In today’s service-based environment, IT enterprises across the globe are looking to provide services that cater to the next-gen business demand and ensure those services add value that aligns with the organizational business strategy. In this regard, ITIL has emerged as the de facto service management standard for IT enterprises across the globe. ITIL has grown in stature over its two decades of existence where it is now deep-rooted in enterprise DNA.
The only way to build comprehensive knowledge about ITIL is by knowing some of the major things about ITIL. As a professional, if you are about to begin your ITIL journey, then it is best advised to go through this post to get a clear view of ITIL and its basic tenets.
1. What is ITIL?:
Maybe a decade ago, nobody outside the UK did know about ITIL. Today, ITIL is very popular across the globe, especially in Europe, Oceania, and the Asia region where enterprises are implementing the ITIL framework to provide better IT services.
First, ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). As the name suggests it is a library of best practices and recommendations for managing IT. Do not confuse ITIL with the delivery of technology, as it is all about the delivery of services. Some of the benefits that ITIL offers include improved cost reduction, agility, growth, streamlining of processes, enhanced IT value through services offered, and better customer satisfaction.
2. The Governing Body of ITIL is AXELOS:
ITIL was developed in the early 1980s by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC)
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework for guiding the design and delivery of IT services. Developed in the late 1980s by the UK Once of Government Commerce (OGC), ITIL was a response to the large-scale decentralization of computing systems that often resulted in inconsistent processes for deployment and support of IT services. This decentralization coincided with a trend in which many core institutional services were migrated into electronic formats, making computing systems an indispensable part of the routine functioning of an organization. The OGC recognized that common processes could improve the quality of IT services and bring them into closer alignment with business processes.
3. ITIL Offers Best Practice Guidance and Recommendations through a Series of Books:
Beginning in the 80s, ITIL and its best practice guidance and recommendations have evolved a lot. The current ITIL series of books is in its 3rd version and has 5 volumes to it in the form of Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Operation, Service Transition, and Continual Service Improvement. Each of these books covers a specific element of the service lifecycle and shows how to improve IT services that align with the organizational business strategy.
4. Implementing ITIL can be a Project, but ITIL is not Project Management:
Many people believe ITIL is related to project management methodology. This is not true. ITIL is a framework for ITSM and it does not focus on having a temporary specified time to accomplish goals like projects. ITIL focuses more on delivering IT services to the company and one which meets customer expectations. The implementation part of ITIL can be considered as a project which has a start date and end date, whereas ITIL in an enterprise does not have an end date, it is continuous and relentless which helps to streamline IT processes and aligns toward strategic business operations.
5. Executive Sponsor Plays a Key Role in the Successful Implementation of ITIL:
Implementing ITIL in an organization is not an easy thing, it needs a cultural shift to embrace change. Be it any new framework or methodology, there is that fear of the unknown which results in resistance to having to do things differently than what they did in the past. As we said above, implementing ITIL can be a project in itself, and a project needs an executive sponsor to ensure the implementation is successfully achieved and protects the deployment team from all the external forces and management which may disrupt the whole process.
6. Do not Confuse ITIL with a Tool, it is a Set of Best Practice Guidance Obtained from Both Public and Private Sectors Internationally:
When your organization says that they are going to implement ITIL, many people think that ITIL is a tool. This is not true. Though you can use many aspects of ITIL using tools, in general tools are not required. If you are a small organization, then simple templates and spreadsheets are more than enough. But for a large organization, where you track a lot of things with regards to IT processes, you have to use appropriate software tools to get the best out of ITIL.
7. ITIL can be Implemented in Stages:
There is no written rule in ITIL saying that you have to implement all ITIL modules in one go. Implementing such a large change takes some effort and it is not feasible either. Better you start with the most problematic process.
For instance, your service desk is not able to handle sudden spikes in customer queries and there are a lot of backlogs that have not been cleared. In this case, you can implement ITIL’s Incident Management and Problem Management concepts to handle your service desk much better and streamline the entire process so that it is now able to handle peak volumes of customer queries in an efficient manner. Service Desk is a major component of any IT organization, and by showcasing the ITIL benefits, there will be far lesser resistance, and you can slowly start integrating the ITIL framework into another important component of your enterprise.
8. You can get Certified in ITIL and Expand the Scope of your ITSM Career:
Yes, you read it right. You can get certified in ITIL credentials. There are 5 levels of ITIL modules in which you can gain certifications:
- ITIL V4 Training and Certification
- ITIL Intermediate Service Lifecycle (SD, SS, SO, ST, and CSI)
- ITIL Intermediate Service Capability (RCV, PPO, OSA,)
- ITIL MALC (Expert)
- ITIL Master
These are some of the things that you should know about ITIL before making that journey to become an ITIL Expert. Today, ITIL is a de facto standard out there to manage IT departments through its vast array of best practices in ITSM. ITIL has evolved over a period and is now at a stage where enterprises are implementing the ITIL framework from the beginning to reap rich dividends by catering to their IT services in this complex business landscape.
