Information Technology Infrastructure Library
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The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and techniques for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development, and operations. ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which cover an IT management topic. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are registered trademarks of the United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce (OGC). ITIL gives a detailed description of a number of important IT practices with comprehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that can be tailored to any IT organization. CertificationImage:Wearer of an ITIL Foundation Certificate pin.jpg
An ITIL Foundation certificate pin.
ITIL certifications are managed by the ITIL Certification Management Board (ICMB) which is composed of the OGC, IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) International and two examinations institutes: EXIN (based in the Netherlands) and ISEB (based in the UK). The EXIN and ISEB administer exams and award qualifications at Foundation, Practitioner and Manager/Masters level currently in 'ITIL Service Management', 'ITIL Application Management' and 'ICT Infrastructure Management' respectively. A voluntary registry of ITIL-certified practitioners is operated by the ITIL Certification Register. Organizations or a management system may not be certified as "ITIL-compliant". However an organization that has implemented ITIL guidance in ITSM may be able to achieve compliance with and seek certification under ISO/IEC 20000. 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.[1] The OGC's failure to further formalize institutional relationships with the itSMF as part of these activities has been controversial.[citation needed] ITIL HistoryPrecursorsMany 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:
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[4] (since updated with a 2006 re-issue by Red Swan Publishing[5]). In the 1985 work, Van Schaik in turn references a 1974 Richard L. Nolan work, Managing the Data Resource Function[6] which may be the earliest known systematic English-language treatment of the topic of large scale IT management (as opposed to technological implementation). DevelopmentWhat is now called ITIL version 1, developed under the auspices of the 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. 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. For instance, the CCTA IT Security and Privacy group 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. Although developed during the 1980s, for the reasons mentioned above ITIL was not widely adopted until the mid 1990s. 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,[7] commonly known as ITIL v3, which became available in May 2007. ITIL v3 initially includes five core texts:
These publications update much of the current v2 and extend the scope of ITIL in the domain of service management. ITIL alternativesIT 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. 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. 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 an alternative framework aimed at telecommunications service providers. Overview of the ITIL 2 libraryThe 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 Other operational guidance
To assist with the implementation of ITIL practices a further book was published providing guidance on implementation (mainly of Service Management): And this has more recently been supplemented with guidelines for smaller IT units, not included in the original eight publications:
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.[8] 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). Overview of the ITIL v3 libraryITIL v3, published in May 2007, comprises 5 key volumes:
Details of the ITIL v2 frameworkService SupportThe Service Support[9] 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:
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 or 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). Service Desk / Service Request ManagementThe Service Desk function is the single point of contact between users and IT Service Management. Tasks include handling incidents and requests, and providing an interface for other ITSM processes.
The primary functions of the Service Desk are: Call Centre: main emphasis on professionally handling large call volumes of telephone-based transactions Local Service Desk: to meet local business needs - is practical only until multiple locations requiring support services are involved Incident ManagementThe 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. Software Asset ManagementSoftware 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. 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). Problem ManagementThe 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:
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 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:
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. Configuration ManagementConfiguration Management is a process that tracks all of the individual Configuration Items (CI) in a system. Change ManagementThe goal of Change Management is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient handling of all changes, in order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents and to improve day-to-day operations. 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:
Change Management Terminology
Release ManagementRelease 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:
The focus of release management is the protection of the live environment and its services through the use of formal procedures and checks.
Service DeliveryThe Service Delivery [10] 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 ManagementService 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
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. Capacity ManagementCapacity 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. IT Service Continuity ManagementIT Service Continuity Management helps to ensure the availability and rapid restoration of IT services in the event of a disaster. The high level activities are Risk Analysis, Contingency Plan Management, Contingency Plan Testing, and Risk Management. Availability ManagementAvailability 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.
Availbility gives us the clear overiew of the end to -end availability of the system Financial Management for IT ServicesPlanning to implement service managementThe ITIL discipline - Planning To Implement Service Management [11] 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 also generically applicable to other ITIL disciplines.
Security ManagementThe ITIL-process Security Management [12] 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. ICT Infrastructure ManagementICT Infrastructure Management [13] 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.
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. ICT Design and PlanningICT 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 Deployment ManagementICT 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. ICT Operations ManagementICT 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:
ICT Technical SupportICT 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). The Business PerspectiveThe Business Perspective is the name given to the collection of best practices[14] 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:
This volume is related to the topics of IT Governance and IT Portfolio Management. Application ManagementITIL Application Management[15] 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. Small-Scale ImplementationITIL Small-Scale Implementation [16] 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. Criticisms of ITILITIL has been criticized on several fronts, including:
As Jan van Bon (author and editor of many IT Service Management publications) notes,
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