What is ITIL®?
ITIL® stands for IT Infrastructure Library, which is most widely accepted process framework for IT Service Management.
History of ITIL®
This was initiated by CCTA1 of UK Government CCTA to streamline their service offering. Later CCTA was merged into OGC2.
It has been continually reviewed and updated to capture current best practices in the industry. It has undergone two major revisions since its inception which was known as ITIL V1 to current version know as ITIL V3 or popularly known as simply V3
ITIL V1 focused on various processes for managing IT Systems
ITIL V2 focused on processes based approach for service management
ITIL V3 focuses on lifecycle approach to service management.
Contents of ITIL V3
ITIL V3 core publication has five books which are different stages for any service. Each book focuses on processes and practices relevant to that specific phase of lifecycle.
The five core books are
- Service Strategy (SS) – Focuses on strategy generation and application of the strategy for the services.
- Service Design (SD) – Focuses on designing services based on strategy generated
- Service Transition (ST) – Focuses on transitioning services from design phase to operation where the services are live for using
- Service Operation (SO) – Focuses on delivering and supporting services which are operational
- Continual Service Improvement (CSI) – Focuses on improving services continually to improve business outcomes
1CCTA - Central Computer and Telecommunication Agency
2OGC – Office of Government commerce