FAQ on ITIL and ISO 20000

 

 

ITIL

What is ITIL?

ITIL was developed at the end of the 1980's by the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a government agency in Great Britain. The objective was to develop effective and efficient methods for the provision of IT Services - in other words a catalogue of best practices for the IT organization, which today is known as ITIL.

In the past years, ITIL has become the de-facto standard for IT Service Management. Increasingly, IT managers developed awareness for the service- and customer-driven approach championed by ITIL, and the ITIL terminology is widely understood and used.

To learn more about ITIL visit our IT Process Wiki with complete descriptions of ITIL processes, Glossary terms, and roles.

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ITIL V3

Why was there a need for a new ITIL version (ITIL V3)?

ITIL V3 reflects the experiences gained with the earlier versions and puts a greater emphasis on creating business value. ITIL V3 is also better aligned with ISO 20000, establish a Deming-like Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle focused on continual improvement.

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What are the differences between ITIL V2 and V3?

In comparison to ITIL V2 - which consisted of nine books - ITIL V3 is more streamlined around a set of five new core publications which together form the "ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle": Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement.

Overall, ITIL V3 complements the processes known from ITIL V2 with a number of new processes and puts more emphasis on producing value for the business. The underlying principles are largely unchanged.

There is a complete comparison between ITIL V3 and V2 in our IT Process Wiki.

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Is ITIL V3 no longer process-oriented (but a "Service Lifecycle")?

ITIL V3 is organized around a "Service Lifecycle" but still is made up of processes - there are plenty of chapters in the new books describing "Processes" and "Activities". In fact ITIL V3 does not replace processes with cycles: Instead ITIL V3 is best understood as seeking to implement feedback-loops by arranging processes in a circular way.

This means there is no conflict between having processes and a Service Lifecycle.

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Switching to ITIL V3

Do I need to switch from ITIL V2 to ITIL V3?

Because the new ITIL V3 books are based very much on the principles known from ITIL V2, there is no urgent need for action for any IT organization with ITIL V2 processes in operation. But you might want to look at ITIL V3 to see if it offers any hints about where to improve your processes.

However, before long there will be only one version of ITIL around - ITIL V3. This means that even in cases where the processes itself don't need to be changed, at one point in time a switch to the new "Service Lifecycle" process structure will have to be made. Such an alignment also offers the chance to benefit from the improvements of ITIL V3.

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Should I start with ITIL V2 or ITIL V3?

For anyone starting with ITIL there is no reason to begin with ITIL V2, because ITIL V3 contains all the processes from ITIL V2 plus a number of important improvements. Starting with ITIL V2 will only create additional work once the switch has to be made.

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What is the best way to switch from ITIL V2 to ITIL V3?

The new ITIL V3 books are based very much on the principles known from ITIL V2, but there are no detailed instructions for switching to the new set of "Service Lifecycle" processes. As a result, the only advice available is a rough outline of a two-step strategy for switching to V3:

Step 1: Take all existing ITIL processes and plug them into the new Service Lifecycle process structure

Step 2: Benchmark your existing processes against the new ITIL V3 recommendations and replace, add or improve processes as required

The ITIL Process Map is ideally suited to support switching to V3 because it contains a complete ITIL V3 process structure which makes it possible to plug in any existing V2 processes.

The overview of Problem Management, for example, presents on one single page how this process is interfacing with the other Service Operation processes. This makes it easy to decide where process interfaces must be modified, and existing documentation on the Problem Management process can be incorporated into this structure.

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The ITIL Process Map V3 - a Reference Process Model for ITIL V3

How was the ITIL Process Map V3 created from the ITIL V3 books?

The new set of ITIL books contains some 2000 pages of Best Practice recommendations, while our Reference Process Model consists of about 25 overview diagrams and some 104 detailed process flows, plus 80 checklists and templates. The ITIL Process Map is therefore not so much about presenting every single detail in a different format – rather, it depicts the essential contents in an easily accessible and understandable way.

A Reference Process Model is also subject to stricter rules. By definition, it must explicitly state which activities are to be carried out in what order, and what outputs are to be produced for subsequent processes. Redundancies are not allowed – any activity occurs only once within a well-defined process, with clearly assigned responsibilities for its execution.

Books, in contrast, can get away with being less strict. Statements like "Risk must be analyzed and managed during all stages of Service Transition" are perfectly suitable for books. When developing a process model, however, it must be precisely defined how and when risks are analyzed and who is responsible for the execution.

In short, creating the ITIL Process Map meant extracting the essentials from the ITIL books, sorting out redundancies, and translating the text-based content into clear-cut activity flows. This required a lot of expertise and effort - the present version 3 of the ITIL Process Map took us about 2 years to develop.

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What are the advantages of using a Reference Process Model?

Figuring out how the text-based recommendations from the ITIL books translate into implementable process flows requires a lot of time and expertise. If you make use of our Reference Process Model you don't have to do this on your own or with the help of consultants.

What is more, you will have to document your organization's own process flows in some way. This is usually a very time-consuming task, and using process templates will save you months of drawing "boxes and arrows". All you need to do is modifying the provided templates to adapt them to your organization's needs.

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Why is a Process Model ideal for understanding ITIL V3?

The ITIL Process Map V3 allows exploring the Service Lifecycle processes in a top-down manner. An example highlights why this is ideal for getting familiar with the ITIL V3 processes:

  • A High Level View shows the ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle and its most important external relationships on one single page.
  • Zooming in by clicking the corresponding process object, the viewer is presented an overview of the Service Transition process. This diagram illustrates what Service Transition is about: It includes all sub-processes with their interrelationships, as well as all the interfaces to processes outside of Service Transition.
  • Zooming in once again leads to an overview of Change Management…
  • ...and finally to a detailed process flow for the "Change Assessment by the CAB" process, which also includes a complete list of inputs and outputs, and linked checklists/ document templates.

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Is the ITIL Process Map V3 a complete representation of all ITIL V3 processes?

The ITIL Process Map V3 offers complete coverage of the five ITIL V3 core volumes Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.

This includes completely revised versions of all processes known from ITIL V2.

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What are the differences between versions 2 and 3 of the ITIL Process Map?

The ITIL Process Map V3 contains a completely new set of process models. We had to abandon the attempt to incorporate the existing models from version 2: Although ITIL V3 follows much the same principles as ITIL V2 the new processes have undergone a thorough refresh. Redrawing the processes made it possible for our product to be 100% aligned with the new set of books.

The new reference processes now use BPMN process modelling notation, because many of our customers are already familiar with this standard.

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Where does the ITIL Process Map V3 differ from the ITIL books?

We introduced improvements to the ITIL process structure in a few areas where, according to our own experiences, this will significantly enhance the chances of a successful ITIL implementation:

  • ITIL V3 calls for "coordinated risk assessment exercises", so we assigned clear responsibilities for managing risks by introducing a specific Risk Management process. Having a basic Risk Management process in place will also provide a good starting point for applying best-practice Risk Management frameworks like M_o_R (as recommended in the ITIL V3 books)
  • Compliance is an increasingly important topic for IT organizations; this called for introducing a specific Compliance Management process
  • Having a well-defined architecture blueprint in place is very important for IT organizations; as a consequence, we defined specific IT Architecture Management process
  • The Transition Planning and Support process was enhanced to provide a full-featured Project Management process; this will also provide a good starting point for introducing best-practice Project Management frameworks like PRINCE2 or PMBOK (as recommended in the ITIL V3 books)
  • The chapter on Demand Management in the Service Strategy book does not offer enough substance to justify a separate Demand Management process and a dedicated Demand Manager role. At the same time, the Capacity Manager is well placed to perform those activities. The approach to influence service demand in the ITIL Process Map is as follows: The Capacity Manager identifies “Suggestions to Influence Service Demand”; those suggestions will be considered during Service Reviews as part of Continual Service Improvement.
  • The "Seven-Step Improvement Process" presented in the ITIL V3 books is in fact the description of a methodology which can be universally applied to identify shortcomings in services and processes and to implement improvements. The principles it contains are applied in a number of ITIL processes, most importantly in Service Design (e.g. in the Service Level Management, Capacity Management, and Availability Management processes). As a result, the "Seven-Step Improvement Process" cannot be treated as a standalone ITIL process, and there is no such process in the ITIL Process Map V3. The "Seven-Step Improvement" principles, however, are included in a checklist.
  • Service Measurement is embedded into various ITIL Processes: For example, Capacity and Availability Management will be involved in the definition of metrics and measurement requirements during Service Design, and will also take care of the actual data gathering. The ITIL Process Map treats Service Measurement as part of those processes and does not feature a Service Measurement process as part of Continual Service Improvement.
  • Service Reporting is embedded into various ITIL Processes: For example, Service Level Management produces the Service Level Report, which in turn is compiled from other reports like the ones from Capacity and Availability Management. The ITIL Process Map treats Service Reporting as part of those processes and does not feature a Service Reporting process as part of Continual Service Improvement.

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How does the ITIL Process Map V3 deal with ITIL "Functions"?

In various parts of the new books, ITIL V3 refers to "Functions" rather than "Processes". For instance, Service Level Management is introduced as a Process and IT Facilities Management as a Function.

Much confusion stems from the fact that in the real world there are often "Functions" and "Processes" with identical names: For example, the Facilities Management team (a "Function") will perform a set of facilities-related activities, which as a whole are called the Facilities Management process.

As a result, the ITIL Process Map V3 features a Facilities Management process even though, strictly speaking, the ITIL books define Facilities Management as a Function.

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The ITIL Process Map V3 and ISO 20000

How do ITIL and ISO 20000 compare?

The basic principles behind ITIL and ISO 20000 are very much in line. The key differences are:

  • ITIL certifications are available for individuals only, whereas ISO 20000 is a certification scheme for organizations
  • ITIL is a rather detailed collection of best practices, while ISO 20000 is an international standard that sets out Service Management requirements for IT organizations
  • when organizations say they are compliant to ITIL, very often this statement is not verifiable; a certification according to the ISO 20000 standard means there has been an objective assessment

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What are the merits of an ISO 20000 certification?

Frequently, a certification according to ISO 20000 is sought after introducing ITIL, because it allows an IT organization to actually prove that it is a customer-oriented, efficient and effective supplier of IT services. A certification can thus be used for marketing purposes, or to gain access to customers and markets which require their service suppliers to be ISO 20000 certified.

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How does the ITIL Process Map V3 support a certification?

The ITIL Process Map supports ISO 20000 initiatives in that it contains a full set of ISO 20000 compliant processes. With its ready-to-use process models it facilitates the creation of a high-quality process documentation which is at the centre of any certification project.

This is not to say that one must implement all processes contained in the ITIL Process Map to the letter. The processes of our Reference Model are compliant with ISO 20000 but should be seen as one possible approach to implementing ISO 20000 compliant processes. Other approachs are equally valid, as long as they adhere to the ISO 20000 (and ITIL) ideas and requirements.

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About Us

Is IT Process Maps a consulting company?

Our focus is on the provision of ITIL process know-how in the form of an ITIL Reference Process Model (the ITIL Process Map). This means we are not classical ITIL consultants - instead our products put you in a position to take your ITIL or ISO 20000 initiative into your own hands.

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What services does IT Process Maps offer?

We will be happy to answer any questions related to the ITIL Process Map and its use in ITIL and ISO 20000 initiatives. However, we see this as product support - if you require comprehensive ITIL consulting services we will do our best to help you with finding a suitable consultant.

We also offer a wealth of ITIL-related information in our IT Process Wiki.

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IT Process Maps is a very new company - shouldn't I rather turn to an established ITIL vendor?

The big and well-known ITIL consultants and suppliers of ITIL-compliant application systems will certainly be able to help you with your ITIL or ISO 20000 initiatives. Choosing one of those vendors, however, typically means entering a longer-term relationship, and vendors are likely to promote their own services and products. Before choosing an external partner it is a good idea to get familiar with ITIL and to set clear goals ("what exactly is to be improved with the introduction of ITIL?").

Our idea at IT Process Maps is to provide you with independent know-how. Our business model is not about selling on-site consulting or application systems, so we are free to focus on perfecting the ITIL Process Map with the best available expertise, without any hidden agenda. With an investment comparable to a small number of consulting days you will be better placed to decide what services and systems are right for you and where to spend your money.

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