ITIL 4 Overview

The purpose of ITIL 4 is to provide organisations with comprehensive guidance for the management of information technology in the modern service economy. The ITIL 4 framework is built on established IT service management (ITSM) practices and expands itself to the wider context of customer experience, value streams and digital transformation, as well as embracing new ways of working, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps. ITIL 4 provides an end-to-end IT/digital operating model for the creation, delivery and continual improvement of tech-enabled products and services and how technology and IT teams play a crucial role in wider business strategy.

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The ITIL 4 framework provides a practical and flexible basis to support organisations on their journey to the new world of digital transformation and to help them address new service management challenges. ITIL 4 is designed to ensure a flexible, coordinated and integrated system for the effective governance and management of IT-enabled services.

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Holistic approach

ITIL 4 emphasises a holistic approach by defining dimensions of service management that are collectively critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. These consider elements such as organisations and people, partners and suppliers, information & technology and value streams & processes, all of which are relevant to service management. 

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Value co-creation

ITIL 4 focuses on co-creating value through IT-enabled services and interactions between service providers and service consumers. In ITIL 4, customers are an essential element in the process of creating value.

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Service Value System

ITIL 4 promotes the service value system (SVS) which describes how all of the ITIL 4 components work together to achieve value realisation. These components comprise of:

• The guiding principles which helps organisations to make decisions

• Governance which provides strategic direction for organisations

• The service value chain which provides an operating model so that organisations can transform inputs into products and services

• Practices which provides the toolbox of resources for organisations to perform work and achieve its objectives

• Continual improvement which aims to ensure services remain aligned with business expectations

 

Integration with other methodologies and new ways of working

ITIL 4 reflects other methodologies and frameworks including Agile, DevOps, Lean, IT governance and leadership, and integrates these based on new ways of working. ITIL 4 provides the flexibility needed to adopt and adapt what is relevant to each business and organisation while reinforcing the fundamentals for delivering IT service quality. All of this sets ITIL 4 and service management in a strategic context, bringing together IT service management, development, operations, business relationships and governance in a holistic approach. This is a truly integrated model for digital service management.