# ITIL

ITIL (previously and also known as Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework with a set of practices (previously processes) for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of the business.
ITIL describes best practices, including processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are neither organization-specific nor technology-specific. It is designed to allow organizations to establish a baseline and can be used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvements.
There is no formal independent third-party compliance assessment available to demonstrate ITIL compliance in an organization. Certification in ITIL is only available to individuals and not organizations. Since 2021, the ITIL trademark has been owned by PeopleCert.

## History

Responding to growing dependence on IT, the UK Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s developed a set of recommendations designed to standardize IT management practices across government functions, built around a process model-based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming and his plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle.
* In 1989, ITIL was released. It grew to a series of 30 books that recommended and provided IT best practices that focused on and catered for client and business needs.
* In 1993, the examination institute EXIN developed the first certification scheme for ITIL.
* In April 2001, the CCTA was merged into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an office of the UK Treasury.
* In 2001, ITIL version 2 was released.
* In May 2007, ITIL version 3 was released (also known as the ITIL Refresh Project) consisting of 26 processes and functions, now grouped into only 5 volumes, arranged around the concept of Service lifecycle structure. ITIL Version 3 is now known as ITIL 2007 Edition.
* In 2009, the OGC officially announced that ITIL Version 2 certification would be withdrawn and launched a major consultation as per how to proceed.
* In 2009 and 2011, researchers investigated the benefits of the ITIL implementation.
* In July 2011, ITIL 2011 was released.
* In 2013, ITIL was acquired by AXELOS, a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office.
* In February 2019, ITIL 4 was released. With this release, the nomenclature of using a version number was replaced simply with the numerical number (v3 became 4) in a reference to the 4th industrial revolution. The main changes were: to consider end-to-end Service Management from holistic and value-centric perspectives, to align with philosophies such as Agile, DevOps, and Lean, and to reduce the emphasis on IT Service Management in favor of general Service Management.
* In June 2021, PeopleCert completed the acquisition of Axelos.

## Guiding principles

ITIL 4 contains seven guiding principles:
* 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

## Framework content

ITIL 4 consists of 34 practices grouped into 3 categories:
* General management practices: some examples are: Strategy management, Portfolio management, Architecture management and Risk management
* Service management practices: examples are: Service-level management, Availability management and Capacity and performance management
* Technical management practices: including three practices: Deployment management, Infrastructure and platform management and Software development and management.

## Certification

ITIL 4 certification can be obtained by different roles in IT management. Certification starts with ITIL 4 Foundation, followed by one of two branches:

### ITIL 4 Managing Professional

* ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver & Support (CDS)
* ITIL 4 Specialist: Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV)
* ITIL 4 Specialist: High Velocity IT (HVIT)

### ITIL 4 Strategic Leader

* ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan & Improve (DPI)
* ITIL 4: Digital & IT Strategy (DITS)