ITIL v4: a portrait of the fourth edition of the IT service framework

IT managers and IT service providers such as managed services providers have had a com­pre­hens­ive framework with tailored best practices at their fin­ger­tips for over three decades in the form of the ITIL (In­form­a­tion Tech­no­logy In­fra­struc­ture Library). The IT guide describes how services can be provided as ef­fi­ciently and customer-ori­ent­ated as possible. The following sections deal with the contents and special features of the fourth edition ITIL v4.

ITIL v4 is the fourth and most current edition of the IT framework ITIL. It was published in February 2019 as the official successor to ITIL v3 and serves primarily as an extension or update to version 3. The core prin­ciples of the previous edition are still valid today. In addition, they also play an important role in ITIL v4, because the fun­da­ment­al ITIL v3 approach to the efficient provision of IT services, which is the main focus of the ITIL guide, is continued. But basic prin­ciples have been re­in­forced in areas such as trans­par­ency, col­lab­or­a­tion, and auto­ma­tion.

The two key com­pon­ents that ITIL v4 is based on include the Service Value System (SVS) and the four di­men­sions model.

The Service Value System of ITIL v4 describes the in­ter­ac­tion of all com­pon­ents and activ­it­ies of IT service man­age­ment in an or­gan­isa­tion involved in value creation. The system is sub­divided into the following five core points:

• ITIL Service Value Chain: Com­bin­a­tion of the six key activ­it­ies – Planning, Im­prove­ment, En­gage­ment, Design/Trans­ition, Sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and Delivery/Support, the goal of which is to create value for the end user.
• ITIL Guiding Prin­ciples: Core prin­ciples for high-quality IT service man­age­ment such as value ori­ent­a­tion, trans­par­ent col­lab­or­a­tion, sim­pli­city, or con­tinu­ous op­tim­isa­tion/further de­vel­op­ment.
• Gov­ernance: Pre­defined dir­ec­tions, policies, and rules that IT managers should use when deploying and managing their services.
• Continual Im­prove­ment: The drive to con­stantly improve the services offered, which also plays a role in other com­pon­ents such as the value chain.
• ITIL practices (also referral guidelines or practices): 34 different best practices that provide IT service providers with a set of or­gan­isa­tion­al resources designed to perform work or achieve a goal.

Agile IT service man­age­ment is about more than simply managing tech­no­logy. The various or­gan­isa­tions of a company and the in­di­vidu­al persons must be included, as must the processes and tech­no­lo­gies used. Re­la­tion­ships with partners and providers also play an important role. ITIL v4 sum­mar­ises these areas in a holistic IT service man­age­ment approach which forms the basis of the model of the four di­men­sions.

1. Or­gan­isa­tion and people: Or­gan­isa­tions cover the formal structure and ensure an ap­pro­pri­ate level of ca­pa­cit­ies and com­pet­en­cies. All staff involved should be always aware of their part in the service value system.
2. In­form­a­tion and tech­no­logy: On the one hand, this dimension is about the tech­no­lo­gies used in terms of IT service man­age­ment, e.g., tools or knowledge databases. On the other hand, it is about how companies handle in­form­a­tion they generate, store, manage, and use in the delivery of an IT service.
3. Partner and suppliers: Depending on various factors such as costs, corporate culture, know-how or their own strategy, companies integrate third-party or­gan­isa­tions into their business processes.
4. Value streams and processes: This dimension provides for a defin­i­tion of all activ­it­ies, workflows, and processes required to achieve the business ob­ject­ives. It also looks at the in­ter­ac­tion of various business com­pon­ents and how they are involved in the value creation process.

ITIL v4 specifies a total of 34 different IT man­age­ment practices. These re­com­men­ded practices, which are referred to as ‘processes’ in previous versions such as ITIL v3, are in­ter­re­lated or­gan­isa­tion­al resources that can be used to complete specific tasks or achieve specific goals. For each practice, the framework for­mu­lates, among other things, ap­pro­pri­ate concepts, and success factors.

ITIL v4 divides in­di­vidu­al practices into the three cat­egor­ies ‘General Man­age­ment Practices’, ‘Service Man­age­ment Practices’, and ‘Technical Man­age­ment Practices’. The following table (updated August 2021) shows the 34 ITIL v4 practices including the su­per­or­din­ate category:

ITIL v4 is extension of ITIL v3 since many ap­proaches can already be found in the third ITIL edition from 2011. What’s new in ITIL v4 is the four-dimension model of service man­age­ment, but service man­age­ment is also presented as a system-based approach in ITIL v3. In addition, staff, in­form­a­tion, tech­no­logy, partners, and processes are all important aspects in the third edition of the guide.

The service value system of ITIL v4, which describes the in­ter­ac­tion of the in­di­vidu­al com­pon­ents and activ­it­ies in the or­gan­isa­tion, is not an entirely new principle either. With its various processes, functions, and guidelines, ITIL v3 also offers a basic de­scrip­tion of in­ter­ac­tion. With its Service Value System, however, ITIL v4 not only provides a more holistic approach, but also a much more flexible one that gives IT managers greater freedom to define cus­tom­ised solutions.

The service life cycle known from the third edition is hardly mentioned in ITIL v4, but con­tinu­ous im­prove­ment continues to play an important role, for example in the context of the ITIL service value chain. Instead of the 26 processes in ITIL v3, ITIL v4 presents a total of 34 different practices, some of which are new, while the majority lean on processes described in previous editions.