ITIL and ISO 20000

Central Requirements of ISO 20000

The ISO 20000 standard demands that IT organizations fulfill two central requirements:

  • Use of a management approach in line with the ISO management standard ISO 9001:2000, based upon the principles of Business Process Management and aimed at continuous quality improvement
  • Alignment of the IT processes with the requirements of the ISO 20000 standard, which broadly corresponds to ITIL Best Practice

Introducing ITIL is therefore a prerequisite for obtaining an ISO 20000 certificate, but not sufficient: It is equally important to be able to prove that IT processes are documented, actively managed, and continually improved. From this it follows that a high-quality process documentation is at the centre of any certification project.

Reasons to Become ISO 20000 Certified

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.

How ITIL V3 and ISO 20000 are Related

One reason for creating a new ITIL version - ITIL V3 - was to achieve better alignment with the ISO 20000 standard. As a result, the principle of continual improvement has found its way into the ITIL books, and the processes in ITIL and ISO 20000 are very much in line (for example, there is now a Security Management process in ITIL, as required by ISO 20000).

 

Key Differences between ISO 20000 and ITIL

  • 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 by an accredited ISO 20000 auditor

 

Detailed Comparison between ITIL and ISO 20000

A more detailed comparison between ITIL and ISO 20000 can be found in the ISO 20000 section of our IT Process Wiki.

If you are looking for information on how ISO 20000 relates to the previous ITIL Version 2 you can find it here: Comparison between ISO 20000 and ITIL V2 Comparison ITIL V2 / ISO 20000 (PDF document).

More Information on the ITIL Process Map V3 and ISO 20000

The ITIL Process Map V3 contains a complete set of ISO-20000-compliant process templates. Its professional design and database support put you in a position to develop a coherent process documentation which is able to stand up to a certifier's scrutiny. At the same time you will save effort during process design and documentation, as you modify existing process models and document templates - rather than starting with a blank page.

Read more about our process templates on the ITIL Process Map V3 Main Page or download the PDF factsheet on the ITIL Process Map V3 Factsheet ITIL Process Map V3 with a description of the ITIL Process Map's features, contents and use cases on two pages.