Overview of ITIL

ITIL is the most widely recognized framework for ITSM in the world. In the 20 years since it was created, ITIL has evolved and changed its breadth technologies and business practices have developed. ISO/IEC 20000 provides a formal and universal standard for organizations seeking to have their service management capabilities audited and certified. While ISO/IEC 20000 is a standard to be achieved and maintained, ITIL offers a body of knowledge useful for achieving the standard.

The key concepts of ITIL :

We will be covering a few key concepts of ITIL like Functions, Roles, Processes etc.

Explore Service Lifecycle and its phases

ITIL is organized around a service lifecycle which includes service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement. The Wycliffe starts with service strategy

Understanding who the IT customers are?

• The services to be offered that are required to meet the customer's needs

• The IT capabilities and resources that are required to develop these offerings.

•  And the requirements for executing them successfully.

Service design ensures that changed services are designed effectively to meet customer expectations. Through the service transition phase of the lifecycle, the design is built, tested and moved into production to enable the customer to achieve the desired value. Once transitioned, service operation then delivers the service on an ongoing basis, overseeing the daily overall health of the service. Enveloping the service lifecycle is continual service improvement (CSI).

Define Service Strategy processes?

At the center of the service, the lifecycle is service strategy, Value creation begins here with understanding organizational objectives and customer needs. Every organizational asset includes people, processes and products which will support the strategy. ITIL Service Strategy (this publication) provides guidance on how to view service management not only as an organizational capability but as a strategic asset. It describes the principles underpinning the practice of service management which is useful for developing service management policies, guidelines, and processes across the ITIL service.

Topics covered in ITIL Service Strategy include:

1. The development of market spaces

2. Characteristics of internal and external provider types

3. Service assets

4. The service portfolio and implementation of strategy through the service lifecycle.

5. Business relationship management

6. Demand management

7. Financial Management

8. Organizational development and strategic risks

Define Service Design processes

Service design is the stage in the lifecycle that turns a service strategy into a plan for delivering the business objectives. For services to provide true value to the business, they must design the business objectives in mind. Design encompasses the whole IT organization, for it is the organization as a whole that delivers and supports the services.

ITIL Service Design provides guidance for the design and development of services and service management practices. It covers design principles and methods for converting strategic objectives into portfolios of services and service assets.

The scope of ITIL Service Design is not limited to new services :

It includes the changes and improvements necessary to increase or maintain value to customers over the lifecycle of services, the continuity of services achievement of service levels and conformance to standards and regulations. It guides organizations on how to develop the design capabilities for service management.

Other topics in ITIL Service Design include :

• Design coordination,

• Service catalogue management,

• Service level Management,

• Availability management,

• Capacity management,

• IT service Continuity management, Information security management  

• Supplier management.

Define Service Transition processes

ITIL Service Transition provides guidance for the development and improvement of capabilities for introducing new and changed services into supported environments. It describes how to change an organization from one state to another while controlling risk and supporting organizational knowledge for decision support. It ensures that the values identified in the service strategy and encoded in service design are effectively transitioned so that they can be realized in service operation.

Define Service Operation processes

ITIL Service Operation describes best practice for managing services in supported environments. It includes guidance on achieving effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery and support of services to ensure value for the customer, the users, and the service provider. Strategic objectives are ultimately realized through service operation, therefore making it a critical capability. ITIL Service Operation provides guidance on how to maintain stability in a service operation, allowing for changes in design, scale, scope and service levels.

Define the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) process

• ITIL Continual Service Improvement provides guidance on creating and maintaining value for customers through better strategy, design, transition and operation of services.

• It combines principles, practices, and methods from quality management, change management, and capability improvement.

• ITIL Continual Service Improvement describes best practice for achieving increments and large-scale improvements in service quality, operational efficiency, business continuity and for ensuring that the service portfolio continues to be aligned with business needs.

• Guidance is provided for linking improvement efforts and outcomes with service strategy, design, transition, and operation.

• Closed loop feedback system, based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is established.

• Feedback from any stage of the service lifecycle can be used to identify improvement opportunities for any other stage of the life cycle.

New models and architectures such as outsourcing, shared services, utility computing, cloud computing, virtualization, web services, and mobile commerce have become widespread within IT. The process-based approach of ITIL was augmented with the service life-cycle to address these additional service management challenges. The ITIL framework is based on the five stages of the service life-cycle, with a core publication providing best-practice guidance for each stage. This guidance includes key principles, required processes, and activities, organization and roles, technology, associated challenges, critical success factors and risks.

The service life-cycle uses a hub-and-spoke design with service strategy at the hub as well as service design, transition and operation as the revolving life-cycle stages or‘spokes’. Continual service improvement surrounds and supports all stages of the service life-cycle. Each stage of the life-cycle exerts influence on the others and relies on them for inputs and feedback. In this way, a constant set of checks and balance throughout the service life-cycle ensures that as business demand changes with business need and the services can adapt as well as respond effectively. In addition to the core publications, there is also a complementary set of ITIL publications providing guidance specific to industry sectors, organization types, operating models and technology architectures.

The Qualification Scheme, as approved by the ITIL Qualification Board, is based on the content of the core ITILService Management Practices publications, namely, service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement. The subject and content areas as included in the ITIL core publications have been grouped into a variety of combinations which cover the ITIL Service Management practice life-cycle and Capability elements and are organized into three levels. With the completion of ITIL foundation, you become eligible to go for ITIL intermediate level certification. ITIL foundation gives you 2 credits and you need minimum 22 credits to be called as qualified ITIL Expert.

There are 2 streams in ITIL qualification life-cycle & Capability stream. Life-cycle stream has 5 ITIL intermediate modules with 3 credits each whereas capability stream has 4 ITIL intermediate modules with 4 credits each. MALC gives 5 credits and to become ITIL Expert which is common for both the streams.

Capability stream is as follows:

• OSA – Operational Support and analysis

• PPO – Planning, protection, and optimization

• RCV – Release Control and Validation

• SOA – Service offering and analysis

Life-cycle stream is as follows:

• SS – Service Strategy

• SD – Service Design

• ST – Service Transition

• SO – Service Operation

• CSI – Continual Service Improvement

The purpose of the ITIL Foundation certificate in IT Service Management is to certify that the candidate has gained knowledge of the ITIL terminology, structure and basic concepts and has comprehended the core principles of ITIL practices for service management. The ITIL Foundation certificate in IT Service Management is not intended to enable the holders of the certificate to apply the ITIL practices for service management without further guidance. The target group of the ITIL Foundation certificate in IT Service Management is drawn from:

• Individuals who require a basic understanding of the ITIL framework and how it may be used to enhance the quality of IT service management within an organization.

• IT professionals that are working within an organization that has adopted and adapted ITIL, who need to be informed about and thereafter contributes to an ongoing service improvement programme. This may include but is not limited to IT professionals, business managers, and business process owners.
   

What ITIL Delivers:

• ITIL Deliver value to customers through services by providing a return on investment in terms of value.

• ITIL Integrate the strategy for services with the business strategy and customer needs.

• ITIL Measure, monitor and optimize IT services and service provider performance and hence provide value to the business and customer.

• ITIL Manage the IT investment and budget, manage risk and knowledge

• ITIL Manage capabilities and resources to deliver services effectively and efficiently.

• ITIL Enable adoption of a standard approach to service management across the enterprise.

• ITIL Change the organizational culture to support the achievement of sustained success