IT teams use various methodologies to benchmark performance across the operational lifecycle. The most popular IT Service framework is the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), designed as management best practices for business efficiencies and cost reduction.
The ITIL pathway includes a professionally recognized certification that provides comprehensive, practical and proven guidance for establishing a service management system in the IT environment. It is designed as a set of recommended standardized practices to manage IT services.
Thus ITIL is a coveted skill set among the managerial workforce in IT companies. If you are in development and want to migrate to a managerial position, pursuing ITIL training will be a feather in your cap and set you off towards the managerial career path in IT service management.
What is ITIL?
ITIL is a specialized framework with prescribed practices designed to achieve business goals and resource limits, with standardized guidelines and processes. It is used as a guide to help teams improve the value of their services by focusing on the creation of business value. It prescribes best practices for each phase of the IT service lifecycle and bridges the gap between business needs and technology deliveries.
The ITIL acronym was first used in the 1980s by the British government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency. It documented dozens of best practices in IT service management and printed them for distribution. ITIL processes describe a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focus on aligning IT services with business needs.
ITIL’s approach to IT service management helps businesses manage risk, build up customer relations, set up cost-effective practices, and create a stable IT environment that allows for growth, scale, and change. A well-managed IT organization saves money with an efficient development lifecycle and allows the teams to perform more effectively.
ITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the IT service management of IT and offers the following benefits:
- reduces IT costs
- improves IT services through proven best practices
- strengthens customer satisfaction through a professional approach to service delivery
- establishes standards and guidance
- improves productivity, and
- enhances the delivery of third-party services.
What are the 5 stages of the ITIL?
ITIL provides IT services that are better aligned with your organization’s business needs. There are many benefits of adopting ITIL, the main objective being providing quality output with precision in the finished results and saving costs.
The ITIL framework is defined in terms of the five-stage service lifecycle model, where the purpose of the IT organization is to manage all IT services throughout their lifecycle.
Let us take a look at each of the framework’s five stages of successful implementation.
1. Service Strategy
It is the primary and fundamental stage of ITIL and forms the foundations of an organization’s ITSM framework. It enshrines the direction for the following four stages of the ITIL. The Service Strategy lays down instructions on implementing ITIL and lays the foundations for IT services in a non-IT scenario or quasi-IT setting. The organization is introduced to the type of implementation used to gain an edge over the competition. It determines which services the organization will offer and what capabilities need to be developed, namely:
▪ what defines the markets
▪ the development of strategic assets
▪ preparation of deployment
▪ the definition of offers.
2. Service Design
After the successful implementation and inception of ITIL, the second stage focuses on planning the organizational design of the IT strategies to lay out the concept that best benefits the company. The design strives to achieve perfection in service deliveries for customer satisfaction.
This stage covers many management concepts like
▪ Service cataloging
▪ Service levels
▪ Capacity
▪ Availability
▪ Service continuity
▪ Information security
▪ Supplier management processes.
3. Service Transition
This stage is where organizations build, test, and implement their new designs. As the design implementation can affect productivity, the Service Transition stage involves the systematic and planned transition from non-IT or quasi-IT deployment in a phased manner. The design implementations are equally distributed, so both the business and the customers get accustomed to the new order. By following the steps laid down in this stage, issues that may arise are rectified, ensuring there is no disruption in their service deliveries.
The Service Transition process covers:
▪ Transition planning
▪ Change management
▪ Release and deployment
▪ Service validation and testing evaluation
▪ Knowledge management processes of Discovery, Capture, Sharing, and Application
4. Service Operation
After implementing all the changes and validation of the services, the next stage monitors if the new order can function successfully. The department of ITIL ensures that the new order is running smoothly and efficiently without any possibility of loss or crash down of the whole system. The ITIL implementation is placed in a live environment for testing success and maintaining customer relationships by monitoring each service’s delivery as customers start using the services.
The Service Operation stage ensures the following
▪ Fulfills user requests
▪ Resolves service failures
▪ Fixes issues
▪ Carries out routine operational tasks
5. Continual Service Improvement
After the preceding four stages, the ITIL expert is still on the job, monitoring the implementation for any error or discrepancy arising in the system. Updates or improvements are checked for snags and smooth rollout. This stage addresses the continual improvement of service by instructing organizations to identify and analyze possible enhancements in any of the four previous stages.
While carrying out continual service improvement, organizations follow the seven-step improvement processes of
a) Defining what is to be measured
b) Defining what cannot be measured.
c) Gathering data manually or using tools.
d) Processing the data by sorting it into something quantifiable
e) Analyzing the data
f) Presenting the data to the right audience or stakeholder
g) Implementing the corrective action
Summary
If you deliver IT services to customers, you should be familiar with ITIL. The best way is to register for training with an approved partner.