I have an interest in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) however being an IT department of a whopping one makes it difficult to take time to implement best practices using formal methodology primarily because most of the time is either spent fire fighting or performing system administration. However, I did start reading up on ITIL v2 but shortly after I started – v3 was announced so I held off. ITIL v3 supposedly broadens the horizon for ITIL and emphasizes “looking outwardly at customers instead of being primarily focused internally”. The idea behind this seems to be to focus more on an organisations strategic management placing it more in line with a business overall strategy instead of just focusing on technology management.

ITIL v3 comprises five areas:

• Service Strategy

Defines roles and requirements of IT including Financial Management

• Service Design

Provides outlines for manageable and cost-effective services. Includes Availability, Capacity Management, Security Management and Supplier Management.

• Service Transition

Defines how best to respond to change requirements including Change Management, Release and Deployment Management.

• Service Operation

Focuses on delivery stability and ongoing flexibility for change. Includes Incident and Problem management, Event Management and Request Fulfillment.

• Continual Service Improvement

Measuring and monitoring to improve quality whilst reducing costs

Supporting Links

Wiki: Information Technology Infrastructure Library

HP’s ITIL V3 Resource Center

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