lifecycleemphasizes the need for develop-ment and operations to be inte-grated throughout the lifecycle.Each book is described here:

• ITIL V3 Service Strategy addsnew concepts to ITIL like theservice package, service prod-ucts, and service strategy con-cepts. The service package is

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Figure 1: “New look” ITIL V3 books

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made up of the service utilityand the service warranty.The service utility is theservice functionality ordescription, while the servicewarranty is the service level.The concept is this: whatgets handed off from devel-opment to operations is aservice package that includesutility and warranty — ratherthan just the service func-tionality without considera-tion for the required servicelevel, availability, capacity,security, continuity andfinancial plans.

• The ITIL V3 Service Designbook recasts what was inthe service delivery andsecurity books. The mainidea being that, if you wait

until service delivery tobegin consideration forservice level, availability,capacity, continuity, securityand financial management,it’s too late. These manage-ment concerns must beintegrated into the designof services.

• ITIL V3 Service Transitionand Service Operationupdate and revise contentfrom the ITIL V2 ServiceSupport, Infrastructure andApplication Managementbooks. Service request isrecognized as distinct fromincident management.Knowledge management isadded, and configurationmanagement is revised tobe considered a system

rather than a monolithicConfiguration ManagementDatabase (CMDB). Generallywhere V2 referred to singu-lar databases, V3 refers to“systems,” recognizing that,in most environments, feder-ated and integrated systemsare used.

• Service ContinualImprovement reviews manycommon approaches toimprovement. ITIL V3 provides emphasis on theneed for integrating manysources of knowledge, likethe Carnegie Mellon ITSQCservice management capa-bility model e-SCM, COBITand ISO, as well as ITIL.

In the ITIL V3 overviewdiagram (refer to Figure 2),the subjects that were empha-sized in ITIL V2 are high-lighted in grey.

Reference materialA number of related intel-

lectual capital assets are avail-able to all IBMers and can befound in the IBM ICMAssetWeb database:

• ITIL V3 Documentation• Overview ITIL V3-related

materials, white paper andFrequently Asked Questions

• IBM Process ReferenceModel for IT™

• Service ManagementAdoption Model

• Management SystemAnalysis Tool (ITIL V3 andPRMIT V3)

• Maturity Model (includestechnical components androles from ITIL V3)

Your connection for more information is Bill Powell (Bill D Powell/Minneapolis/IBM@IBMUS).

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Figure 2: ITIL V3 overview

Strategy

Service Strategy

Market Intelligence

IT Financial Mgmt

Service Portfolio Mgmt

Demand Mgmt

Risk Mgmt

Design

Service Portfolio Mgmt

Service Catalog Mgmt

Service Level Mgmt

Capacity Mgmt

Availability Mgmt

Service Continuity Mgmt

Information Security Mgmt (ISO 27K, ISO 20K)

Supplier & ContractMgmt

Organizational Change& Communications

Transition

Change Mgmt

Service Asset & Configuration Mgmt

Knowledge Mgmt &Service Knowledge Syst

Service Release &Deployment Planning

Performance and RiskEvaluation

Testing

Acquire, Build, Test Release

Service Release,Acceptance, Test & Pilot

Deployment,Decommissions& Transfer

ContinualImprovement

Measurement & Control

Service Measurement

Service Assessment & Analysis

Process Assessment & Analysis

Service Level Mgmt

Improvement Planning

Operation

Monitoring & Event Mgmt

Incident Mgmt

Request Fulfillment(Standard Changes)

Problem Mgmt

Access Mgmt

Service Desk

Infrastructure Mgmt

Application Mgmt

IT Operations

Facilities Mgmt

Processes

Functions

ITIL V3 emphasizes the service lifecycle and sheds light on additionalmanagement practices. “Service management is more than 10+1.”

Continual ServiceImprovement

Cont

inua

l Ser

vice

Impr

ovem

ent

ServiceDesign

ServiceStratigies

ServiceOperation

ServiceTransmission

ITIL

Continual Service

Improvem

ent