Purple Griffon ITIL 2011 News Bulletin!

*Updated Jan 2012*

ITIL has been around for over 20 years now, and over that time has gone through a number of refreshes. This current refresh of the ITIL ‘core’ library is the latest since ITIL version 3 was introduced in 2007.

Some of the major changes that we are aware of are:

Service Strategy

• A complete rewrite of the Service Strategy book.
• Some of the key concepts within this publication have been improved and clarified, without changing the overall message of Service Strategy.
• There are now newly defined processes within the Service Strategy lifecycle phase, these being Strategy Management (responsible for developing and maintaining business and IT strategies), Business Relationship Management and Demand Management.
• Financial Management has been expanded.
• There are now better and separate descriptions of Business strategy and IT strategy.

Service Design

• Throughout the updated Service Design publication there is a particular focus on alignment with Service Strategy.
• We have a new process called Design Coordination.
• There has been clarification to the flow and management of activity throughout the overall service design phase.
• Other significant clarifications include the five aspects of service design, the design of the service portfolio and the terminology related to views of the service catalogue.

Service Transition

• There is improvement to the process flow across the whole of Service Transition.
• We have a new content explaining how a change proposal should be used.
• The evaluation process has been renamed 'change evaluation' and the purpose and scope have been changed.
• There is now additional content relating to Asset Management.
• We have improvements in the process diagrams and integration of a number of Service Transition processes including change management, release and deployment management, and change evaluation.

Service Operation

• Process flow diagrams have been updated or added for all Service Operation processes including Request Fulfillment, Access Management and Event Management.
• There is now an expanded section on problem analysis techniques.
• Further guidance is given for escalating incidents to problem management.
• The guidance for managing physical facilities has also been expanded.
• There are improvements to key principles – including guidance around service requests and request models, and proactive problem management, which have been clarified.
• We now have a documented procedure flow for Incident matching.
• The publication has been updated to explain how basic events flow into filters' and rule engines' to produce meaningful event information.
• The relationship between application management activities versus application development activities is also clarified.

Continual Service Improvement

• The CSI model has been renamed the CSI approach.
• The seven-step improvement process – and its relationship with the Deming 'Plan-Do-Check-Act' cycle and knowledge management, has been clarified.
• The concept of a CSI register has been introduced as a place to record details of all improvement initiatives within an organization.
• We now have documented interfaces from CSI to other lifecycle stages.

FAQs

What have been the drivers behind the changes?

To resolve any errors or inconsistencies in the text and diagrams, both in content and presentation.
• To improve the publications by addressing issues raised in the Change Control Log, as analysed and recommended by the change advisory board (CAB) and approved by the Cabinet Office, part of HM Government. These are largely to do with clarity, consistency, correctness and completeness (over 500 suggestions for improvement were submitted).
• To address suggestions for change made by the training community to make ITIL easier to to understand and absorb.
• To review the Service Strategy publication to ensure that the concepts are explained in the clearest, most concise and accessible way possible. There is no notion of simplifying the concepts; rather, improving the exposition of the ideas.

When are the new books available?

Many including the 'five core manuals' are available right now, order them now on our bookstore and get 12.5% discount!

Will my ITSM Software toolset need to be changed?

Not immediately, but I suspect some vendors will amend their software to be conformant with ITIL v3 2011.

Will my ITIL v3 2007 certifications still be relevant and applicable?

Yes, but now’s the time to update any v2 Foundation or Manager qualifications.