More than a year has passed since the long-awaited successor to ITIL 3 has been on the market and has successfully established itself. Now is the time to revisit best practices and ask why ITIL 4 is a particularly popular solution in ITSM. We explain the key concepts of ITIL 4 to you in this article.
What does ITIL 4 mean?
ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library and is valued in the IT service management industry for its flexible guide, training and certification programs. With ITIL 4, Axelos released the current version in February 2019, thereby building the bridge to digital progress. Current trends such as Agile, DevOps or Lean are taken up in the framework in order to provide information on how to handle them. The top three certifications include ITIL Foundation, ITIL Managing Professional (MP) and ITIL Strategic Leader (SL). In our first blog article on ITIL 4 we give you a detailed introduction and further information about the certifications.
What is ITIL 4 based on?
The focus of ITIL 4 is to provide value to customers and stakeholders. With the end-to-end view, the service provider automatically focuses more on the customer’s goals. Compared to the previous version ITIL 3, the following two components represent a significant improvement:
1. The 4 dimensions of ITIL 4
The current ITIL version takes a holistic approach to service management, taking into account the following dimensions:
- Organizations and people: Organizations should have professionals who can demonstrate the required competency to perform IT services. However, it is not only the employees that are interesting, but also the operating model. This must ensure that roles and responsibilities are clarified. Agile methods such as DevOps, KanBan, Scrum etc. are an important factor in the perception and execution of operational tasks.
- Information and technology: This is about optimal information management around the organization. What information is made available and maintained through the Services? How can these be protected, saved and deleted again?
- Partners and suppliers: This dimension focuses on working with external partners and suppliers. These make a significant contribution to continuously improving design, development, availability and thus our own service.
- Value streams and processes: The fourth dimension revolves around the question of how different parts of the company can be integrated and coordinated to enable added value through products and services.
2. Service Value System
New to ITIL 4 is the clear focus on all activities that offer customers added value in the form of services. The Service Value System presents this principle clearly. The service lifecycle in its previous form is no longer applicable.
Marc O’Loughlin describes the core components of the Service Value System as follows:
Service value chain
The Service Value Chain provides an operational model for planning, design, implementation, delivery and continuous improvement of products and services. It is a flexible model whose main activities can be combined and form so-called value streams. Since there is only one value chain, this high-level concept can be adopted by most organizations without major changes. The same applies to the Service Value System.
Value streams
Value streams ensure that customer requests can be effectively met. It is therefore the sum of all key activities that bring benefits to the customer. Value streams can vary greatly from company to company. The examples described in the framework should therefore not be regarded as a universal solution.
ITIL practices
Instead of processes, ITIL 4 describes practices. These are executed as parts of the service value streams and ensure even more agility. They provide the tool to support service value chain activities.
ITIL Guiding Principles
The seven Guiding Principles are guidelines for the organization’s decisions and activities. They should ensure that there is a clear approach and a common understanding of service management.
- Focus on value
- Start where you are
- Progress iteratively with feedback
- Collaborate and promote visibility
- Think and work holistically
- Keep it simple and practical
- Optimize and automate
Governance
The Service Value System also includes aspects such as corporate policy and regulations that are important for corporate governance. This ensures that legal and organizational guidelines are observed.
Continual improvement
Every component of the Service Value System is continuously improved. Especially in a rapidly changing environment, it is important to listen to customer and user feedback. The goal here is continuous development.
ITIL 4: Outlook
ITIL 4 can keep up with digitization, allows digital transformation and enterprise service management. The focus is on value creation – collaboration, integration and relationship management are the key factors. This flexible approach is seen as a game changer in IT Service Management (ITSM), which is why ITIL 4 remains relevant. In the future, automation will play a major role in both ITIL and ITSM.
Do you have any questions about ITSM, ITIL or specifically ITIL 4? We are experts in ITSM and certified ITIL 4 Managing Professionals (MP). We would be happy to accompany you into the digital future and optimize your IT services with innovative ITSM solutions from BMC Software and ServiceNow.
