“ITIL”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

ITIL, formerly^[1] an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business.

ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are not organization-specific nor technology-specific, but can be applied by an organization for establishing integration with the organization's strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement. There is no formal independent third party compliance assessment available for ITIL compliance in an organisation. Certification in ITIL is only available to individuals.

Since July 2013, ITIL has been owned by AXELOS, a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office. AXELOS licenses organisations to use the ITIL intellectual property, accredits licensed examination institutes, and manages updates to the framework. Organizations that wish to implement ITIL internally do not require this license.

The ITIL 4 Foundation Book was released February 18th 2019^[2]. In its former version (known as ITIL 2011), ITIL is published as a series of five core volumes, each of which covers a different ITSM lifecycle stage. Although ITIL underpins ISO/IEC 20000 (previously BS 15000), the International Service Management Standard for IT service management, there are some differences between the ISO 20000 standard, ICT Standard by IFGICT and the ITIL framework.

History

Responding to growing dependence on IT, the UK Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s developed a set of recommendations. It recognized that, without standard practices, government agencies and private sector contracts had started independently creating their own IT management practices.

The IT Infrastructure Library originated as a collection of books, each covering a specific practice within IT service management. ITIL was built around a process model-based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming and his plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle.^[3]

After the initial publication in 1989–96, the number of books quickly grew within ITIL Version 1 to more than 30 volumes.

In 2000/2001, to make ITIL more accessible (and affordable), ITIL Version 2 consolidated the publications into nine logical "sets" that grouped related process-guidelines to match different aspects of IT management, applications and services. The Service Management sets (Service Support and Service Delivery) were by far the most widely used, circulated, and understood of the ITIL Version 2 publications.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}

The ITIL 4 Edition starts with the ITIL Foundation book, which was released on February 18th 2019.

ITIL 4 Edition

The ITIL Foundation book of the ITIL 4 Edition introduces some new concepts and evolves existing knowledge. There are two key components of the ITIL 4 framework

ITIL service value system

ITIL 4 Edition defines as first key component the service value system (SVS). ITIL named five core components of the ITIL SVS^[7]:

ITIL service value chain

ITIL practices

The well known ITIL processes are now named as practices^[9]. They are grouped as 14 general management practices, 17 service management practices, and three technical management practices.

ITIL guiding principles

They’re the core messages of ITIL 4 and of service management in general, seen in many other frameworks, standards or methods like Lean, Agile, DevOps, COBIT, PRINCE2 and more^[10].

Governance

Continual improvement

Four dimension model

The second key component in ITIL 4 Edition is the four dimension model^[13]. The four dimension model ensures a holistic approach to service management. The four dimensions remember the former 4 P’s of ITIL – people, products, partners, processes. Each component of the SVS should considered this four dimensions, which are:

organizations and people

People are key in this dimension and every person should have a clear understanding of their contribution in the SVS. The organization covers as well as formal structure, culture and the fitting level of capacity and competence^[14].

information and technology

This is the information managed in the service and any supporting information and knowledge including protect, manage and archive it. Technology is main driver for benefit in service management. This may be artificial intelligence, machine learning, the use of mobile platforms, cloud solutions, collaboration tools, automated testing and operations as well as continuous integration / continuous development / continuous deployment solutions^[15].

partners and suppliers

Every service provider uses other organizations to create his own value. The strategy for the decisions about the use of others is influenced by the own strategy focus, corporate culture, resource scarcity, cost concerns, subject matter expertise, external constraints and demand patterns^[16].

value streams and processes

Value streams are a series of steps, which creates value as product or services. For each product or service in an organization shall be a definition of the value stream.

Processes transforms with a set of activities input in output. The processes underpin the value streams. There are political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, which influence a service provider^[17].

ITIL Practices

The well known ITIL processes are now named as 34 practices. They’re part of the ITIL SVS. Each practice is in relation with the six activities of the ITIL service value chain: plan, improve, engage, design and transition, obtain/ build as well as deliver and support.

General management practices

The 14 practices with a not service management specific focus are named general management practices^[18].

Service management practices

Technical management practices

ITIL 2007 edition

Overview of ITIL 2007 edition

ITIL 2007 edition (previously known as ITIL Version 3) is an extension of ITIL Version 2 and fully replaced it following the completion of the withdrawal period on 30 June 2011.^[21] ITIL 2007 provides a more holistic perspective on the full life cycle of services, covering the entire IT organization and all supporting components needed to deliver services to the customer, whereas ITIL Version 2 focused on specific activities directly related to service delivery and support. Most of the ITIL Version 2 activities remained untouched in 2007, but some significant changes in terminology were introduced in order to facilitate the expansion.

Changes and characteristics of the 2011 edition of ITIL

A summary of changes has been published by the UK Government. In line with the 2007 edition, the 2011 edition consists of five core publications – Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL 2011 is an update to the ITIL framework that addresses significant additional guidance with the definition of formal processes which were previously implied but not identified, as well as correction of errors and inconsistencies.

Twenty-six processes are listed in ITIL 2011 edition and described below, along with which core publication provides the main content for each process.

ITIL 2007 has five volumes, published in May 2007, and updated in July 2011 as ITIL 2011 for consistency:

Due to the similarity between ITIL Version 3 of the year 2007 and ITIL of the year 2011, no bridge examinations for ITIL Version 3 certification holders were created or made available for ITIL 2011 certification.

Service strategy

The centre and origin point of the ITIL Service Lifecycle, the ITIL Service Strategy (SS) volume,^[22] provides guidance on clarification and prioritization of service-provider investments in services. More generally, Service Strategy focuses on helping IT organizations improve and develop over the long term. In both cases, Service Strategy relies largely upon a market-driven approach. The Service Strategy lifecycle stage is often considered as the core of the service lifecycle. In Service Strategy stage, the strategic approach for the whole lifecycle is identified to provide values to the customers through IT service management. Key topics covered include service value definition, business-case development, service assets, market analysis, and service provider types. List of covered processes:

For candidates in the ITIL Intermediate Capability stream, the Service Offerings and Agreements (SOA) Qualification course and exam are most closely aligned to the Service Strategy (SS) Qualification course and exam in the Lifecycle stream.

Strategy Management for IT Services

The objective of Strategy Management for IT Services is to assess the service provider’s offerings, capabilities, competitors as well as current and potential market spaces in order to develop a strategy to serve customers. Once the strategy has been defined, this ITIL process is also responsible for ensuring the implementation of the strategy.^[27]

Service Portfolio Management

The customer needs services to achieve business outcomes. The service portfolio management process ensures that services enable the accomplishment of strategic goals and objectives as well as tracks the cost and the value of each investment in a service throughout its lifecycle to ensure that it produces its desired returns. The purpose of Service Portfolio Management is ensuring the service offerings are defined and meet the requirements of the customers.

The service portfolio contains information about the performance of investments in services the service provider manages on behalf of the business. The service portfolio comprises: the pipeline section, which contains the services that are yet to be offered; the service catalogue section, which contains the details of operational services; and the retired section, which contains details of the services that are no longer offered.

Financial management for IT services

IT Financial Management comprises the discipline of ensuring the IT infrastructure is obtained at the most effective price (which does not necessarily mean cheapest) and calculating the cost of providing IT services so an organization can understand the costs of its IT services. These costs may then be recovered from the customer of the service. This is the second component of the service delivery process.

Service design

The Service Design (SD) volume^[23] provides good-practice guidance on the design of IT services, processes, and other aspects of the service management effort. Significantly, design within ITIL is understood to encompass all elements relevant to technology service delivery, rather than focusing solely on design of the technology itself. As such, service design addresses how a planned service solution interacts with the larger business and technical environments, service management systems required to support the service, processes which interact with the service, technology, and architecture required to support the service, and the supply chain required to support the planned service. Within ITIL, design work for an IT service is aggregated into a single Service Design Package (SDP). Service design packages, along with other information about services, are managed within the service catalogues.

A model used to help define roles and responsibilities in service design is a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed).

Service catalogue management

Service catalogue management maintains and produces the service catalogue and ensures that it contains accurate details, dependencies and interfaces of all services made available to customers. Service catalogue information includes:

Service-level management

Service-level management provides for continual identification, monitoring and review of the levels of IT services specified in the service-level agreements (SLAs). Service-level management ensures that arrangements are in place with internal IT support-providers and external suppliers in the form of operational level agreements (OLAs) and underpinning contracts (UCs), respectively. The process involves assessing the impact of change on service quality and SLAs. The service-level management process is in close relation with the operational processes to control their activities. The central role of service-level management makes it the natural place for metrics to be established and monitored against a benchmark.

Service-level management is the primary interface with the customer (as opposed to the user serviced by the service desk). Service-level management is responsible for:

The service-level manager relies on the other areas of the service delivery process to provide the necessary support which ensures the agreed services are provided in a cost-effective, secure and efficient manner.

Availability management

Availability management allows organizations to sustain IT service-availability in order to support the business at a justifiable cost. High-level activities are realizing availability requirements, compiling availability plans, monitoring availability, and monitoring maintenance obligations.

Availability management addresses the ability of an IT component to perform at an agreed level over a period of time.

Capacity management

Capacity management supports the optimum and cost-effective provision of IT services by helping organizations match their IT resources to business demands. The high-level activities include:

Capacity management is focused on strategic capacity, including capacity of personnel (e.g., human resources, staffing and training), system capacity, and component (or tactical) capacity.

IT service continuity management

IT service continuity management (ITSCM) covers the processes by which plans are put in place and managed to ensure that IT services can recover and continue even after a serious incident occurs. It is not just about reactive measures, but also about proactive measures – reducing the risk of a disaster in the first instance.

ITSM is regarded by the application owners as the recovery of the IT infrastructure used to deliver IT services, but {{As of | 2009 | lc = on}} many businesses practice the much further-reaching process of business continuity planning (BCP), to ensure that the whole end-to-end business process can continue should a serious incident occur (at primary support level).

Security management

describes the structured fitting of information security in the management organization. It is based on the code of practice for information security management system (ISMS) now known as ISO/IEC 27001.

A basic goal of security management is to ensure adequate information security. The primary goal of information security, in turn, is to protect information assets against risks, and thus to maintain their value to the organization. This is commonly expressed in terms of ensuring their confidentiality, integrity and availability, along with related properties or goals such as authenticity, accountability, non-repudiation and reliability.

Mounting pressure for many organizations to structure their information security management systems in accordance with ISO/IEC 27001 requires revision of the ITIL Version 2 security management volume, which culminated in the release of the 2007 edition.

Supplier management

The purpose of supplier management is to obtain value for money from suppliers and contracts. It ensures that underpinning contracts and agreements align with business needs, Service Level Agreements and Service Level Requirements. Supplier Management oversees process of identification of business needs, evaluation of suppliers, establishing contracts, their categorization, management and termination.

Service transition

Service transition (ST), as described by the ITIL service transition volume,^[24] relates to the delivery of services required by a business into live/operational use, and often encompasses the "project" side of IT rather than business as usual (BAU). This area also covers topics such as managing changes to the BAU environment.

Change management

Change management aims to ensure that standardised methods and procedures are used for efficient handling of all changes. A change is an event that results in a new status of one or more configuration items (CIs), and which is approved by management, is cost-effective, enhances business process changes (fixes) – all with a minimum risk to IT infrastructure.

There are three types of changes: Standard Change, Normal Change, Urgent/Emergency Change

Service asset and configuration management

Service asset and configuration management is primarily focused on maintaining information (i.e., configurations) about Configuration Items (i.e., assets) required to deliver an IT service, including their relationships. Configuration management is the management and traceability of every aspect of a configuration from beginning to end and it includes the following key process areas under its umbrella:

Release and deployment management

Release and deployment management is used by the software migration team for platform-independent and automated distribution of software and hardware, including license controls across the entire IT infrastructure. Proper software and hardware control ensures the availability of licensed, tested, and version-certified software and hardware, which functions as intended when introduced into existing infrastructure. Quality control during the development and implementation of new hardware and software is also the responsibility of Release Management. This guarantees that all software meets the demands of the business processes. Release management utilizes Definitive Media Library for storage of software.

Release management focuses on the protection of the live environment and its services through the use of formal procedures and checks.

A Release consists of the new or changed software and/or hardware required to implement approved changes. Release categories include:

Service operation

Service Operation (SO) aims to provide best practice for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services both to end-users and the customers (where "customers" refer to those individuals who pay for the service and negotiate the SLAs). Service operation, as described in the ITIL Service Operation volume,^[25] is the part of the lifecycle where the services and value is actually directly delivered. Also the monitoring of problems and balance between service reliability and cost etc. are considered. The functions include technical management, application management, operations management and service desk as well as, responsibilities for staff engaging in Service Operation.

Processes

Functions

Service desk

The service desk is one of four ITIL functions and is primarily associated with the Service Operation lifecycle stage. Tasks include handling incidents and requests, and providing an interface for other ITSM processes. Features include:

Application management

ITIL application management^[29] encompasses a set of best practices proposed to improve the overall quality of IT software development and support through the life-cycle of software development projects, with particular attention to gathering and defining requirements that meet business objectives.

Software asset management (SAM) is a primary topic of ITIL Version 2 and is closely associated with the ITIL Application Management function. SAM is the practice of integrating people, processes, and technology to allow software licenses and usage to be systematically tracked, evaluated, and managed. The goal of SAM is to reduce IT expenditures, human resource overhead and risks inherent in owning and managing software assets.

SAM represents the software component of IT asset management. This includes hardware asset management because effective hardware inventory controls are critical to efforts to control software. This means overseeing software and hardware that constitute an organization's computers and network.

IT Operations management

Technical management

Event management

An event may indicate that something is not functioning correctly, leading to an incident being logged. Events may also indicate normal activity, or a need for routine intervention such as changing a tape.

Event management depends on monitoring, but it is different. Event management generates and detects notifications, while monitoring checks the status of components even when no events are occurring.

Events may be detected by a CI sending a message, or by a management tool polling the CI. After an event has been detected it may lead to an Incident, Problem or Change, or it may simply be logged in case the information is needed.

Response to an event may be automated or may require manual intervention. If actions are needed then a trigger, such as an SMS message or an incident being automatically logged, can alert support staff.

Incident management

Incident management aims to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained.

'Normal service operation' is defined here as service operation within service-level agreement (SLA) limits.

The objective of incident management is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible with the least possible impact on either the business or the user, at a cost-effective price. The transformation between event-to-incident is the critical junction where Application Performance Management (APM) and ITIL come together to provide tangible value back to the business.^[30]

Request fulfilment

Request fulfilment (or request management) focuses on fulfilling Service Requests, which are often minor (standard) changes (e.g., requests to change a password) or requests for information.

The term "standard change" means pre-approved, repeatable, pre-defined, low risk changes. If the change does not meet these criteria then it is not a standard change and should be defined as a request for change.

Problem management

Problem management aims to resolve the root causes of incidents and thus to minimize the adverse impact of incidents caused by errors within the IT infrastructure, and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to these errors.

A "problem" in this context is the unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents, and a 'known error' is a problem that is successfully diagnosed and for which either a work-around or a permanent resolution has been identified. The CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency) defines problems and known errors as follows:

Problem management differs from incident management. Problem management aims primarily to find and resolve the root cause of a problem and thus prevent further incidents; the purpose of incident management is to return the service to normal level as soon as possible, with smallest possible business impact.

The problem-management process reduces the number and severity of incidents and problems on the business, and documents the details of the problem and resolution to be available for the first-line and second-line of the help desk.

The proactive process identifies and resolves problems before incidents occur. Such processes include:

The error control process iteratively diagnoses known errors until they are eliminated by the successful implementation of a change under the control of the Change Management process.

The problem control process aims to handle problems in an efficient way. Problem control identifies the root cause of incidents and reports it to the service desk. Other activities are:

Root-cause analysis

Root-cause analysis is a formal problem-solving process and a critical component of Problem Management. Once a problem (or potential problem) has been identified, the root cause analysis process begins. The purpose of a root cause analysis is two-fold:

Classic root-cause analysis methods include the 5-whys and Ishikawa diagram or fishbone diagram. Others have since developed more advanced root cause analysis methodologies, some with corresponding software applications.

Benefits from employing a standard, structured root-cause analysis methodology include:

Identity management

Identity management (IdM) less commonly called Access and Identity Management (AIM) as a process focuses on granting authorized users the right to use a service, while preventing access to non-authorized users. Certain identity management processes execute policies defined in Security Management.

Continual service improvement (CSI)

Continual service improvement, defined in the ITIL continual service improvement volume,^[26] aims to align and realign IT services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the business processes. It incorporates many of the same concepts articulated in the Deming Cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act. The perspective of CSI on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole lifecycle. To manage improvement, CSI should clearly define what should be controlled and measured.

CSI needs upfront planning, training and awareness, ongoing scheduling, roles created, ownership assigned, and activities identified to be successful. CSI must be planned and scheduled as process with defined activities, inputs, outputs, roles and reporting. Continual Service Improvement and Application Performance Management (APM) are two sides of the same coin. They both focus on improvement with APM tying together service design, service transition, and service operation which in turn helps raise the bar of operational excellence for IT.^[31]

ITIL Version 2

Overview of ITIL Version 2

To assist with the implementation of ITIL practices a further book was published (Apr 9, 2002) providing guidance on implementation (mainly of Service Management):

And this has more recently (Jan 26, 2006) been supplemented with guidelines for smaller IT units, not included in the original eight publications:

Service support

ITIL discipline focuses on the User of the ICT services and is primarily concerned with ensuring that they have access to the appropriate services to support the business functions.

To a business, customers and users are the entry point to the process model. They get involved in service support by:

The service desk functions are the single contact-point for end-users' incidents. Its first function is always to document ("create") an incident. If there is a direct solution, it attempts to resolve the incident at the first level. If the service desk cannot solve the incident then it is passed to a 2nd/3rd level group within the incident management system. Incidents can initiate a chain of processes: incident management, problem management, change management, release management and configuration management. This chain of processes is tracked using the configuration management database (CMDB), - ITIL refers to configuration management system (CMS), which records each process, and creates output documents for traceability (quality management).

Note - CMDB/CMS does not have to be a single database. The solution can be Federated.

Service delivery

discipline concentrates on the proactive services the ICT must deliver to provide adequate support to business users. It focuses on the business as the customer of the ICT services (compare with: service support). The discipline consisted of the following processes:

ICT infrastructure management

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) management^[34] processes recommend best practice for requirements analysis, planning, design, deployment and ongoing operations management and technical support of an ICT infrastructure.

The infrastructure management processes describe those processes within ITIL that directly relate to the ICT equipment and software that is involved in providing ICT services to customers.

These disciplines are less well understood than those of service management and therefore often some of their content is believed to be covered 'by implication' in service management disciplines.

ICT design and planning

ICT design and planning provides a framework and approach for the strategic and technical design and planning of ICT infrastructures. It includes the necessary combination of business (and overall IS) strategy, with technical design and architecture. ICT design and planning drives both the procurement of new ICT solutions through the production of statements of requirement ("SOR") and invitations to tender ("ITT") and is responsible for the initiation and management of ICT Programmes for strategic business change. Key outputs from design and planning are:

ICT deployment management

ICT deployment provides a framework for the successful management of design, build, test and roll-out (deploy) projects within an overall ICT programme. It includes many project management disciplines in common with PRINCE2, but has a broader focus to include the necessary integration of release management and both functional and non functional testing.

ICT operations management

ICT operations management provides the day-to-day technical supervision of the ICT infrastructure. Often confused with the role of incident management from service support, operations has a more technical bias and is concerned not solely with incidents reported by users, but with events generated by or recorded by the infrastructure. ICT operations may often work closely alongside incident management and the service desk, which are not-necessarily technical, to provide an 'operations bridge'. Operations, however should primarily work from documented processes and procedures and should be concerned with a number of specific sub-processes, such as: output management, job scheduling, backup and restore, network monitoring/management, system monitoring/management, database monitoring/management storage monitoring/management. Operations are responsible for the following:

ICT technical support

ICT technical support is the specialist technical function for infrastructure within ICT. Primarily as a support to other processes, both in infrastructure management and service management, technical support provides a number of specialist functions: research and evaluation, market intelligence (particularly for design and planning and capacity management), proof of concept and pilot engineering, specialist technical expertise (particularly to operations and problem management), creation of documentation (perhaps for the operational documentation library or known error database). There are different levels of support under the ITIL structure, these being primary support level, secondary support level and tertiary support level, higher-level administrators being responsible for support at primary level.

The Known Error Database (KEDB) database contains all known error records. This database is created by problem management and used by incident management and problem management, and as part of service knowledge management systems.

Planning to implement service management

attempts to provide practitioners with a framework for the alignment of business needs and IT provision requirements. The processes and approaches incorporated within the guidelines suggest the development of a continuous service improvement program (CSIP) as the basis for implementing other ITIL disciplines as projects within a controlled program of work. Planning to implement service management focuses mainly on the service management processes, but also applies generically to other ITIL disciplines. Components include:

Small-scale implementation

ITIL Small-scale implementation^[36] provides an approach to ITIL framework implementation for smaller IT units or departments. It is primarily an auxiliary work that covers many of the same best practice guidelines as planning to implement service management, service support, and service delivery but provides additional guidance on the combination of roles and responsibilities, and avoiding conflict between ITIL priorities. The typical IT Organizational structure that maps to ITIL framework.

Related frameworks

A number of frameworks exist in the field of IT Service Management alongside ITIL.

Descendants

Microsoft Operations Framework

The Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) is based on ITIL Version 2. While ITIL deliberately aims to be platform-independent, MOF is designed by Microsoft to provide a common management framework for its products. Microsoft has mapped MOF to ITIL as part of their documentation of the framework.^[37]

FITS

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) used ITIL as the basis for their development of Framework for ICT Technical Support (FITS). Their aim was to develop a framework appropriate for British schools, which often have very small IT departments. FITS became independent from BECTA in 2009 and is now maintained and supported by The FITS Foundation. FITS is now used in excess of a thousand schools in the UK, Australia and Norway as the standard for ICT Service Management in the Education sector (Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ast-ZPLaMkU What people are saying])

Other frameworks

The process framework of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard (previously BS 15000) is largely equivalent that of the Service Support and Service Delivery parts of ITIL Version 2.^[38] While it is not possible for an organization to be certified as being ITIL compliant, certification of an organization is available for ISO/IEC 20000.^[39]

The Business Process Framework (eTOM) published by the TeleManagement Forum offers a framework aimed at telecommunications service providers. In a joined effort, TM Forum and itSMF developed an Application Note to eTOM (GB921) that shows how the two frameworks can be mapped to each other. It addresses how eTom process elements and flows can be used to support the processes identified in ITIL.^[41]^[42]

IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP) is aligned with ITIL, but is presented as a complete, integrated process model compatible with IBM's products.

FitSM ^[43] is a standard for lightweight service management. Its process framework is quite similar to that of ISO/IEC 20000 and the Service Support and Service Delivery parts of ITIL Version 2, but adopts Service Portfolio Management from later ITIL versions. FitSM contains several parts, including samples and templates for core ITSM documents, that are published under Creative Common licenses.

Certification

ITIL 4

The new ITIL 4 Foundation which is an update from ITIL v3/2011 was launched on 18 February 2019. ITIL 4 is a new certification scheme that will slowly replace the existing scheme it is based on the transformation to a digital environment. It is designed to offer a clearer career path for professionals from Foundation to higher levels. There is no Bridge exam for current ITIL Foundation holders to ITIL 4 Foundation. Candidates who hold the current ITIL Foundation will need to take the ITIL 4 Foundation to be certified in the new scheme or they would need to accumulate 17 ITIL v3 credits and then take the transition module.

Individuals

The certification scheme {{clarify|date=March 2017}} differs between ITIL Version 2 and ITIL 2007/2011, and bridge examinations (now retired) allowed owners of ITIL Version 2 certificates to transfer to the new program.{{Citation needed|date=April 2012}}

The ITIL certification scheme now offers a modular approach. Each qualification is assigned a credit value; so that upon successful completion of the module, the candidate is rewarded with both a certification and a number of credits. At the lowest level – Foundation – candidates are awarded a certification and two credits. At the Intermediate level, a total of additional 15 credits have to be earned. These credits may be accumulated in either a "Lifecycle" stream^[47] or a "Capability" stream;^[48] or combination thereof. Each Lifecycle module and exam is three credits. Each Capability module and corresponding exam is four credits. A candidate wanting to achieve the Expert level will have, among other requirements, to gain the required number of credits (22). That is accomplished with two from Foundations, then at least 15 from Intermediate, and finally five credits from the "Managing Across the Lifecycle" exam. Together, the total of 22 earned credits allows a person to request designation as an ITIL Expert. Advancing from the expert to the master level does not require additional credits, but does require at least five years of IT domain work experience and an extensive usage of ITIL practices.^[49]

The complementary certifications also have point values, ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 credits, which can be applied towards ITIL Expert certification. However, only a maximum of six credits from complementary certifications can be applied towards the Expert certification.^[50]

The ITIL Certification Management Board (ICMB) manages ITIL certification. The Board includes representatives from interested parties within the community around the world. Members of the Board include (though are not limited to) representatives from the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC), APM Group (APMG), The Stationery Office (TSO), ITIL Examination Panel, Examination Institutes (EIs) and the IT Service Management Forum International (itSMF) as the recognised user group.^[51]

Since the early 1990s, EXIN and ISEB had been setting up the ITIL based certification program, developing and providing ITIL exams at three different levels: Foundation, Practitioner and Manager. EXIN^[52] and BCS/ISEB^[53] (the British Computer Society) had from that time onwards been the only two examination providers in the world to develop formally acknowledged ITIL certifications, provide ITIL exams and accredit ITIL training providers worldwide. These rights were obtained from OGC, the British government institution and owner of the ITIL trademark.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} OGC signed over the management of the ITIL trademark and the accreditation of examination providers to APM Group in 2006. Now, after signing a contract with EXIN,^[52] BCS/ISEB, Loyalist Certification Services , PeopleCert Group and other certification bodies, APM Group has accredited them as official examination bodies, to offer ITIL exams and accredit ITIL training providers.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

On July 20, 2006, the OGC signed a contract with the APM Group to become its commercial partner for ITIL accreditation from January 1, 2007.^[54] APMG manage the ITIL Version 3 exams. APMG maintains a voluntary register of ITIL certified practitioners at their Successful Candidate Register.^[55]

Since 2014, Axelos is the owner of the ITIL personnel certification scheme.^[56]

ITIL exams are administered by Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs) which are accredited by Examination Institute (EI).^[59] The Examination Institutes, which issue the ITIL certificates, in turn need to be accredited by Axelos.^[60]

Pins

Following the passing an APMG/EXIN exam in IT service management (based on ITIL), some people will wear a metal pin on their shirt or jacket. This badge, provided by the ITSMF with basic gold colour is set in the form of the ITIL-logo. The ITIL pins consist of a small, diamond-like structure. The meaning and the shape of the diamond is meant to depict coherence in the IT industry (infrastructure as well). The four corners of the pin symbolise service support, service delivery, infrastructure management and IT management.

There are five colours of ITIL pins - each corresponds to the colour of the associated core publication:

Exam candidates who have successfully passed the examinations for ITIL will receive their appropriate pin from APMG, EXIN or their certification provider regional office or agent.

Organizations

Organizations and management systems cannot claim certification as "ITIL-compliant". An organization that has implemented ITIL guidance in IT Service Management (ITSM), may be able to achieve compliance with and seek certification under ISO/IEC 20000. However, while relatively closely aligned, ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL Version 2 do not define identical processes.^[61] This gap has become much wider with ITIL versions 2007 and 2011. ITIL now defines twice as many ITSM processes as ISO/IEC 20000 (26 compared to 13),^[62] but there are also more subtle differences, for example:^[63]

Tools

Starting in 2009,^[64] the APM Group, UK, established an ITIL Software Scheme (ISS) which allows IT Service Management software ITSM tool vendors to obtain endorsement through the Cabinet Office for an ITIL-based tool. This endorsement allows vendors to hold a valid ISS trademark licence and use the process compliant ITIL ‘swirl’ logo at a bronze, silver or gold level.

The ISS assessment operates through Licensed Software Assessors. Currently there are two companies listed as Licensed Software Assessors:^[65] Pink Elephant, and Glenfis AG. In 1998^[66] Pink Elephant released its PinkVerify assessment service, the 2011^[67] version assesses a software tool against ITIL terminology, definitions, functionality and workflow requirements for the following 15 ITSM processes: Availability Management, Capacity Management, Change Management, Event Management, Financial Management, Incident Management, IT Service, Continuity Management, Knowledge Management, Problem Management, Release & Deployment Management, Request Fulfilment, Service Asset & Configuration Management, Service Catalogue Management, Service Level Management, Service Portfolio Management. Currently there are three tools holding the PinkVerify 2011 certification for those 15 ITIL processes:^[68] CA Service Desk Manager Suite, Dexon Software V6 and SAP Solution Manager.

Criticism

While a number of researchers have investigated the benefits of the ITIL implementation,^[69]^[70] it has been criticised on several fronts, including:

Rob England (author of the "IT Skeptic" blog) has criticised the protected and proprietary nature of ITIL.^[71] He urges the publisher, Cabinet Office, to release ITIL under the Open Government Licence (OGL).^[72]

CIO Magazine columnist Dean Meyer has also presented some cautionary views of ITIL,^[73] including five pitfalls such as "becoming a slave to outdated definitions" and "Letting ITIL become religion." As he notes, "...it doesn't describe the complete range of processes needed to be world class. It's focused on .... managing ongoing services."

In a 2004 survey designed by Noel Bruton (author of "How to Manage the IT Helpdesk" and "Managing the IT Services Process"), organizations adopting ITIL were asked to relate their actual experiences in having implemented ITIL. Seventy-seven percent of survey respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that "ITIL does not have all the answers". ITIL proponents accept this, citing ITIL's stated intention to be non-prescriptive, expecting organizations to engage ITIL processes with existing process models. Bruton notes that the claim to non-prescriptiveness must be, at best, one of scale rather than absolute intention, for the very description of a certain set of processes is in itself a form of prescription.^[74]

While ITIL addresses in depth the various aspects of service management, it does not address enterprise architecture in such depth. Many of the shortcomings in the implementation of ITIL do not necessarily come about because of flaws in the design or implementation of the service management aspects of the business, but rather the wider architectural framework in which the business is situated. Because of its primary focus on service management, ITIL has limited utility in managing poorly designed enterprise architectures, or how to feed back into the design of the enterprise architecture.

Closely related to the architectural criticism, ITIL does not directly address the business applications which run on the IT infrastructure; nor does it facilitate a more collaborative working relationship between development and operations teams. The trend toward a closer working relationship between development and operations is termed: DevOps. This trend is related to increased application release rates and the adoption of agile software development methodologies. Traditional service management processes have struggled to support increased application release rates – due to lack of automation – and/or highly complex enterprise architecture.

See also

Notes

1. ^{{cite web |last1=Hearsum |first1=Phil |title=ITIL’s the name - you won’t wear it out! |url=https://www.axelos.com/news/blogs/june-2018/itils-the-name-you-won’t-wear-it-out |website=AXELOS |accessdate=2019-03-03 |date=2018-06-04}}
2. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.tsoshop.co.uk/AXELOS-Global-Best-Practice/ITIL-4/?DI=650015|title = ITIL® Foundation, ITIL 4 edition |author=Axelos |publisher=Axelos |date=2019-02-18 |accessdate=2019-02-24}}
3. ^{{cite book|author1=David Clifford |author2=Jan van Bon |title=Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification: The Roadmap|series=ITSM Library|publisher=Van Haren Publishing|year=2008|isbn=978-90-8753-082-2}}
4. ^Office of Government Commerce (UK). CCTA and OGC. Retrieved on 2005-05-05 from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1878.
5. ^Office of Government Commerce (UK). Retrieved on 2009-08-19 from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/guidance_itil.asp.
6. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=1.3 The structure and benefits of the ITIL 4 framework}}
7. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=4.1 Service value system overview}}
8. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=4.5 Service value chain}}
9. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=5. ITIL management practices}}
10. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=4.3 The ITIL guiding principles}}
11. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=4.4 Governance}}
12. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=4.6 Continual improvement}}
13. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=3. The four dimensions of service management}}
14. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=3.1 Organizations and people}}
15. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=3.2 Information and technology}}
16. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=3.3 Partners and suppliers}}
17. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=3.4 Value streams and processes}}
18. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=5.1 General management practices}}
19. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=5.2 Service management practices}}
20. ^{{cite book|author=AXELOS|title=ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 edition|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|year=2019|isbn=978-0113316076|chapter=5.3 Technical management practices}}
21. ^{{cite web | url = http://www.ogc.gov.uk/itil_ogc_withdrawal_of_itil_version2.asp | title = OGC withdrawal of ITIL version2 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100123230442/http://www.ogc.gov.uk/itil_ogc_withdrawal_of_itil_version2.asp | archivedate = 2010-01-23}}
22. ^¹{{cite book|author=FSM. David Cannon|title=ITIL Service Strategy 2011 Edition|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2011|isbn=978-0113313044}}
23. ^¹{{cite book|author=Lou Hunnebeck|title=ITIL Service Design|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2011|isbn=978-0113313051}}
24. ^¹{{cite book|author=Stuart Rance|title=ITIL Service Transition|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2011|isbn=978-0113313068}}
25. ^¹{{cite book|author=Randy A. Steinberg|title=ITIL Service Operation|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2011|isbn=978-0113313075}}
26. ^¹{{cite book|author=Vernon Lloyd|title=ITIL Continual Service Improvement|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2011|isbn=978-0113313082}}
27. ^{{cite web |title=ITIL Strategy Management |url=https://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/ITIL_Strategy_Management}}
28. ^{{cite book|author1=Cazemier, Jacques A. |author2=Overbeek, Paul L. |author3=Peters, Louk M. |title=Security Management|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2000|isbn=978-0-11-330014-3}}
29. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=Application Management|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2002|isbn=978-0-11-330866-8}}
30. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.apmdigest.com/dna-application-performance-management |title=The DNA of APM - Event to Incident Flow |date=4 June 2012 |publisher=APM Digest}}
31. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.apmdigest.com/prioritizing-gartners-apm-model |title=Prioritizing Gartner's APM Model: The APM Conceptual Framework |date=15 March 2012 |publisher=APM Digest }}
32. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=Service Support|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2000|isbn=978-0-11-330015-0}}
33. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=Service Delivery|series=IT Infrastructure Library|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2001|isbn=978-0-11-330017-4}}
34. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=ICT Infrastructure Management|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2002|isbn=978-0-11-330865-1}}
35. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=Planning to Implement Service Management|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2002|isbn=978-0-11-330877-4}}
36. ^{{cite book|author=Office of Government Commerce|title=ITIL Small Scale Implementation|publisher=The Stationery Office|year=2005|isbn=978-0-11-330980-1}}
37. ^{{cite journal|title=Microsoft Operations Framework; Cross Reference ITIL and MOF 4.0|url=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151991|date=May 2009|publisher=Microsoft Corporation}}
38. ^{{citation | last1=Van Bon | first1=Jan | year=2006 | title=Frameworks for IT Management | last2=Verheijen | first2=Tieneke | publisher=Van Haren Publishing | isbn=978-90-77212-90-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RV3jQ16F1_cC}}
39. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.itsmsolutions.com/newsletters/DITYvol2iss3.htm |title=ITIL ISO 20000 |publisher=Itsmsolutions.com |date=2006-03-21 |accessdate=2013-11-12}}
40. ^{{citation | author=ISACA | year=2008 | title=COBIT Mapping: Mapping of ITIL V3 With COBIT 4.1 | publisher=ITGI | isbn=978-1-60420-035-5 | url=http://www.isaca.org/Knowledge-Center/Research/ResearchDeliverables/Pages/COBIT-Mapping-Mapping-of-ITIL-V3-With-COBIT-4-1.aspx}}
41. ^{{citation | last=Brooks | first=Peter | year=2006 | title=Metrics for IT Service Management | publisher=Van Haren Publishing | isbn=978-90-77212-69-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UeWDivqKcm0C | pages=76–77 }}
42. ^{{citation | last1=Morreale | first1=Patricia A. | year=2009 | title=CRC Handbook of Modern Telecommunications, Second Edition | last2=Terplan | first2=Kornel | edition=2 | publisher=CRC Press | isbn=978-1-4200-7800-8 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEp0aMmH3iQC| chapter=3.6.10.2 Matching ITIL to eTOM}}
43. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.fitsm.eu |title=FitSM |publisher=FedSM Project |date= |accessdate=2012-12-12}}
44. ^{{Cite news|url=https://www.upguard.com/blog/itil-guide-to-devops|title=ITIL Guide to DevOps - eBook|last=Sharp-Paul|first=Alan|access-date=2017-07-31|language=en}}
45. ^{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/11/13/devops-and-itil-friends-or-enemies/#18b5a598919e|title=DevOps And ITIL: Friends Or Enemies?|last=Bloomberg|first=Jason|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-07-31}}
46. ^{{cite journal|title=ITIL Complementary Qualifications|url=http://www.itil-officialsite.com/Qualifications/ComplementaryQualifications.aspx|date= |accessdate=2013-01-25 |publisher=ITIL Official Site}}
47. ^The Lifecycle stream follows the ITIL core volumes; there are therefore 5 modules also called Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.
48. ^The Capability stream is more focused on process activities; the 4 modules available in 2013 are Operational support and analysis (OSA), Service offerings and agreements (SOA), Planning protection and optimization (PPO) and Release, control and validation (RCV).
49. ^{{cite journal|title=ITIL Qualification Scheme Brochure|url=http://www.itil-officialsite.com/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=1358&sID=86 |date= |accessdate=2014-01-09 |publisher=ITIL Official Website}}
50. ^{{cite journal|title=ITIL Credit Profiler Tool|url=http://www.itil-officialsite.com/qualifications/creditprofiler.aspx|date= |accessdate=2013-01-25 |publisher=ITIL Official Site}}
51. ^{{cite web |author=APMG|year=2008|title=ITIL Service Management Practices: V3 Qualifications Scheme|url=http://www.itil-officialsite.com/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=572&sID=86|accessdate=24 February 2009}}
52. ^¹{{cite web|url=http://www.exin-exams.com/ |title=EXIN Exams |publisher=EXIN Exams |date= |accessdate=2010-01-14}}
53. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5732 |title=ISEB Professionals Qualifications, Training, Careers BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT |publisher=BCS |date= |accessdate=2010-01-14}}
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56. ^{{cite web|title=Axelos, Capita and the PRINCE2 Joint Venture|url=http://www.advantagelearning.co.uk/news/axelos.html|publisher=Advantage Learning|accessdate=11 May 2014}}
57. ^"AXELOS to maximise profits in PRINCE2 and other best practice products", July 31, 2013
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