In 2007, the third version of ITIL was published: ITIL v3. It was built on the paradigm of a Service Lifecycle with five phases, and each phase was documented in a separate publication. These five core books were then updated in 2011 in a minor review of ITIL v3, with few differences. The ITIL v3 editions changed the focus from technology to services.
The pace of development in the IT industry in the last decade accelerated in such a way that a thoroughly redefined version of ITIL was required. It was not only technology and the role of IT in business that had made huge progress, but the practices used in the IT industry had also gone through some serious evolution, with Agile and DevOps approaches, cloud technology, and the merging of IT with many other domains being some of the most prominent features.
With the new ITIL 4, a major step has been taken to cover the latest developments. The ITIL 4 guidance supports modern ways of co-creating value in an active collaboration of stakeholders, using an Agile approach in a customer-focused setting. Its holistic approach not only underpins the management of IT services, but now also supports other domains, enabling the integration of IT with the business and with other support domains.
1 Introduction
Learning outcomes:
• Understand the purpose and components of the ITIL service value system.
Assessment criteria:
• Describe the ITIL service value system
The past decade has illustrated that delivering services has become the mainstream economic model. The merging of IT and business, and the increasing pace of development of technology, has created the need for a fully-fledged, strategic IT service management capability.
The digitization of companies and economies has made it clear that organizations must learn to deliver their IT-enabled services in a flexible way, combining Agile approaches with guarantees for predictability and stability. This places significant responsibility on the shoulders of IT service management and on its leading guidance, ITIL.
ITIL has provided leading guidance for IT service management for more than 30 years. ITIL 4 brings ITIL up-to-date by re-shaping much of the established practices in the wider context of customer experience, value streams, and digital transformation, as well as embracing new approaches such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps.
■ 1.1 THE ITIL 4 FRAMEWORK
The key components of the ITIL 4 framework are the ITIL service value system (SVS) and the four dimensions model.
1.1.1 The ITIL service value system (SVS)
The ITIL service value system (SVS) is a model demonstrating how all the components and activities of an organization work together to facilitate value creation through IT-enabled services.
These components of the SVS include:
■ the ITIL service value chain
■ the ITIL practices
■ the ITIL guiding principles
■ governance
■ continual improvement
Figure 1. The ITIL service value system (SVS)
The ITIL service value chain is a set of interconnected activities that an organization performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service to its consumers and to facilitate value realization. It provides an operating model for service providers that covers six key activities, applying practices to continually improve the enabled values.
The ITIL practices are sets of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. Activities in the service value chain can be based on established practices.
The ITIL guiding principles are recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure. The ITIL guiding principles assure that the organization performs in a consistent, effective and efficient way.
Governance is the means by which an organization is directed and controlled. The organization’s governance is based on a consistent set of guiding principles. Governance enables the organization to ensure that its operations are always aligned with its strategy.
Continual improvement is a recurring organizational activity performed at all levels to ensure that an organization’s performance continually meets stakeholders’ expectations.
Using all these components, the service provider can continually improve its services. Continual improvement is a core component of the SVS, as in previous versions of ITIL guidance. It is based on the continual improvement model (Figure 10) and supported by various ITIL practices.
1.1.2 The four dimensions model
In a holistic approach, ITIL 4 covers all four dimensions required for the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. The SVS should be considered from all of these four dimensions:
■ organizations and people
■ information and technology
■ partners and suppliers
■ value streams and processes
These four dimensions should be managed in an integrated way, balancing their contribution to an effective SVS. The four dimensions are described in more detail in chapter 3.
Figure 2. The four dimensions of service management
2 Key concepts of service management
Learning outcomes:
• Understand the key concepts of service management.
Assessment criteria:
• Recall the definitions of Service management, Customer, User, Sponsor, Service, Utility, Warranty.
• Describe the key concepts of creating value with services: Cost, Value, Organization, Outcome, Output, Risk, Utility, Warranty.
• Describe the key concepts of service relationships: Service offering, Service relationship management, Service provision, Service consumption.
Before describing how ITIL supports organizations to continually improve services and co-create value, the definitions of service management and value need to be clear.
Service management: A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form of services.
The purpose of an organization is to create value for its stakeholders.
Value: The perceived benefits, usefulness and importance of something.
This introduces the following questions:
■ What is the nature of value?
■ What is the nature and scope of the stakeholders involved?
■ How is value creation enabled through services?