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Foreword
OGC’s foreword
Since its creation, ITIL has grown to become the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world. However, along with this success comes the responsibility to ensure that the guidance keeps pace with a changing global business environment. Service management requirements are inevitably shaped by the development of technology, revised business models and increasing customer expectations. Our latest version of ITIL has been created in response to these developments.
This publication is one of the five core publications describing the IT service management practices that make up ITIL. They are the result of a two-year project to review and update the guidance. The number of service management professionals around the world who have helped to develop the content of these publications is impressive. Their experience and knowledge have contributed to the content to bring you a consistent set of high-quality guidance. This is supported by the ongoing development of a comprehensive qualifications scheme, along with accredited training and consultancy.
Whether you are part of a global company, a government department or a small business, ITIL gives you access to world-class service management expertise. Essentially, it puts IT services where they belong – at the heart of successful business operations.
Peter Fanning
Acting Chief Executive
Chief Architect’s foreword
ITIL service management practices are based on a solid framework of concepts, processes, functions and activities that exert positive outcomes on business value. One of the constant features of these practices is the objective to improve in maturity and therefore service excellence in every possible way.
No matter what we do in our daily lives, we are constantly assessing how we can improve the quality and meaningfulness in all we achieve. We look to experiences of our peers to learn and measure how we perform in that context.
Continual Service Improvement surrounds the ITIL service lifecycle by exerting influence in every aspect of service management to improve our performance, capability and business value as service providers.
The most important aspect of understanding how to improve is in knowing what to measure and how those measures can be assessed, analysed and used as a basis for improvements.
This publication forms part of an overall lifecycle of service management practices and guides the reader in understanding service measurement, how to assess the overall service management health and maturity, and then what to do to make it better.
The guidance in Continual Service Improvement is based around the view of improvement from the business perspective of service quality.
As service providers, what we think of our service quality is important, but what our business customers think is paramount to our survival.
Service providers who are serious about paying more than lip service to service improvement need to own and use the practices in this publication.
Sharon Taylor
Chief Architect, ITIL Service Management Practices
