Information technology has become the organization’s main point of focus these days. It is because they have realized that the next period belongs to IT. It is getting such sharp acceptance and popularity in the market that it seems like organizations will be called by the name of IT organizations in the near future. The main reason for the popularity of IT is that it has a dynamic nature and a wider range of applications than an organization needs. From this statement, we meant that broad range wider ranges that organizations can get all they want and do not need to look somewhere else. Suppose it has no solution to a specific thing, but it can still provide a solution or way to solve it due to its dynamic nature.
IT does not manage all these things randomly; it has many concepts, tools, techniques, frameworks, and approaches for systematically dealing with different specific topics and processes. ITIL is also one of them. If you are related to IT or IT service management, it isn’t easy to believe that you have never heard of this name before. ITSM is incomplete without ITIL. In fact, IT implementation in an organization is incomplete without the implementation of ITIL.
When we hear the name ITIL, a question comes to mind: what is ITIL? And why is it crucial for organizations? This article includes the solution to this queries. In this article, we went into great detail about the concept’s history, the core idea, and other related ideas. We sincerely hope that this will be very beneficial for you. Before moving forward toward the main concept of ITIL, we should first know its origin.
ITIL was started in the 1980s when data centers were decentralized and worked on diverse architectures. It caused a decrease in the credibility of IT services. The United Kingdom’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) realized the importance of considering IT as a service and developed a well-defined detailed methodology in 1989 called ITILv1. In 2000, CCTA was merged into the Office of Government Commerce, and this office released ITILv2 in 2001. ITIL v3 was released in 2007 and updated in 2011. In 2013, the U.K. Cabinet Office and Capita PLC formed an organization named Axelos. The purpose of this organization is to;
“Make individuals and organizations more effective by providing practical guidance, content, and qualifications distilled from real-world experience and developing practices.”
Axelos released ITILv4 in 2017. ITILv4 is the most updated version of the information technology infrastructure library. ITIL v4 indeed provides a new life to the ITIL framework. We said this because it is a much-needed update. There are many frameworks like Agile that are replacing it because it lacks several things that are addressed in the new frameworks. That’s why we said that ITILv4 gives new life to the ITIL framework.
The acronym ITIL refers to the information technology infrastructure library. It serves as a framework to standardize how IT services are implemented, chosen and developed within an organization. It is one of the frameworks for IT governance that offers an organized framework for IT governance. ITIL’s main objective is to increase IT services’ efficiency, accuracy, effectiveness, and predictability. According to Lawrence Williams;
“ITIL is a set of well-defined guidelines that help software professionals to deliver the best IT services. ITIL guidelines are the best practices that are observed, gathered, and put together over time for delivering quality IT services.”
ITIL’s systematic approach to ITSM can help organizations strengthen customer relations, manage risk, establish cost-effective practices, and build a stable IT environment that allows for scale, growth, and change. It is a very lengthy approach spread across several books and thousands of research papers. Due to this length, it provides a complete solution to organizations for their IT service management.
No one can exist in an adynamic market without changing themselves according to the market’s changing needs. A rigid framework could not exist for a long time. ITIL developers realized it from day one and always tried to make it flexible according to an organization’s needs. Let’s take a tour of ITIL’s evolution to see how much it has changed from its beginning.
ITIL v1 was introduced in 1989. Its main purpose was to standardize IT service management. Initially, it gave organizations tips on streamlining services and providing them with best practices for their service operations.
ITIL v2 was introduced in 2001. It provides organizations with a more effective, applicable, and uniform structure for service support and service delivery. Moreover, it includes actual, complete processes for organizations to follow.
ITIL v3 was introduced in 2007. It provided a more comprehensive overview of IT services and added some new recommendations for service design, strategy, operation, and transition. It also provided a wealth of suggestions for how businesses can continually enhance their offerings. The best practices for each significant stage of IT service management were compiled in its basic publications framework.
Axelos unveiled ITILv4 in the year 2017. It is intended to help organizations by advising them on how information technology management should be used in a service economy. ITIL Newer methodologies like automation, the cloud, microservices, containers, and DevOps are included in ITIL v4. It also emphasizes the integration of ITSM with other areas of a business.
The four service management dimensions in ITIL v4 are as follows:
Thirty-four practices are also included in ITIL v4 and are referred to as activities and resources for carrying out tasks or achieving goals. In contrast, ITIL has once more defined processes as recommendations it makes to help an organization in all situations, regardless of the nature of its objectives and scope of work. Additionally encouraged in the new version are greater collaboration, improved internal communication, and the dismantling of organizational silos. More customization and flexibility are available with ITIL 4. It offers more customization and flexibility. In essence, the new version encourages a more holistic view of IT. The concepts of Costs, outcomes, risks, and value are given more attention in ITIL 4. It is constructed on a solid number of concepts supported by the ITIL Practitioner.
ITIL’s capacity to change, along with the needs of businesses, will determine how successful it will be in the future. We anticipate that ITIL will develop further to support organizations in keeping up with emerging technologies and methodologies. One of the main factors contributing to ITIL’s continued popularity today is its flexibility.
Understanding ITIL’s jargon can be challenging because the subject is so broad. So, in the sections of this tutorial that follow, we’ll learn some essential ITIL terminology and their definitions:
Capabilities are the specialized knowledge that an organization applies to resources in order to add value.
The organized set of actions intended to accomplish a particular goal is known as a process.
The autonomous subsets of an organization that are designed to carry out particular tasks are known as functions.
The raw materials that go into providing a service are known as resources and include things like cash, tools, labor, and personnel.
The term “roles” refers to groups of specific duties and rights. It could be controlled by a person or group.
The creation, delivery, and enhancement of all services within the environment fall under the purview of the service manager.
With each iteration of ITIL, updated documentation and certifications are provided to better prepare administrators for the current infrastructure landscape and its services. Organizations evaluate their needs and put into place the components that are most important to them rather than using the ITIL framework as a rigid checklist to implement best practices. There are many concepts that ITIL provides to an organization. Following are some of these concepts;
The service strategy outlines organizational objectives, customer needs, and how to harmonize them.
Service design outlines IT policy, architecture, and documentation production best practices.
In addition to offering guidance during environmental disruptions and changes, service transition also offers guidance on change management and release procedures.
Organizations can manage IT services daily, monthly, and yearly using the service operation’s methods.
Continuous service improvement addresses how to implement updates to policies and enhancements within the ITIL process framework.
Change management is a long rending headache for organizations. It is because changes can be both beneficial and harmful. It could be beneficial if it is well-calculated and well-planned, and it could be harmful if it is poorly planned or wrongly planned. Absolutely, no organization desires to implement a destructive change. That’s why organizations always try to plan before implementation. It is the afterword effects that determine whether the planning was really effective or not. That’s why we said that the change management process is a permanent headache for organizations.
ITIL provides a complete change management process to organizations. The change management process has been so detailed that, It seems that ITIL developers mainly focused on it. Several concepts, steps, and roles are determined in this detailed process. Following are some of these concepts, steps, and roles.
ITIL provides organizations with a complete detailed mechanism of change management. Some specific roles have been defined in this regard. Following are these roles that ITIL defined to run the change management process of an organization.
The change initiator is the person who identifies the need to change. This change initiator should be someone directly working with the service team or service tools. It is because a directly connected person could identify the problem and its solution more easily than others.
The change coordinator is the person that manages the change requests from initiators. He sorts these requests according to their importance and benefits and also makes plans to implement these changes, and also monitors the change process to determine whether it is running in the right direction or not.
A change manager is a person who prioritizes change requests and tracks the record of the impact of changes on organizations. The change manager is generally needed in mid-sized or large organizations where hundreds of requests are generated daily.
The change advisory board contains 5-10 experts who recommend whether the change should be really implemented or not. It takes a keen observation of the advantages, disadvantages, harms, costs, and period of that change process. After this keen observation, they recommend whether the change should be implemented or not.
The change approver is the person who approves or declines the change request. The change approver should also be an expert, and he is normally part of CAB.
The change implementation team normally consists of the field experts in the field in which change has been initiated. The Department head should also be a part of this team because he is the person who is accountable before authorities for the success or failure of the change process. For example, in case of an IT change, the IT manager must be a member of the change implementation team.
ITIL provides complete step-by-step change management procedures. These procedures help an organization implement risk-free changes; the following are these ITIL change management procedures.
Change identification is the duty of the change initiator. Because he is the person, who is directly connected with the service team that’s why he better knows what problems have been faced by the requesters.
After change identification, the next question is how to execute the change. The change coordinator and manager plan how and when change should be implemented.
The change advisory board and change approver is responsible for approving the change. They oversee all factors like cost, period, advantages, disadvantages, harms, and productivity period and approve or decline the change.
The change implementation process has been run through specialists in the field in which change has been implemented. In ITIL, change has been implemented through the traditional waterfall approach.
After implementing the change, the implementation team and change coordinator follow up on the implemented change and determines whether there are any impacts of that change. After this follow-up, implementation teams close the change and move forward to the next change request.
Now, the question is, why should we use it for our organization? The following are some benefits and reasons why ITIL is so important to answer this.
Due to its growing importance and benefits, organizations must use ITIL as their ITSM framework. It provides a detailed and secure way for organizations to be successful. It is so precise that organizations do not need to look elsewhere for answers to their queries on some specific process or topic. Now, you must consider the benefits and reasons why ITIL is so important these days. So, the following are some benefits and reasons why ITIL has been so important for organizations.
ITIL has proved so beneficial for organizations that they must use it as their infrastructure library. There are many benefits of ITIL for organizations. Some of these benefits are as follows;
ITIL guarantees the enhanced success and efficiency level of an organizations. It can do so by providing a complete mechanism of running the service operations. Under the guidance of the ITIL principles a staff with less training and experience can provide more productivity. In tis way it enhance the success and efficiency of an organization.
ITIL made it easier for an organization to resolve and identify an issue. Now, the question came to mind how could ITIL do so? The answer is ITIL helps organizations to find the root cause of an issue by providing complete guidance to the organizations. ITIL not only helps to identify the issue, but it also helps organizations to resolve the real problem. Its detailed guiding principles help organizations to be cleaned out from minor and major issues.
It is a common desire of all organizations to satisfy their customers and employees with their service operations. It is a difficult but important task. Through ITIL, this difficult task becomes easier. We said this because ITIL guidance enables organizations to provide more effective and rapid services to employees and customers. That’s why we recommend using ITIL if you want to improve your employees’ and customers’ satisfaction levels.
It is difficult for organizations to find an all-in-one IT professional. They must pick up a beginner and make it an IT professional. ITIL is beneficial in this regard because, through ITIL-provided guiding principles, it became easier for even a beginner to run the service operations of an organization.
ITIL causes enhanced alignment between IT and business. In this way, it brought the two departments of the organization together that are not pretended easily to be together. This alignment is difficult but important. Because, in some service operations, it became necessary for organizations to develop communication between these two departments. If there is no communication or weak communication, it causes several losses, setbacks, and delays in an organization’s daily routine service operations. So, it’s necessary to develop such communication, and ITIL is the best way to do so.
ITIL can help fulfill the desire for cost cuts more effectively. It is because ITIL reduced the need for several software and other service tools. In this way, it helps organizations to reduce their service operations’ costs. ITIL bot only helps organizations to reduce costs, but through its metric-based strategies, it makes the costs visible to an organization. This visibility helps organizations to get their operations within the budget. If they realize that their operations are going out of the budget, they can cut more costs according to their choice.
ITIL provides better and more effective risk identification and management. We mainly said this because ITIL has very strong and well-defined processes of change, problem, incident, and risk management. In this way, it ensures better and more effective risk identification and risk management. Moreover, ITIL reduces the possibility of risks by developing an effective alignment between IT and the business department. So, it becomes easier for an organization to be risk-free by adopting ITIL.
In this detailed overview, we have overseen the concept of ITIL. We briefly overviewed its main concepts, importance, and benefits. After this overview, we learn what is ITIL? ITIL has been very important for organizations due to its detailed mechanism for organizations to run their daily service operations.
