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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 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
In 1997, Chinese manufacturers entered the motorcycle market with an unusual management strategy. Rather than preparing detailed models and drawings of subsystems, the country simply defined best-practice structures and standards. The supplier community remained free to innovate and adapt components within these rough designs and broad parameters. The results were stunning – the Chinese motorcycle industry now accounts for half of all global production and is considered a hotbed of innovation.1
These results are emergent. They are the outcomes of following low-level and practical guidance and gave rise to an industry that moves in self-organizing coordination in a variety of conditions. Instead of rigid frameworks, preventing graceful adaptation under changing conditions, there remains room for self-optimization. This is the philosophy of ITIL: good practice structures with room for self-optimization.
What is exciting about emergent behaviour and self-optimization are the surprising outcomes. When the previous version of ITIL offered its service management framework, there did not exist such solutions as federated Configuration Management Databases (CMDB), Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) or the convergence of business process, virtualization and service management. ITIL reflects the dynamics of organizations, and their need to continually adapt in a world of changing conditions.
These and other significant lessons learned have been applied to create the improved framework described in this version of the library. ITIL also looks for the first time at some business fundamentals and the relationships between all the players in modern organizations using IT. This publication on Service Strategy covers much of this new ground by examining what exactly a service is, how both the provider and the customer can mutually benefit from one supplying a service to the other, and where each side has choices.
Perhaps the strongest single idea this publication brings to ITIL is the concept of competition. Every provider faces competition. As many internal service providers have found, they will inevitably be tested against the market. The key for providers is to understand how they provide value and differentiate themselves for their target customers. For customers, it is to understand where they should best be concentrating their efforts, and where shared or external service providers can do it better. There are many factors to consider and some unfamiliar concepts may be presented, but this is an exciting journey. Take this publication as your guide.
Sharon Taylor
Chief Architect, ITIL Service Management Practices
