An Overview of ITIL V3

The acronym ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, which is the most recognized system for IT service management. For almost 20 years, since its creation, ITIL has been refined and changed scope in business and technology practices over the years. It provides a body of knowledge that can be helpful to achieve a particular standard. The description is to represent a better understanding of terms that come with ITIL. The overview here is to first understand the definition and fundamentals.

The first publication of ITIL occurred in the 1980’s and made it one of the most used systems by organizations to provide IT service management (ITSM) processes. ITIL consists of the best processes and practices that can be adopted to provide excellent service management. The system provides effective service delivery at a cost-effective rate. 

There are different versions of ITIL released to meet the changing requirements of businesses. As it is termed, ITIL V3 is the third version of ITIL released in 2007. However, there was an updated to ITIL V3 in 2011. This made ITIL V3, also known as ITIL 2011 V3, to fit the latest business environment as it includes strategic elements. Because of this, IT service management becomes more aligned with the requirements of a business.

There are ITIL V3 fundamentals factors which need to be considered, one of those fundamentals are change management, and the very nature of project delivery is that change in some form is occurring. The technologies continuously upgrade and will always have to be replaced. That's why ITIL V3 has a set of practices called Change Management. 

These practices are served to prioritize, implement, and handle changes effectively. It is done by using Change Management properly so that downtime can be avoided and organisations are well versed with the changes occurring around them.

Another ITIL component is incident management, it is essential to make sure that the operations are manageable. In some situations, if the service is interrupted in the organization, the production is affected. ITIL V3 incident management provides best practice to handle effectively and ensure the business operations are working optimally with minimal to no downtime.

Problem Management team are responsible for Root Cause Analysis (RCA) function. As they are liable to find a permanent solution for recurring incidents. Problem Management makes sure to maintain a known error database.

The ITIL Service cycle is where the ITIL V3 framework revolves. This cycle comes with the set of best practices and supporting processes in each stage. The following are the steps involved with the ITIL stages;

•  ITIL Service Strategy

• ITIL Service Design

• ITIL Continual Service Improvement

• ITIL Service Transition

• ITIL Service Operation

There is a structured closed-loop process that goes together with the lifecycle stages designed in ITIL. When creating services from scratch, most of the service management activities were not performed. This is why ITIL stages are important. While integrating into the overall ITIL framework, each stage is represented by one of the ITIL volumes and is self-contained.

The ITIL service design is an integral part of the process, it is about the design of services and supporting factors for the initiation to the actual environment of the business. There are scopes included in the Service Design lifecycle. This lifecycle consists of changes and improvements to the existing services and the design of the new ones as well. The factors to consider in ITIL service design are outlined below;

• Design Coordination - This makes sure that the design of the IT services, architectures, service management information systems, processes, metrics, technology, and information is consistent and effective.

• Service Level Management - Designing services according to the agreed service level targets and checking all Operational Level Agreements and underpinning contracts where appropriate.

• Service Catalogue Management - Taking responsibility for the maintained Service Catalogue. Also, it must be produced and contain accurate information to all the operational services.

• Risk Management - must assess, control, and identify risks. This includes the analysis of the value of assets of the business. Must also have early detection of threats to the assets and evaluate how vulnerable the assets could be to the risks.

• Availability Management - this is liable for checking the IT infrastructure, tools, roles, processes, etc. to ensure that it is appropriate for the availability targets, which are agreed upon.

• Capacity Management - Responsible for the capacity of the IT services and infrastructure to deliver the agreed service level targets on-time and in a cost-effective manner.

• IT Service Continuity Management - The minimum agreed Service Levels should be provided to IT service. This process can happen if the risk of disaster event is reduced to an acceptable level, including planning for the recovery of the services.

• Information Security Management - The organization's information, IT services, and data should remain confidential, available, and integral. This responsibility goes to Information Security Management.

• Compliance Management - Should comply with the enterprise's legal requirements and policies. It will happen through IT services, systems, and processes.

• Compliance Management - Ensure IT services, processes, and systems comply with enterprise policies and legal requirements.

•  Supplier Management - Should make sure that all suppliers will meet their contractual commitments and that the contracts will support the needs of the business.

• Architecture Management - Provides a blueprint of the future development of the technological landscape and should consider the new technologies and service strategy.

The purpose of the ITIL service design is to ensure the development and fulfillment of services with organizational intent. It should also be considered the support-ability, business continuity, and risk management. The transition of the service becomes more comfortable if there is an early integration and control of the issues addressed during the service design.

Next in the list is ITIL service strategy which provides a strategy for the life-cycle of service, and the service perfectly suits the purpose and availability for its use. The strategy should be synchronized with the business objectives and also to the needs of the customer. The stage of the Service Strategy life-cycle identifies which services to offer by the IT organization. Also, it determines the functions that need improvement.

• Business Relationship Management - identifies the everyday needs of their prospective customer or client. Also, knowing their needs is making sure that the appropriate services will develop to meet their needs.

• Strategy Management - Developing a strategy is done through the assessment of the service provider's competitors, offerings, and capabilities.

• Financial Management - The accounting, budgeting, charging requirements of the service provider is kept managed.

• Service Portfolio Management - To meet the required outcome of the business at the appropriate level of investment, Service Portfolio Management ensures the proper combination of services of the service provider.

• Demand Management - For the services, it should understand, influence, and anticipate the demand of the customer. This action will make sure that the service provider has enough capacity to meet the needs of the customers.

There is certification associated with ITIL, and deals with the first level V3 Foundation. This level is provided when the business starts the construction to Master ITIL V3. The ITIL V3 Foundation level provides the terminology, concepts, and fundamental definition. The level can be taken by those who want to:

• Understand the implementation of ITSM based on the ITIL V3 framework.

• Gather knowledge as a beginner on ITIL V3 framework. 

The ITIL V3 Foundation Level: Examination Format is for anyone who wants to learn and be certified in the ITIL processes. ITIL foundation serves as another way to take other level exams. IT professions can be achieved by individuals who want to pursue this career through this examination. There are formats to take the ITIL V3 foundation level exam. Below are the formats:

• The exam has 40 multiple-choice questions. Candidates who clear this level will be granted with two credits.

• The ITIL V3 Foundation level certification can be achieved with a minimum score, which is 26/40 or 65% of the examination.

•  ITIL V3 foundation level exam is a strictly closed book exam.

There are four levels of accreditation available to the IT professional when dealing with ITIL V3; they are Foundation, Intermediate, Expert, and Master. The foundation level is about the basic concepts and the terminology of ITIL as a whole. Each of ITIL's five major topics goes to the higher levels. ITIL V3 explains the concept of the IT service to support business goals. While the ITIL V2 focuses on IT operations. Once there is a profound understanding of the ITIL V3 IT methodology, then it can assist an organisation plan the day to day solving of problems that may be encountered.