What is ITIL?
A Complete Guide to the IT Infrastructure Library

The ITIL or Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a globally recognized framework that provides a comprehensive set of best practices for IT service management (ITSM).

How far would an automobile go without the supportive infrastructure of streets and highways?  Not very far. The same holds true with IT – no matter how great your technology, it can’t go very far without the help of a supportive infrastructure to fuel, manage, and maintain it.

If IT is the vehicle, then ITIL provides the “rules for the road,” helping IT teams efficiently reach their destination of optimizing IT’s contribution to the business.

ITSM vs. ITIL: What’s the Difference? 

ITSM is the way in which IT services are managed for a business. ITIL, on the other hand, is a standardized methodology that helps you implement ITSM.

So you can think of ITSM as “what you do” and ITIL as “how you do it” (i.e., through leveraging ITIL’s set of best practices). 

In short, ITSM is about doing IT effectively, while ITIL is about doing IT effectively within a framework of best practices that are intended to create optimal value for the business. We’ll detail those ITIL practices below, but let’s look at some history first.

The ITIL framework is based on 7 principles which provide a solid (but also highly adaptable) foundation of widely-accepted best practices for organizations to align their IT services with their business needs and extract value from IT investments. 

Here are the guiding principles of ITIL 4:

1. Create business value.

   You don’t “do IT” for the sake of IT, but to support and create value for the overall business. This first ITIL principle focuses on (1) understanding the specific business needs of an organization and (2) meeting those business needs by ensuring that every IT activity contributes to the overall value of the business entity. In short, IT and value creation for the business should be moving in lockstep.

2. Start from where you are.

   IT organizations can’t blow up the assets they’re currently deploying and start from ground zero. Business continuity is an imperative, now and always. So IT teams should start the change management process by: (1) assessing their current state and (2) build upon their existing assets and practices to drive ongoing improvement. This “iteration” principle encourages a practical, realistic approach to operational improvement, one that works within the unique context of each IT team and its organization.

3. Make progress step-by-step.

   If something isn’t working, you need to measure and improve it over time. If something is working, consider doing more of it. ITIL takes an iterative approach to improvement, one that uses data to fuel a continual feedback loop of performance improvement. This 3rd principle recognizes that IT must adapt, because not only will business demands evolve, but so will IT capabilities.

4. Work well with others.

   Improvement of the IT function is a team sport that requires collaboration within the IT team, as well as with stakeholders outside the IT team (including other functional areas of the business, such as finance, sales, and marketing). ITIL calls for clear and consistent communication and collaboration among teams to build a culture of shared responsibility and continual IT service improvement that adds more and more business value.

5. See and act upon "the big picture."

   Businesses are interconnected, living organisms where changes in one area can have outsized impacts on the entire organization. Again, IT doesn’t exist to “do IT,” but to create value for and across the whole business – meaning IT should consider the “bigger picture” of its impact.

6. Keep it simple, silly.

   Occam’s Razor is a scientific principle that assumes that the most simple and straightforward solution or explanation is typically better than the more complex one. Often referred to as the K-I-S-S principle, this guiding principle of ITIL 4 encourages IT to prioritize simple and practical solutions over more complex ones.

7. Optimize and automate.

   All IT teams feel the need to “do more with less.” When you can streamline processes by reducing steps (i.e., optimizing an operational process) and/or reduce time-consuming, error-prone manual processes, you save the business time and money.

As with other tools and technology frameworks, IT professionals can gain certification in ITIL. Axelos, which owns ITIL, certifies candidates across different levels within specific areas of the ITIL framework. ITIL certification indicates that a candidate has successfully learned service management best practices, processes, and methods included with the ITIL framework.

Here are the ITIL 4 certification levels with explanations of what each indicates:

1. ITIL 4 Foundation Certification:

   An introduction to the ITIL 4 framework, giving candidates a basic understanding of IT and service delivery, many of which we’ve just described above. Key components covered by this first-level certification include: (1) end-to-end Service Value System (SVS), (2) ITIL’s 7 guiding principles, and (3) the dimensions of IT service management.

2. ITIL 4 Managing Professional Certification: 

   Gives candidates a practical and technical knowledge around managing IT projects, processes, and teams. The four modules of this cert level are: (1) Create, Deliver and Support; (2) Drive Stakeholder Value; (3) High-velocity IT and (4) Direct, Plan and Improve.

3. ITIL 4 Strategic Leader Certification:

   Focuses on IT’s influence and role in business strategy. The holders of this 3rd level ITIL certification gain a full picture of the value of ITIL for both digitally-enabled services and IT operations, thus gaining a deeper knowledge into how IT contributes business value and serves as a strategic partner.

Is an ITIL certification worth it?

If your organization decides to implement ITIL processes, then the IT professionals charged with driving the adoption of ITIL principles should probably understand what those principles are and how to flexibly implement them. 

Such certification not only benefits the organization as it seeks to optimize IT service management (ITSM) via best practices but can also benefit the IT professionals who gain the certification, in terms of supporting their career advancement.

The ITIL methodology supports businesses by giving them a stable and scalable framework of best practices for IT service management. Key benefits of ITIL 4 include:

1. Agility:

   ITIL 4 encourages flexibility and collaboration within IT teams and in how IT teams work with other teams across the business. This adaptability is vital as organizations adopt agile approaches and evolve new ways of working, such as DevOps and increased AI deployment.

2. Strategic alignment:

   ITIL processes focus on ensuring that IT services are strategically aligned with business goals and help drive the success of the entire business. IT can never work in a silo but needs to connect across the organization to drive business value.

3. Resource optimization: 

   ITIL best practices push organizations to better measure the true cost of IT within the constraints of department resources. The basic idea is that you can’t optimize what you don’t measure.

4. A simplified structure:

   ITIL provides a framework for managing IT services which facilitates improved efficiency in IT service delivery. Having a leaner, more efficient structure in place helps improve overall delivery of IT services.

The whole idea of an ITIL methodology is not to create strict rules and processes, but to provide guidelines that can be adapted to your IT team’s evolving needs. It’s more of a change management and culture change project than a technological one. You and your team should begin by evaluating the ITIL framework, practices, and guidelines and implement the parts of it that work for your needs. Remember IT principle # 2: “start where you are.” You can find more information from Axelos about implementing ITIL.

By the way, organizations can also leverage GoTo Resolve as part of adopting ITIL. Our platform supports IT teams in adopting all of the 7 ITIL principles, allowing you to continuously improve service delivery, collaborate across your team and the entire organization, and contribute real, provable value to the business.