Why the Basics of ITIL v3 are Still So Important in 2024

Lee Healey
May 20, 2024
4 min read

Let’s face it, in the fast-paced world of technology and Service Management, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest trends and shiny new tools. But today we want to talk about something a bit more timeless: ITIL v3.

Yes, the third version of the 'Information Technology Infrastructure Library'. You might be wondering why on earth we’re discussing something from the 2000s in 2024. Well, buckle up, because we're here to tell you that the fundamentals of ITIL v3 are still incredibly relevant in IT Service Management (ITSM) today.

Firstly, let's take a quick trip down memory lane. ITIL v3 was a game-changer when it was introduced. It provided a comprehensive framework for ITSM, focusing on aligning IT services with business needs. It wasn’t just about technology; it was about delivering value and continuous improvement. These core principles—service lifecycle, continual service improvement, and a strong focus on service strategy—are evergreen.

Whilst not as well-rounded as ITIL4, one of the reasons the basics of ITIL v3 remain important is its well-defined structure for managing legacy IT services. It divides the service lifecycle into five stages: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. This approach ensures that IT services are not only well-planned and designed but also effectively transitioned and continually improved upon. In 2024, with businesses relying more heavily on digital services, having a structured approach to service management is crucial.

Another enduring element of ITIL v3 is its emphasis on the customer experience. In today’s customer-centric market, providing a seamless and positive user experience is more important than ever. ITIL v3's focus on understanding customer needs and delivering services that provide real value is a principle that modern ITSM cannot afford to ignore. Even with advancements in technology, the goal remains the same: delight the customer.

Moreover, ITIL v3's guidance on incident and problem management is still highly applicable. Despite new tools and methodologies, organisations continue to face incidents and problems that need swift resolution to maintain service quality. The tried-and-tested processes outlined in ITIL v3 provide a solid foundation for managing these issues effectively.

Now, let’s shift gears and talk about ITIL4 and why it’s a big deal.

ITIL4 was introduced to address the evolving landscape of IT and the challenges posed by digital transformation. While it retains the core principles of ITIL v3, it brings several enhancements and benefits that make it more suited to the demands of 2024.

1. Greater Flexibility and Integration with Modern Practices:

ITIL4 is designed to be more adaptable and (in theory), integrates semi-seamlessly with other frameworks like Agile, DevOps, and Lean. This flexibility allows organisations to adopt a more holistic approach to ITSM, combining the best practices from multiple methodologies. In a world where agile development and continuous delivery are the norms, this integration is invaluable.

2. Focus on Value Streams and Customer Journeys:

ITIL4 shifts the focus from processes to value streams and customer journeys. This means looking at how value is created across the entire organisation and delivered to the customer. By concentrating on the end-to-end service delivery, ITIL4 helps organisations ensure that every step in the process adds value, leading to a better overall customer experience.

3. Enhanced Guidance on Governance:

Governance is a critical aspect of ITSM, and ITIL4 provides more detailed guidance on this front. It helps organisations establish clear roles and responsibilities, ensuring that there is accountability and oversight in place. This is particularly important in today’s regulatory environment, where compliance and risk management are top priorities.

4. Emphasis on Continuous Improvement:

While ITIL v3 introduced the concept of continual service improvement, ITIL4 takes it up a notch. It embeds continuous improvement into every aspect of the service lifecycle, encouraging organisations to regularly assess and enhance their processes and services. This continuous improvement mindset is essential for staying competitive and meeting the ever-changing needs of customers.

5. Stronger Alignment with Digital Transformation:

Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword; it’s a reality. ITIL4 is designed to support organisations on their digital transformation journeys. It provides the tools and frameworks needed to manage digital services effectively, ensuring that IT can keep pace with the rapid changes in technology and business demands.

But with all that said, the question really remains with a lot of organisations... Are you really ready for ITIL4, or should we do a sanity check on the core principles of v3 first??

All too often, we see those core practices developed in the previous version(s), i.e. Incident, Problem, Change, Service Catalogue, and Knowledge (to name a just a few) simply not working as they should, and therefore causing a huge amount of pain. This stuff isnt new and a lot of it is arguably common sense, but the world has moved on and unfortunately the true value of these core principles often gets overlooked.

Anyone that has studied ITIL4 will have learned the super important phrase 'Start where you are', and here's another really important phrase - 'don’t run before you can walk'.

If you'd like to discuss this topic further with us, you can contact the team at hello@itsmpeople.co.uk

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What is ITSM?

Information Technology Service Management processes include a range of activities designed to deliver and support high-quality IT services for your business. These can include incident management, problem management, change management, and service-level management. Additionally, ITSM involves continuous enhancement processes to improve service delivery, increase efficiency and reduce costs. By adopting strong ITSM practices, your business can improve service quality, customer satisfaction and achieve greater alignment between IT and business objectives. This holistic approach ensures that IT services are effective and integrated with your overall business goals. As ITSM focuses on aligning IT services with your business’s needs, you can ensure that IT processes and services support and enhance business operations. This is achieved through a structured approach to managing IT services, guided by best practices and methodologies such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). These models provide guidance on best practices for delivering and supporting technology and other enterprise services and can help companies align their capabilities with their business goals and strategic objectives.
What is ITIL and how does it underpin ITSM?

We adhere to the ITIL Framework in delivering our ITSM consultancy services. ITIL is a globally recognised set of best practices for ITSM that helps businesses provide consistent, high-quality IT services. By implementing ITIL processes and principles, we ensure that your IT operations are standardised, efficient and aligned with industry standards. ITIL4 is the latest version of ITIL, designed to help enterprises navigate the new technological era known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This version introduces a more flexible, modern approach to ITSM, emphasising its integration with other areas of business management.
What are the core practices and processes in ITSM?

Effective ITSM revolves around a number of processes. Whilst there are 34 practice areas in ITIL4, there are often a core set of practices that many of our clients are particularly interested in optimising. As understanding and implementing these processes can significantly enhance the performance and quality of IT services within your organisation. Incident Management Restores all service operations back to normal as soon as possible, minimising to lessen the impact on your operations. This process might involve logging, categorising, prioritising, and resolving incidents, ensuring which can help mitigate disruption to users and the business. Configuration Management Keeps an updated record of IT infrastructure - hardware, software, and network components - in a centralised configuration management database (CMDB). This database provides accurate data on configuration items (CIs) and their relationships. Change Management Ensures any changes to your IT services are controlled and coordinated. This process evaluates the impact of changes, approving them through a structured workflow, and ensuring successful implementation with minimal risk. Service level Management Defines, negotiates, and monitors service level agreements (SLAs) between the service provider and the customer. This process ensures that agreed-upon service quality and performance levels are consistently met. Asset Management Tracks and manages your IT assets throughout their lifecycle to ensure efficient use and cost control. You maintain an accurate inventory of hardware, software, and other IT resources through this. Problem Management Identifies, analyses and resolves the root causes of incidents. Proactively addressing underlying issues can prevent recurring incidents. This, in turn, provides improved system stability and reduced downtime. Request Management Handles the lifecycle of user service requests, such as access to applications, software installations or information enquiries. It ensures requests are managed efficiently to provide a streamlined approach that fulfils user needs and enhances satisfaction. Knowledge Management Captures, organises and shares knowledge to improve efficiency and support decision-making. By leveraging a centralised knowledge base, your IT teams can quickly resolve incidents and problems, and end-users can find the right solutions to common issues.
Why is ITSM important to organisations and their IT (and Enterprise) teams?

Implementing the right ITSM strategy and optimising your tooling can provide a range of benefits for your company, including: Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings By streamlining processes and automating routine tasks, ITSM can help your enterprise work more efficiently and reduce the time and resources required to deliver and support IT services. Good ITSM is a silent enabler of success across a range of organisational goals. Improved Compliance and Risk Management ITSM can help you ensure that your IT systems and processes comply with industry regulations and standards. It also ensures that you are effectively managing risks associated with your IT operations. This can help you avoid costly disruptions and legal consequences. Increased Productivity Effective ITSM practices can help your business prevent problems and fix them quickly if they do occur. This can help you lower costs—outages cost money—and increase productivity and employee satisfaction. Better Customer Satisfaction You can improve customer satisfaction and build stronger relationships by delivering high-quality IT services that meet customers' needs. Improved Service Quality ITSM ensures that IT services are delivered consistently and meet agreed-upon service levels, leading to higher customer satisfaction and better overall service quality. Business Continuity ITSM processes like incident and problem management ensure that disruptions are minimised and services are quickly restored to ensure business continuity. Strategic Alignment ITSM aligns IT services with business objectives, ensuring that technology initiatives support and drive business growth. This alignment helps you make informed decisions and prioritise projects that add the most value. Enhanced Collaboration ITSM promotes a collaborative environment where IT teams can work together more effectively, sharing knowledge and best practices to improve your delivery of services. Proactive problem-solving Through problem management and a proactive approach, ITSM helps your IT teams identify and address the root causes of incidents to prevent future issues and reduce downtime. Continuous Improvement ITSM encourages continuous monitoring and improvement of IT processes, allowing your IT teams to refine and enhance their service delivery regularly. Better Resource Management With ITSM, IT teams can manage resources more effectively, ensuring that personnel, technology, and budget are allocated optimally to support business requirements.
Do you provide ITSM tooling support and what tools do you specialise in?

The ITSM People are completely agnostic with ITSM tools and not tied to any vendors. Given the close relationship between ITSM related processes and ITSM tools, we often get involved in tool selection projects, or making recommendations on how to improve tools and get the best value from them. We work with tools such as ServiceNow, BMC, Jira, ManageEngine, Fresh, Halo and Xurrent.