What is ITIL?

I am often asked “What in the world is ITIL?”  ITIL is Information Technology Infrastructure Library. Okay so what is that?  ITIL is the most popular approach to IT Service Management.  It gives us a framework of best practices to help us identify the services we need, then plan, deliver and support those services. What we are trying to do in ITIL is align our IT services with the needs of the business, making sure we are providing the right mix of services to meet the business needs in the most cost effective way. 

This approach works because it is based on tested practices that are used by successful companies not theory.   There is not just one way to apply ITIL, each organization adapts the practices to fit their needs.  

The framework is based around a five phase lifecycle and the best practices are laid out in the five core publications that align with the phases.  This lifecycle takes us from deciding on the services we need, to designing the services, building, testing, and implementing the service, to the day to day operations of delivering the services, and then to improving the processes. 

This is a very basic answer to the question and of course there is a lot more involved.  I will be exploring the return on investment and each phase of the lifecycle over the next few months.

-Sandy Bentch, Business IT Expert