Do We Need Itil?

By Author: Simon buehring
Total Articles: 45
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The IT Infrastructure Library (or ITIL) is essentially a body of knowledge, structures and ‘best practices' related to the provision of quality IT services.

It is an invaluable resource for IT service professionals who need to widen the scope of their understanding of IT Service Management. It has also been widely-introduced within organisations as a ready-made working model, in order to achieve a standardised service management method.

For Individuals
One major advantage of ITIL for individuals working within and alongside IT Service Management is that the collated information is teachable, and further that it is regularly taught and examined as part of ordinary progress towards a career in IT services.

This means that IT professionals acquire a set of common principles and expectations, preventing miscommunication and service failure. It also provides a clear and proven track to IT Service Management expertise. This has enabled the introduction of industry-standard qualifications, which demonstrate knowledge and understanding of ITIL at four different levels, over a variety of different ...
... ITIL modules.

For more information about the ITIL qualification, take a look at this introduction to the course.

For Organisations
There are three additional advantages to organisations in adopting the ITIL methodology in the IT services that they provide. The first, already hinted at above, is that ITIL provides a ready-made model that can be adapted to fit the specific needs and conditions of the organisation. This means that IT departments do not have to reinvent the wheel in order to develop an effective method for designing, implementing and monitoring their services.

ITIL also ensures a focus on the end result of the services provided. By forcing IT departments to look at the bigger picture (What is the value of the service for the customer? What is the benefit that the service provides?), ITIL guards against a tendency to see the service as an end in itself, and the provision of the service as the limit of the IT department's interest and responsibility.

Finally, by utilising ITIL, companies gain access to a network of IT Service Management professionals and organisations. There are the continuously updated and improved ITIL publications and standard guides, frequent conferences and user-group workshops. The ITIL qualification system also enables recruiting organisations to tell at a glance the level and quality of training that a potential employee has received.

Finding out more
The ‘library' part of the IT Infrastructure Library consists of over twenty titles designed to help individuals and organisations find out more about ITIL. There are also introductory and advanced training courses designed to teach the core components and the individual modules of the ITIL knowledge base. To learn more about how these modules are structured, please see our article about the ITIL professional qualifications.

Simon Buehring is a project manager, consultant and trainer. He works for KnowledgeTrain which offers ITIL training courses in the UK and overseas. He can be contacted via the ITIL foundations training website.