ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide

Jan van Bon

• Publisher: Van Haren Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789401804417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The ITIL pocket guides of Van Haren Publishing are since long recognized as the industry classic guide on the topic of ITIL, in many languages. Over the years this authoritative guide has earned its place on the bookshelves and in the briefcases of industry experts as they implement best practices within their organizations.This pocket guide will provide readers with an understanding of the ITIL 4 service management framework, by: • understanding the key concepts of service management• understanding how the seven ITIL guiding principles can help an organization adopt and adapt service management• understanding the four dimensions of service management• understanding the purpose and components of the ITIL service value system• understanding the six activities of the service value chain, and how they interconnect• knowing the purpose and key terms of 15 of the 34 ITIL practices• understanding seven of these 15 ITIL practices in detailAll exam requirements for the ITIL 4 Foundation exam are covered in this pocket guide. It also provides support for everyone who has knowledge of previous ITIL editions and is looking for a bridge to the new edition. ITIL 4 took a big leap into the modern world of IT service management, covering the latest principles and practices in a customer-focused, service-centric way, enabling Agile principles for maximum support of any business.

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?

■ 2.1 VALUE CO-CREATION

Value can be subjective: the value is determined by the stakeholders.

Organizations increasingly recognize that value is co-created through an active collaboration between stakeholders, including the ...