Itil 3 moves away from IT

Best practice framework to be more business-focussed

The new version of popular best practice IT service management framework Itil will seek to reflect the more business-focussed discipline it has become in the past few years, as well as address some of the common misconceptions made about it, according to Itil 3.0 chief architect Sharon Taylor.

Speaking at a recent roundtable held by IT service management technology provider Axios Systems, Taylor said the Itil architects had discussed the integration of the framework with business service management practices, to the point where it was proposed that they drop the acronym completely.

“The line is becoming diminished between service management and Itil and I predict it will collapse into one in the near future,” she argued. “In version three we talk about things like facilities management and have a case study of how to use Itil outside of IT.”

Itil will be kept as the brand but no longer stand for the IT Infrastructure Library, she added. Instead it will be referred to as “Itil – IT service management practices”.

Glenn O'Donnell from EMC agreed with the direction the framework is heading in. “It’s inevitable IT will be dropped from the vernacular because service management technology is really just a means to run a business,” he added.

Itil 3.0 will also address gaps in current Itil certifications to make them more helpful and appropriate to individuals’ career development plans, and will include help on how IT staff can “make marketing statements to the CIO and CEO”.

Many firms have the misconception that they need to comply with Itil, when it is actually a best practice guide that should only be followed in those areas appropriate to individual organisations, explained Taylor.

“It’s often called a standard in many areas of the user community so we’re trying to clarify this,” Taylor said. “It has also got the misconception of being expensive and complicated, and only targeted at large scale operations.”