IT Infrastructure Library

The ITIL Service Management Roadmap

Define. Manage. Measure. Improve.
By providing definition to IT practices, ITIL serves as a roadmap to guide organizations to more efficient and cost effective use of technology. ITIL starts with the premise that:

• What is not defined cannot be managed.
• What is not managed cannot be measured.
• What is not measured cannot be improved.

The ITIL roadmap is actually comprised of knowledge gained from real experiences, and captured in various publications that outline a process-based set of best practices for IT service management. There are currently six volumes, and more are planned by the itSMF. These publications provide ways to determine tangible benefits from implementing ITIL and deliver consistent and repeatable service.

Deploying ITIL incrementally
Employing ITIL requires a considerable commitment and investment. To develop and maintain the necessary best practice processes and disciplines, ITIL requires an investment in training and management time. For this reason, it is not uncommon for ITIL to be deployed incrementally using a continuous improvement strategy.

The considerations, plans and actions necessary to create the best practice disciplines are described in an ITIL publication called Planning to Implement Service Management. This document provides a framework to define required levels of service performance based on an organization's IT budget and maturity.

Tivoli Enables ITIL Service Management
Tivoli is teaming with major service providers to offer a comprehensive ITIL solution. These vendors provide an integrated Service Desk where incidents, problems and changes are logged for appropriate action.