The ITIL certification covers a wide range of concepts and policies for managing information technology (IT), infrastructure, development and also operations. The overall ITIL framework consists of a glossary of closely defined and widely accepted stipulations. ITIL is a registered trademark of the United Kingdoms Office of Government and Commerce. The ITIL exams cover, in depth, important IT practices with comprehensive checklists, tasks and measures that each IT organization can tailor to their needs.

ITIL was first established as a concept back in the 1980’s. It has since evolved into two other carnations; Version 2 and Version 3, commonly referred to as ITIL v3. Each version revised towards current trends and technologies. The versions of ITIL are:

ITIL Version 1 (released 1980’s)
ITIL Version 2 (released 1990’s)
ITIL Version 3 (released 2007)

ITIL Version 2 is grouped into logical sets rather than the 30 volumes that were part of the original ITIL Version 1. Each set is a group of correlated process guidelines to match different parts of IT management, applications and services. Service Management is by far the most commonly used and understood of the ITIL publications. The overall ITIL structure expands to far greater lengths in version 2.

ITIL Version 2

The 8 groups enclosed in ITIL Version 2 are:

1. Service Delivery
2. Service Support
3. ICT Infrastructure Management
4. Security Management
5. The Business Perspective
6. Application Management
7. Software Asset Management
8. Planning to Implement Service Management

ITIL Version 3

ITIL version 3 takes the framework one step further by refining processes and terms to align with today’s standards. The 5 groups comprising ITIL Version 3 are:

1. Service Strategy
As the centre and origin point of the ITIL Service Lifecycle, the Service Strategy volume provides guidance on clarification and prioritization of service provider investments in services

2. Service Design
The ITIL Service Design framework provides good practice guidance on the design of IT services, processes, and other aspects of the service management effort. Significantly, design within ITIL is understood to encompass all elements relevant to technology service delivery, rather than focusing solely on design of the technology itself

3. Service Transition
Service transition relates to the delivery of services required by the business into live/operational use, and often encompasses the “project” side of IT rather than “BAU” (Business As Usual)

4. Service Operation
Best practice for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services both to end-users and the customers (where “customers” refer to those individuals who pay for the service and negotiate the SLAs)

5. Continual Service Improvement
The goal of Continual Service Improvement is to align and realign IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the Business Processes

Note: ISO/IEC20000 and ITIL Version 3 are quite different. ISO20000 does not recognise assets which include management organisation, process, knowledge, people, information, applications or infrastructure. Instead, ICO/IEC20000 deals with the management of financial assets. These are quite different from the assets managed through the ITIL.

Our practice exam covers the full spectrum of ITIL methods and framework techniques. Including:

Service Desk
Local Service Desk, Central Service Desk, Virtual Service Desk
Incident Management
Level Agreement
Problem Management
Problem classification, Problem investigation and diagnosis, Problem identification and recording
Trend analysis;
Change Management
Minimal disruption of services, Reduction in back-out activities
Request for Change, Forward Schedule of Changes
Release Management
Release Categories
Delta Release, Full Release, Packaged Release
Configuration Management
Service Level Management, Capacity Management, Availability Management
IT Service Continuity Management, Financial Management
Capacity Management
Availability Management
Reliability, Maintainability, Serviceability, Resilience, Security
Financial Management for IT Services
Security Management
ICT Infrastructure Management
ICT Design and Planning
ICT Operations Management
Application Management
Software Asset Management

Our free practice test for ITIL covers the full syllabus of the exam and is the ideal ITIL training simulator. All candidates hoping to take this exam should be able to demonstrate competence in all aspects of ITIL practices. Each ITIL book should be read from front to back to ensure full preparedness.

All our free questions are presented in our unique multiple choice simulator that mimics the actual exam content by pulling random questions from a pool of hundreds! Simply read the ITIL question to understand the topic or area being tested, then select the appropriate choice from the radio buttons underneath. The exam simulator informs you of right or wrong answers as you progress. There are 15 random questions per practice exam, and you are free to take the ITIL exam as many times as you wish. Please bookmark this page, as we revise new questions on a regular basis. Always stay ahead of the curve, use Accelerated Ideas as you number one training provider for practice exams.

Please Note: Our exam does not contain official sample or live questions which are protected by APM Group Copyright or Crown Copyright.

Welcome to our third site dedicated for the newest version of ITIL V3! The new version of the IT Infrastructure Library has many new subjects closely related to business operations and is much more foucused on doing business than dealing with IT. Below is a small chart that quickly presents the new qualification scheme. It will be disussed in more details shortly.

ITIL Service Lifecycle Modules are:

1. Service Strategy (SS)
2. Service Design (SD)
3. Service Transition (ST)
4. Service Operation (SO)
5. Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

ITIL Service Capability Modules are:

1. Planning, Protection and Optimization (PP & A)
2. Service Offerings and Agreements (SO & A)
3. Release, Control and Validation (RC & V)
4. Operational Support and Analysis (OS & A)

As the subject is very wide we will focus only on the lifecycle modules. As well as describing modules we will help you to prepare to ITIL Exam and Certification by presenting several questions and asnwers describing the right choices.

Once candidates have accumulated a sufficient number of credits they can be awarded the ITIL Expert in IT Service Management.

There are four levels within the scheme:

Foundation Level
Intermediate Level (Lifecycle Stream & Capability Stream)
ITIL Expert
ITIL Master.
The diagram to the right shows the structure of qualifications within the Version 3 scheme. Click the image to enlarge.

Please click on the relevant links below to view the various V3 syllabuses.

Foundation Level

The Foundation Level focuses on knowledge and comprehension to provide a good grounding in the key concept, terminology and processes of ITIL.

View the Interim Foundation Course Syllabus.
View the Foundation Bridging Course Syllabus.

Learn about the new ITIL V3 Foundation and Foundation Bridge Syllabuses which will be live from 01 May 2009.

Foundation Examination Languages

The ITIL V3 Foundation and Foundation Bridge examinations are now available in the following languages:

English
French
Danish
German
European Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Japanese
Italian
Translation and piloting of the Foundation and the Foundation Bridge examination is also underway in the following languages:

Brazilian Portuguese
Dutch
Swedish
Korean
Hungarian
Polish
Chinese
Arabic
For information regarding their availability, please contact your Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) or one of the Examination Institutes.

Intermediate Level

There are two streams in the Intermediate level. Both assess an individual’s ability to analyse and apply the concepts of ITIL. Candidates are able to take units from either of the Intermediate streams, to gain credits towards the Expert Level.

Intermediate Lifecycle Stream – this stream includes 5 individual certificates built around the five core OGC titles, as follows:

Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Transition
Service Operation, and
Continual Service Improvement.
The focus of these modules is on the introduction and implementation of the specific Lifecycle phase, and coverage of the principles, processes and related activities.

Intermediate Capability Stream – this stream includes 4 individual certificates loosely based on the V2 Clustered Practitioner qualifications, but broader in scope in line with the updated V3 content, focussing on detailed process implementation and management within cluster groupings:

Operational Support and Analysis (OS&A). Subjects covered inc. Event, Incident, Request, Problem, Access, Service Desk, Technical, IT Ops and Application Management
Service Offerings and Agreements (SO&A). Subjects covered inc. Portfolio, Service Level, Service Catalogue, Demand, Supplier and Financial Management
Release, Control and Validation (RC&V). Subjects covered inc. Change, Release & Deployment, Validation & Testing, Service Asset & Configuration, Knowledge, Request Management and Service Evaluation
Planning, Protection and Optimization (PP&O). Subjects covered inc. Capacity, Availability, Continuity, Security, Demand and Risk Management.
ITIL Expert

To achieve the ITIL Expert in IT Service Management, candidates must successfully complete a number of Intermediate units in addition to the mandatory Foundation Level and the Managing Across the Lifecycle capstone course. This course brings together the full essence of a Lifecycle approach to Service Management, and consolidates the knowledge gained across the qualification scheme.

ITIL Master

This level of the qualification will assess an individual’s ability to apply and analyse the ITIL concepts in new areas. This higher level qualification is currently under development.

In May 2008 the ITIL Qualifications Board released a statement on the V3 scheme, confirming release dates for the exams.

Managers Bridge

The ITIL Managers Bridge certification is aimed at individuals who already hold the Manager’s Certificate in IT Service Management at an earlier ITIL version, who wish to obtain the ITIL Expert in IT Service Management, thereby demonstrating their knowledge of ITIL V3.

View the ITIL V3 Managers Bridge Syllabus.

The ITIL V3 Managers Bridge examination is now available in the following languages:

English
German
Translation and piloting of the ITIL V3 Managers Bridge examination is also underway in the following languages:

Japanese
French
For information regarding their availability, please contact your Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) or one of the Examination Institutes.

Translated Glossaries

For more information or copies of the latest translated V3 glossaries, please visit the Best Management Practice website.

The ITIL V3 Credit System and The Relationship Between V3 and V2

Find out more about the ITIL V3 Credit System and The Relationship Between V3 & V2.

Find out more about the ITIL V2 Qualification Scheme.

The OGC is an office of HM Treasury (UK). It acts as an independent of any commercial intersts organization involved in ITIL (independent from software companies, software vendors, integrators, training protocols). This is why the ITIL is so widely used – its main asset is independency.

ITIL is accredited by Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB). ISEB is an organization which prepares delegates for the ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management. The ISEB was formed in 1967 and currently functions under the auspieces of the British Computer Society (BCS). The ISEB aims to provide industry-recognized qualification thet measure comptence, ability and performance in many areas of information systems, whit the aim of raising industry standards, promoting career development and providing competitive edge for employrs.

Aother organization which provides ITIL examination is EXIN. The EXIN is an independent organization, Dutch-based IT examination provider. The EXIN esablishes educational requirements, develops and organize examinations in the field of Information Technology. The main goal of EXIN is to promote the quality of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector and the ICT professionals working in this sector by means of independent testing and certification.

An ITIL Foundation certificate pin.
ITIL Certifications are managed by the ITIL Certification Management Board (ICMB). The Board includes representatives from all interested parties within the community from around the world. Members of the Board include (though are not limited to) representatives from the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC), APM Group (APMG, The Stationery Office (TSO), V3 Examination Panel, Examination Institutes (EIs) and the IT Service Management Forum International (itSMF) as the recognised user group.[1]
On July 20, 2006, the OGC signed a contract with the APM Group to be its commercial partner for ITIL accreditation from January 1, 2007.[2].
APMG manage the ITIL Version 3 exams and award qualifications at Foundation, Intermediate and Expert level (with a new Masters level under development).
APMG maintains a voluntary register of ITIL Version 3-certified practitioners at their Successful Candidate Register. A voluntary registry of ITIL Version 2-certified practitioners is operated by the ITIL Certification Register.
Organisations and management systems cannot be certified as “ITIL-compliant”. An organisation that has implemented ITIL guidance in IT Service Management (ITSM), may however, be able to achieve compliance with and seek certification under ISO/IEC 20000. Note that there are some significant differences between ISO/IEC20000 and ITIL Version 3 [3]
ISO20000 only recognises the management of financial assets, not assets which include “management, organisation, process, knowledge, people, information, applications, infrastructure and financial capital”, nor the concept of a “service asset”. So ISO20000 certification does not address the management of ‘assets’ in an ITIL sense.
ISO20000 does not recognise Configuration Management System (CMS) or Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS), and so does not certify anything beyond Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
An organisation can obtain ISO20000 certification without recognising or implementing the ITIL concept of Known Error, usually considered essential ITIL.
[edit]ITIL History

[edit]Precursors
The raison d’etre for building the library was rooted in the fact that the CCTA Procurement had been buying Mainframes and Minis from IBM/DEC/HP Sperry Univac et al for decades. Maintenance and on site care was usually outsourced to the Mainframe and Mini support teams – who typically just replaced dumb terminals for users. Support calls were answered on site by low level vendor engineers doing swap outs of dumb terminals. The CCTA looked to stem their budget and started buying PCs however found that users had local hardware and software (MS DOS and Dr.DOS) issues. Government departments had to start their own IT Departments, and turned to the CCTA for advice and guidance.Peter Skinner and the CCTA procurement department approached vendors and PC/Network resellers for advice which was freely given and latterly developed. The reason that there were 6 books originally (and not one big book) was that Government departments came in all sizes and may have just wanted a single element from one of the books (i.e . how to start and man a help desk) and not want to buy the complete suite (hence Library)
Many of the concepts did not originate within the original UK Government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) project to develop ITIL. According to IBM:
“ In the early 1980s, IBM documented the original Systems Management concepts in a four-volume series called A Management System for Information Systems. These widely accepted “yellow books,” … were key inputs to the original set of ITIL books.”[4][5] ”
The primary author of the IBM yellow books was Edward A. Van Schaik, who compiled them into the 1985 book A Management System for the Information Business[6] (since updated with a 2006 re-issue by Red Swan Publishing[7]). In the 1985 work, Van Schaik in turn references a 1974 Richard L. Nolan work, Managing the Data Resource Function[8] which may be the earliest known systematic English-language treatment of the topic of large scale IT management (as opposed to technological implementation).
[edit]Development
What is now called ITIL version 1, developed under the auspices of the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), was titled “Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management Methodology” (GITMM) and over several years eventually expanded to 31 volumes in a project initially directed by Peter Skinner and John Stewart at the CCTA. The publications were retitled primarily as a result of the desire (by Roy Dibble of CCTA) that the publications be seen as guidance and not as a formal method and as a result of growing interest from outside of the UK Government.
During the late 1980s the CCTA was under sustained attack, both from IT companies who wanted to take over the central Government consultancy service it provided and from other Government departments who wanted to break free of its oversight.[citation needed] Eventually CCTA succumbed and the concept of a central driving IT authority for the UK Government was lost. This meant that adoption of CCTA guidance such as ITIL was delayed, as various other departments fought to take over new responsibilities.
In some cases this guidance was lost permanently. The CCTA IT Security and Privacy group, for instance, provided the CCTA IT Security Library input to GITMM, but when CCTA was broken up the security service appropriated this work and suppressed it as part of their turf war over security responsibilities.
Though ITIL was developed during the 1980s, it was not widely adopted until the mid 1990s for the reasons mentioned above. This wider adoption and awareness has led to a number of standards, including ISO/IEC 20000 which is an international standard covering the IT Service Management elements of ITIL. ITIL is often considered alongside other best practice frameworks such as the Information Services Procurement Library (ISPL), the Application Services Library (ASL), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), the Capability Maturity Model (CMM/CMMI), and is often linked with IT governance through Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT).
In December 2005, the OGC issued notice of an ITIL refresh [9], commonly known as ITIL v3, which became available in May 2007. ITIL v3 initially includes five core texts:
Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Transition
Service Operation
Continual Service Improvement
These publications update much of the current v2 and extend the scope of ITIL in the domain of service management.
[edit]ITIL alternatives

IT Service Management as a concept is related but not equivalent to ITIL which, in Version 2, contained a subsection specifically entitled IT Service Management (ITSM). (The five volumes of version 3 have no such demarcated subsection). The combination of the Service Support and Service Delivery volumes are generally equivalent to the scope of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard (previously BS 15000).
Outside of ITIL, other IT Service Management approaches and frameworks exist, including the Enterprise Computing Institute’s library covering general issues of large scale IT management, including various Service Management subjects.
COBIT is perceived as an audit framework but the supporting body of knowledge (such as COBIT’s books Control Practices, IT Assurance Guide, IT Governance Implementation Guide, and User’s Guide for Service Managers) has grown to offer a credible alternative to ITIL.
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) has developed the Framework for ICT Technical Support (FITS) and is based on ITIL, but it is slimmed down for UK primary and secondary schools (which often have very small IT departments). Similarly, The Visible OPS Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps claims to be based on ITIL but to focus specifically on the biggest “bang for the buck” elements of ITIL.
Organizations that need to understand how ITIL processes link to a broader range of IT processes or need task level detail to guide their service management implementation can use the IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP). Like MOF, ITUP is aligned with ITIL, but is presented as a complete, integrated process model.
Smaller organizations that cannot justify a full ITIL program and materials can gain insight into ITIL from a review of the Microsoft Operations Framework which is based on ITIL but defines a more limited implementation.
The enhanced Telecom Operations Map eTOM published by the TeleManagement Forum offers a framework aimed at telecommunications service providers. In a joined effort, tmforum and itSMF have developed an Application Note to eTOM (GB921 V, version 6.1 in 2005, a new releases is scheduled for summer 2008) that shows how the two frameworks can be mapped to each other. It addresses how eTom process elements and flows can be used to support the processes identified in ITIL.
[edit]Overview of the ITIL 2 library

The IT Infrastructure Library originated as a collection of books each covering a specific practice within IT Service Management. After the initial publication, the number of books quickly grew within ITIL v1 to over 30 volumes. In order to make ITIL more accessible (and affordable) to those wishing to explore it, one of the aims of ITIL v2 was to consolidate the publications into logical ’sets’ that grouped related process guidelines into the different aspects of IT management, applications and services.
While the Service Management sets (Service Support and Service Delivery) are by far the most widely used, circulated and understood of ITIL publications, ITIL provides a more comprehensive set of practices as a whole. Proponents believe that using the broader library provides a comprehensive set of guidance to link the technical implementation, operations guidelines and requirements with the strategic management, operations management and financial management of a modern business.
The eight ITIL version 2 books and their disciplines are:
The IT Service Management sets
1. Service Delivery
2. Service Support
Other operational guidance
3. ICT Infrastructure Management
4. Security Management
5. The Business Perspective
6. Application Management
7. Software Asset Management
To assist with the implementation of ITIL practices a further book was published providing guidance on implementation (mainly of Service Management):
8. Planning to Implement Service Management
And this has more recently been supplemented with guidelines for smaller IT units, not included in the original eight publications:
9. ITIL Small-Scale Implementation
ITIL is built around a process-model based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming[citation needed]. The ITIL recommendations were developed in the 1980s by the UK Government’s CCTA in response to the growing dependence on IT and a recognition that without standard practices, government agencies and private sector contracts were independently creating their own IT management practices and duplicating effort within their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects resulting in common mistakes and increased costs.[citation needed] In April 2001 the CCTA was merged into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an office of the UK Treasury.[10]
One of the primary benefits claimed by proponents of ITIL within the IT community is its provision of common vocabulary, consisting of a glossary of tightly defined and widely agreed terms. A new and enhanced glossary has been developed as a key deliverable of the ITIL v3 (also known as the ITIL Refresh Project).
[edit]Overview of the ITIL v3 library

ITIL v3, published in May 2007, comprises five key volumes:
1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement
[edit]Service Strategy
Service strategy is shown at the core of the ITIL v3.1 lifecycle but cannot exist in isolation to the other parts of the IT structure. It encompasses a framework to build best practice in developing a long term service strategy. It covers many topics including: general strategy, competition and market space, service provider types, service management as a strategic asset, organization design and development, key process activities, financial management, service portfolio management, demand management, and key roles and responsibilities of staff engaging in service strategy.
[edit]Service Design
The design of IT services conforming to best practice, and including design of architecture, processes, policies, documentation, and allowing for future business requirements. This also encompasses topics such as Service Design Package (SDP), service catalog management, service level management, designing for capacity management, IT service continuity, Information Security, supplier management, and key roles and responsibilities for staff engaging in service design.
[edit]Service Transition
Service transition relates to the delivery of services required by the business into live/operational use, and often encompasses the “project” side of IT rather than “BAU” (Business As Usual). This area also covers topics such as managing changes to the “BAU” environment. Topics include Service Asset and Configuration Management, Transition Planning and Support, Release and deployment management, Change Management, Knowledge Management, as well as the key roles of staff engaging in Service Transition.
[edit]Service Operation
Best practice for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services both to end-users and the customers (where “customers” refer to those individuals who pay for the service and negotiate the SLAs). Service Operations is the part of the lifecycle where the services and value is actually directly delivered. Also the monitoring of problems and balance between service reliability and cost etc are considered. Topics include balancing conflicting goals (e.g. reliability v cost etc), Event management, incident management, problem management, request fulfillment, asset management, service desk, technical and application management, as well as key roles and responsibilities for staff engaging in Service Operation…..
[edit]Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
[edit]Short Description
Aligning and realigning IT services to changing business needs (because standstill implies decline).
The goal of Continual Service Improvement is to align and realign IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the Business Processes. The perspective of CSI on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole lifecycle. In order to manage improvement, CSI should clearly define what should be controlled and measured.
CSI needs to be treated just like any other service practice. There needs to be upfront planning, training and awareness, ongoing scheduling, roles created, ownership assigned,and activities identified in order to be successful. CSI must be planned and scheduled as process with defined activities, inputs, outputs, roles and reporting.
[edit]Long Description
Once an organization has gone through the process of identifying what its Services are, as well as developing and implementing the IT Service Management (ITSM) processes to enable those services, many believe that the hard work is done. How wrong they are!! The real work is only just beginning. How do organizations get buy-in for using the new processes? How do organizations measure, report and use the data to improve not only the new processes but to continually improve the Services being provided? This requires a conscious decision to adopt CSI with clearly defined goals, documented procedures, inputs, outputs and identified roles and responsibilities. To be successful, CSI must be embedded within each organization’s culture.
The Service Lifecycle is a comprehensive approach to Service Management: seeking to understand its structure, the interconnections between all its components,and how changes in any area will affect the whole system and its constituent parts over time. It is an organizing framework designed for sustainable performance.
The Service Lifecycle can be viewed in a graphical manner, where it is easy to demonstrate the value provided, both in terms of “business contribution” and “profit”. The business contribution is the ability for an IT organization to support a business process, managing the IT service at the requested performance. The profit is the ability to manage cost of service in relations to the business revenue.
The Service Lifecycle can be viewed as a phased life cycle, where the phases are:
Defining strategy for the IT Service Management (Service Strategy or SS)
Designing the services to support the strategy (Service Design or SD)
Implement the services in order to meet the designed requirements (Service Transition or ST)
Support the services managing the operational activities (Service Operation or SO)
The interaction between phases are managed through the Continual Service Improvement approach, which is responsible for measuring and improving service and process maturity level. After comparison of all phases, a service period is concluded and another service period begins.
The Continual Service Improvement phase is involved during all phases of the service lifecycle. It is responsible for measuring the service and the processes, (Service Measurement), and to document the results (Service Reporting) in order to improve the services quality and the processes maturity (Service Improvement). These improvements will be implemented in the next period of Service Lifecycle, starting again with Service Strategy, and following with Service Design and Transition, the Service Operation phase of course continue to manages operations during all service periods.
With the evolution of service periods, the “effort” for each phase will be reduced concerning the strategic and tactical phases (SS,SD and ST), here the SO phase is optimized and takes the primary role. At each cycle of the service (service period) the service will be improved with results of increasing of the value of business and maximizing of profits.
In terms of Business Contribution, the IT Service begins to be valuable when in the first step the Service Transition starts.
In terms of profits, the major investments are required with the big implementation projects (ST), when the transition is complete and the Operations start, the service begins to support business process and the new revenues balance the costs. After some periods of service optimization the “Profit & Loss” start to be profitable and reach the “break even point”.
After a number of periods (depending on the complexity of the service and the complexity of the service and the flexibility of the business), the business contribution and the profit will be stabilized, which means that the IT organization has reached the right level of maturity in managing processes and the service has reached the right level of performance in meeting the service level requirements.
[edit]Details of the ITIL v2 framework

[edit]Service Support
The Service Support[11] ITIL discipline is focused on the User of the ICT services and is primarily concerned with ensuring that they have access to the appropriate services to support the business functions.
To a business, customers and users are the entry point to the process model. They get involved in service support by:
Asking for changes
Needing communication, updates
Having difficulties, queries.
The service desk is the single contact point for the customers to record their problems. It will try to resolve it, if there is a direct solution. If not, it will create an incident. Incidents initiate a chain of processes: Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management and Configuration Management (see following sections for details). This chain of processes is tracked using the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), which records each process, and creates output documents for traceability (Quality Management).
[edit]Service Desk / Service Request Management
Tasks include handling incidents and requests, and providing an interface for other ITSM processes.
Single Point of Contact (SPOC) and not necessarily the First Point of Contact (FPOC)
There is a single point of entry and exit
Easier for Customers
Data Integrity
Communication channel is streamlined

The primary functions of the Service Desk are:
Incident Control: life cycle management of all Service Requests
Communication: keeping the customer informed of progress and advising on workarounds
The Service Desk function is known under various names .
Call Center: main emphasis on professionally handling large call volumes of telephone-based transactions
Help Desk: manage, co-ordinate and resolve incidents as quickly as possible
Service Desk: not only handles incidents, problems and questions but also provides an interface for other activities such as change requests, maintenance contracts, software licenses, service level management, configuration management, availability management, Financial Management and IT Services Continuity Management
The three types of structure that can be considered are:
Local Service Desk: to meet local business needs – is practical only until multiple locations requiring support services are involved
Central Service Desk: for organizations having multiple locations – reduces operational costs and improves usage of available resources
Virtual Service Desk: for organizations having multi-country locations – can be situated and accessed from anywhere in the world due to advances in network performance and telecommunications, reducing operational costs and improving usage of available resources
[edit]Incident Management
The goal of Incident Management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. ‘Normal service operation’ is defined here as service operation within Service Level Agreement (SLA) limits.
Main article: Incident Management (ITSM)
[edit]Problem Management
The goal of ‘Problem Management’ is to resolve the root cause of incidents and thus to minimize the adverse impact of incidents and problems on business that are caused by errors within the IT infrastructure, and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to these errors. A `problem’ is an unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents, and a `known error’ is a problem that is successfully diagnosed and for which either a work-around or a permanent resolution has been identified. The CCTA defines problems and known errors as follows:
A problem is a condition often identified as a result of multiple Incidents that exhibit common symptoms. Problems can also be identified from a single significant Incident, indicative of a single error, for which the cause is unknown, but for which the impact is significant.
A known error is a condition identified by successful diagnosis of the root cause of a problem, and the subsequent development of a Work-around.
Problem management is different from incident management. The principal purpose of problem management is to find and resolve the root cause of a problem and prevention of incidents; the purpose of incident management is to return the service to normal level as soon as possible, with smallest possible business impact.

The problem management process is intended to reduce the number and severity of incidents and problems on the business, and report it in documentation to be available for the first-line and second line of the help desk. The proactive process identifies and resolves problems before incidents occur. These activities are:
Trend analysis;
Targeting support action;
Providing information to the organization.
The Error Control Process is an iterative process to diagnose known errors until they are eliminated by the successful implementation of a change under the control of the Change Management process.
The Problem Control Process aims to handle problems in an efficient way. Problem control identifies the root cause of incidents and reports it to the service desk. Other activities are:
Problem identification and recording;
Problem classification;
Problem investigation and diagnosis.
The standard technique for identifying the root cause of a problem is to use an Ishikawa diagram, also referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram, tree diagram, or fishbone diagram. An Ishikawa diagram is typically the result of a brainstorming session in which members of a group offer ideas to improve a product. For problem-solving, the goal will be to find the cause and effect of the problem.
Ishikawa diagrams can be defined in a meta-model.
First there is the main subject, which is the backbone of the diagram that we are trying to solve or improve. The main subject is derived from a cause. The relationship between a cause and an effect is a double relation: an effect is a result of a cause, and the cause is the root of an effect. But there is just one effect for several causes and one cause for several effects.

[edit]Change Management
The goal of Change Management is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient handling of all changes,
Main article: Change Management (ITSM)
A change is “an event that results in a new status of one or more configuration items (CI’s)” approved by management, cost effective, enhances business process changes (fixes) – with a minimum risk to IT infrastructure.
The main aims of Change Management are:
Minimal disruption of services
Reduction in back-out activities
Economic utilization of resources involved in the change
[edit]Change Management Terminology
Change: the addition, modification or removal of CIs
Request for Change (RFC): form used to record details of a request for a change and is sent as an input to Change Management by the Change Requestor
Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC): schedule that contains details of all the forthcoming Changes
[edit]Release Management
Release Management is used for platform-independent and automated distribution of software and hardware, including license controls across the entire IT infrastructure. Proper software and hardware control ensures the availability of licensed, tested, and version-certified software and hardware, which will function as intended when introduced into the existing infrastructure. Quality control during the development and implementation of new hardware and software is also the responsibility of Release Management. This guarantees that all software meets the demands of the business processes. The goals of release management are:
Plan the rollout of software
Design and implement procedures for the distribution and installation of changes to IT systems
Effectively communicate and manage expectations of the customer during the planning and rollout of new releases
Control the distribution and installation of changes to IT systems
The focus of release management is the protection of the live environment and its services through the use of formal procedures and checks.

Release Categories
A Release consists of the new or changed software and/or hardware required to implement approved changes
Releases are categorized as:
Major software releases and hardware upgrades, normally containing large amounts of new functionality, some of which may make intervening fixes to problems redundant. A major upgrade or release usually supersedes all preceding minor upgrades, releases and emergency fixes.
Minor software releases and hardware upgrades, normally containing small enhancements and fixes, some of which may have already been issued as emergency fixes. A minor upgrade or release usually supersedes all preceding emergency fixes.
Emergency software and hardware fixes, normally containing the corrections to a small number of known problems.

Releases can be divided based on the release unit into:
Delta Release: is a release of only that part of the software which has been changed. For example, security patches.
Full Release: means that the entire software program will be deployed. For example, a new version of an existing application.
Packaged Release: is a combination of many changes. For example, an operating system image which also contains specific applications.
[edit]Configuration Management
Configuration Management is a process that tracks all of the individual Configuration Items (CI) in a system.
Main article: Configuration Management (ITSM)
[edit]Service Delivery
The Service Delivery [12] discipline is primarily concerned with the proactive and forward-looking services that the business requires of its ICT provider in order to provide adequate support to the business users. It is focused on the business as the customer of the ICT services (compare with: Service Support). The discipline consists of the following processes, explained in subsections below:
Service Level Management
Capacity Management
IT Service Continuity Management
Availability Management
Financial Management

[edit]Service Level Management
Service Level Management provides for continual identification, monitoring and review of the levels of IT services specified in the service level agreements (SLAs). Service Level Management ensures that arrangements are in place with internal IT Support Providers and external suppliers in the form of Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) and Underpinning Contracts (UCs). The process involves assessing the impact of change upon service quality and SLAs. The service level management process is in close relation with the operational processes to control their activities. The central role of Service Level Management makes it the natural place for metrics to be established and monitored against a benchmark.
Service Level Management is the primary interface with the customer (as opposed to the user, who is serviced by the Service Desk). Service Level Management is responsible for
ensuring that the agreed IT services are delivered when and where they are supposed to be
liaising with Availability Management, Capacity Management, Incident Management and Problem Management to ensure that the required levels and quality of service are achieved within the resources agreed with Financial Management
producing and maintaining a Service Catalog (a list of standard IT service options and agreements made available to customers)
ensuring that appropriate IT Service Continuity plans have been made to support the business and its continuity requirements.
The Service Level Manager relies on all the other areas of the Service Delivery process to provide the necessary support which ensures the agreed services are provided in a cost effective, secure and efficient manner.
[edit]Capacity Management
Capacity Management supports the optimum and cost effective provision of IT services by helping organizations match their IT resources to the business demands. The high-level activities are Application Sizing, Workload Management, Demand Management, Modeling, Capacity Planning, Resource Management, and Performance Management.
[edit]Availability Management
Availability Management allows organizations to sustain the IT service availability in order to support the business at a justifiable cost. The high-level activities are Realize Availability Requirements, Compile Availability Plan, Monitor Availability, and Monitor Maintenance Obligations.
Availability Management is the ability of an IT component to perform at an agreed level over a period of time.
Reliability: how reliable is the service? Ability of an IT component to perform at an agreed level at described conditions.
Maintainability: The ability of an IT Component to remain in, or be restored to an operational state.
Serviceability: The ability for an external supplier to maintain the availability of component or function under a third party contract.
Resilience: A measure of freedom from operational failure and a method of keeping services reliable. One popular method of resilience is redundancy.
Security: A service may have associated data. Security refers to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of that data. Availability gives us the clear overview of the end to end availability of the system.
[edit]Financial Management for IT Services
Main article: Financial Management
[edit]Planning to implement service management
Main article: ITIL Planning to implement service management
The ITIL discipline – Planning To Implement Service Management [13] attempts to provide practitioners with a framework for the alignment of business needs and IT provision requirements. The processes and approaches incorporated within the guidelines suggest the development of a Continuous Service Improvement Programme (CSIP) as the basis for implementing other ITIL disciplines as projects within a controlled programme of work. Planning To Implement Service Management is mainly focused on the Service Management processes, but is also generically applicable to other ITIL disciplines.
create vision
analyze organization
set goals
implement IT service management
[edit]Security Management
Main article: ITIL Security Management
The ITIL-process Security Management [14] describes the structured fitting of information security in the management organization. ITIL Security Management is based on the code of practice for information security management also known as ISO/IEC 17799.
A basic concept of the Security Management is the information security. The primary goal of information security is to guarantee safety of the information. Safety is to be protected against risks. Security is the means to be safe against risks. When protecting information it is the value of the information that has to be protected. These values are stipulated by the confidentiality, integrity and availability. Inferred aspects are privacy, anonymity and verifiability.
The current move towards ISO/IEC 27001 may require some revision to the ITIL Security Management best practices which are often claimed to be rich in content for physical security but weak in areas such as software/application security and logical security in the ICT infrastructure.
[edit]ICT Infrastructure Management
ICT Infrastructure Management [15] processes recommend best practice for requirements analysis, planning, design, deployment and ongoing operations management and technical support of an ICT Infrastructure. (”ICT” is an acronym for “Information and Communication Technology”.)
The Infrastructure Management processes describe those processes within ITIL that directly relate to the ICT equipment and software that is involved in providing ICT services to customers.
ICT Design and Planning
ICT Deployment
ICT Operations
ICT Technical Support
These disciplines are less well understood than those of Service Management and therefore often some of their content is believed to be covered ‘by implication’ in Service Management disciplines.
[edit]ICT Design and Planning
ICT Design and Planning provides a framework and approach for the Strategic and Technical Design and Planning of ICT infrastructures. It includes the necessary combination of Business (and overall IS) strategy, with technical design and architecture. ICT Design and Planning drives both the Procurement of new ICT solutions through the production of Statements of Requirement (”SOR”) and Invitations to Tender (”ITT”) and is responsible for the initiation and management of ICT Programmes for strategic business change. Key Outputs from Design and Planning are:
ICT Strategies, Policies and Plans
The ICT Overall Architecture & Management Architecture
Feasibility Studies, ITTs and SORs
Business Cases
[edit]ICT Deployment Management
ICT Deployment provides a framework for the successful management of design, build, test and roll-out (deploy) projects within an overall ICT programme. It includes many project management disciplines in common with PRINCE2, but has a broader focus to include the necessary integration of Release Management and both functional and non functional testing.
[edit]ICT Operations Management
ICT Operations Management provides the day-to-day technical supervision of the ICT infrastructure. Often confused with the role of Incident Management from Service Support, Operations is more technical and is concerned not solely with Incidents reported by users, but with Events generated by or recorded by the Infrastructure. ICT Operations may often work closely alongside Incident Management and the Service Desk, which are not-necessarily technical in order to provide an ‘Operations Bridge’. Operations, however should primarily work from documented processes and procedures and should be concerned with a number of specific sub-processes, such as: Output Management, Job Scheduling, Backup and Restore, Network Monitoring/Management, System Monitoring/Management, Database Monitoring/Management Storage Monitoring/Management. Operations are responsible for:
A stable, secure ICT infrastructure
A current, up to date Operational Documentation Library (”ODL”)
A log of all operational Events
Maintenance of operational monitoring and management tools.
Operational Scripts
Operational Procedures
[edit]ICT Technical Support
ICT Technical Support is the specialist technical function for infrastructure within ICT. Primarily as a support to other processes, both in Infrastructure Management and Service Management, Technical Support provides a number of specialist functions: Research and Evaluation, Market Intelligence (particularly for Design and Planning and Capacity Management), Proof of Concept and Pilot engineering, specialist technical expertise (particularly to Operations and Problem Management), creation of documentation (perhaps for the Operational Documentation Library or Known Error Database).
[edit]The Business Perspective
The Business Perspective is the name given to the collection of best practices[16] that is suggested to address some of the issues often encountered in understanding and improving IT service provision, as a part of the entire business requirement for high IS quality management. These issues are:
Business Continuity Management describes the responsibilities and opportunities available to the business manager to improve what is, in most organizations one of the key contributing services to business efficiency and effectiveness.
Surviving Change. IT infrastructure changes can impact the manner in which business is conducted or the continuity of business operations. It is important that business managers take notice of these changes and ensure that steps are taken to safeguard the business from adverse side effects.
Transformation of business practice through radical change helps to control IT and to integrate it with the business.
Partnerships and outsourcing
This volume is related to the topics of IT Governance and IT Portfolio Management.
[edit]Application Management
ITIL Application Management[17] set encompasses a set of best practices proposed to improve the overall quality of IT software development and support through the life-cycle of software development projects, with particular attention to gathering and defining requirements that meet business objectives.
This volume is related to the topics of Software Engineering and IT Portfolio Management.
[edit]Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is the practice of integrating people, processes and technology to allow software licenses and usage to be systematically tracked, evaluated and managed. The goal of SAM is to reduce IT expenditures, human resource overhead and risks inherent in owning and managing software assets.
SAM includes maintaining software license compliance; tracking the inventory and usage of software assets; and maintaining standard policies and procedures surrounding the definition, deployment, configuration, use and retirement of software assets and the Definitive Software Library. SAM represents the software component of IT asset management, which also includes hardware asset management (to which SAM is intrinsicly linked by the concept that without effective inventory hardware controls, efforts to control the software thereon will be significantly inhibited) which includes overseeing both software and hardware that comprise an organization’s computers and network.
[edit]Small-Scale Implementation
ITIL Small-Scale Implementation [18] provides an approach to the implementation of the ITIL framework for those with smaller IT units or departments. It is primarily an auxiliary work, covering many of the same best practice guidelines as Planning To Implement Service Management, Service Support and Service Delivery but provides additional guidance on the combination of roles and responsibilities and avoiding conflict between ITIL priorities.
[edit]Criticisms of ITIL

ITIL has been criticized on several fronts, including:
The books are not affordable for non-commercial users
Accusations that many ITIL advocates think ITIL is “a holistic, all-encompassing framework for IT governance”;
Accusations that proponents of ITIL indoctrinate the methodology with ‘religious zeal’ at the expense of pragmatism.
Implementation and credentialing requires specific training
Debate over ITIL falling under BSM or ITSM frameworks
As Jan van Bon (author and editor of many IT Service Management publications) notes,
There is a lot of confusion about ITIL, stemming from all kinds of misunderstandings about its nature. ITIL is, as the OGC states, a set of best practices. The OGC doesn’t claim that ITIL’s best practices describe pure processes. The OGC also doesn’t claim that ITIL is a framework, designed as one coherent model. That is what most of its users make of it, probably because they have such a great need for such a model…[19]
CIO Magazine columnist Dean Meyer has also presented some cautionary views of ITIL,[20] including five pitfalls such as “becoming a slave to outdated definitions” and “Letting ITIL become religion.” As he notes, “…it doesn’t describe the complete range of processes needed to be world class. It’s focused on … managing ongoing services.”
The quality of the library’s volumes is seen to be uneven. For example, van Herwaarden and Grift note, “the consistency that characterized the service support processes … is largely missing in the service delivery books.”[21]
In a 2004 survey designed by Noel Bruton (author of ‘How to Manage the IT Helpdesk’ and ‘Managing the IT Services Process’), ITIL adopting organizations were asked to relate their actual experiences in having implemented ITIL. Seventy-seven percent of survey respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that “ITIL does not have all the answers”. ITIL exponents accept this, citing ITIL’s stated intention to be non-prescriptive, expecting that organizations will have to engage ITIL processes with their existing overall process model. Bruton notes that the claim to non-prescriptiveness must be at best one of scale rather than absolute intention, for the very description of a certain set of processes is in itself a form of prescription. (Survey “The ITIL Experience – Has It Been Worth It”, author Bruton Consultancy 2004, published by Helpdesk Institute Europe, The Helpdesk and IT Support Show and Hornbill Software.)
While ITIL addresses in depth the various aspects of Service Management, it does not address enterprise architecture in such depth. Many of the shortcomings in the implementation of ITIL do not necessarily come about because of flaws in the design or implementation of the Service Management aspects of the business, but rather the wider architectural framework in which the business is situated. Because of its primary focus on Service Management, ITIL has limited utility in managing poorly designed enterprise architectures, or how to feed back into the design of the enterprise architecture.