Itil

It Service Management - ITIL
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So what is ITIL?

ITIL is an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It consists of a library of reference books outlining good practice guidelines for IT Service Management.

It was conceived by the UK government who approached various organisations and subject matter experts to write all of the books in the library, and it wasoriginally published in the late 1980's.

The ITIL library is published by the Office of Government Commerce, or OGC, and in 2001 revised versions of the ITIL manuals were published to include, amongst other things, recent technological developments, such as the internet and e-commerce. Further updates to the manuals were published in 2002.

Since its inception ITIL has expanded from a library ofbooks into a whole industry, with many organisations offering related products including training, consultancy and management tools.
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The ITIL Library consists of seven volumes, although the central part of the library consists of just five. Service Delivery, Service Support, Business Perspective and Infrastructure Management, and at the centre - Applications Management.

ApplicationsManagement holds this central position as it's the only volume in the library which deals with both Development and Service Delivery issues.

There are two further ancillary volumes, which provide additional guidance. They are: 'Planning to Implement Service Management' - used by Project managers who are implementing ITIL, and 'Security Management' - which offers additional information oninfrastructure.

For the purposes of this course we are interested in what's known as 'Core ITIL' This core consists of two major volumes, 'Service Support' and 'Service Delivery'.

In addition to the two main manuals we will also refer to a guidance overview booklet known as 'little ITIL', and its sister publication "A Dictionary of IT Service Management". These overview booklets are published bythe IT Service Management Forum or ITSMF.

This course forms the 'introductory overview' to the content of both books, and you will find that much of the material is also summarised in the 'little ITIL' book. This 'overview' will provide you with enough knowledge to confidently sit for the Foundation Certificate in Service Management.
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Today's businesses need to concentrate on providinga 'Quality Service' and to adopt a more customer focused approach. ITIL provides a best practice framework focusing on the provision of high quality services, and it places particular importance on customer-supplier relationships.

For example, areas within 'Service Delivery' address customer agreements and monitor targets within these agreements. On an operational level 'Service Support'processes address any changes or failings outlined in these agreements.

In both cases, there is a strong link between ITIL and recognised quality systems, such as ISO 9001. ITIL's non prescriptive nature allows the tailoring of 'Service Management', allowing it to sit comfortably along side a recognised quality system.
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Many companies require their suppliers to become registered to ISO 9001and because of this, registered companies find that their market opportunities have increased. In addition, a company's compliance with ISO 9001 ensures that it has a sound Quality Assurance system.
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Registered companies will usually benefit from reductions in Customer complaints, significant reductions in operating costs and increased demand for their products and services.

In anyorganisation, managing IT services is a fundamental part of day to day operations. As well as maintaining and servicing these ongoing business functions, an organisation will often be developing new applications.

Each new application might be made up of a number of projects, or a group of projects, known as a programme. The relationship between these different projects needs to be understood and...