ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3: What You Should Go With?
ITIL V3 has been the leading standard for IT service management globally for more than a decade. Released in 2007, the ITIL V3 framework was released in 2007 with a series of minor updates in 2011 and has helped IT organizations worldwide improve and standardize IT service delivery, resulting in cost reductions and increased efficiency. But all great things have to come to an end, and that’s exactly what happened with ITIL V3 in February 2019 when AXELOS, a company founded to manage, develop and develop a portfolio of global best practices, including ITIL, created the first published ITIL 4 book foundations.
The advance ITIL 4 certification is a step forward in the evolution of ITIL. Released more than a decade ago, the ITIL V3 framework does not provide sufficient guidance for IT organizations looking to deploy the latest technologies, especially in Cloud Computing, Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In addition, ITIL V3 has been the subject of several legitimate criticisms from ITIL practitioners:
● ITIL V3 is sometimes seen as too inflexible due to its process orientation.
● ITIL V3 lacks comprehensive governance principles that can guide problem-solving in cases where ITIL publications do not specifically recommend solutions or best practices.
● Some practitioners think ITIL V3 is too narrow. It focuses too much on the management process and ignores other important external factors that influence value creation.
In this article, we will look at ITIL 4 vs ITIL 3. We will evaluate the structure of both frameworks before identifying and measuring the biggest changes in ITIL 4 and why this update is important for IT organizations today.
Definition of ITIL V3
When ITIL V3 was introduced in 2007, it built on the “IT as a Service” legacy that has shaped ITIL to this day. Since 1989, the main reason for creating ITIL has been to align better the Company’s needs with the activities of the IT organization. The earlier versions of ITIL (ITIL V1, published in 1989 and ITIL V2, published in 2000) are effective guides for best practices, but it can be said that ITIL V3 is the first truly complete ITIL framework.
The ITIL V3 standard is divided into five volumes, each corresponding to a phase of the IT service lifecycle. Each volume describes the processes, sub-processes, roles, and responsibilities required to manage this service lifecycle phase.
The five ITIL V3 volumes can be summarized as follows:
1. ITIL service strategy: The service strategy is the most important phase of the ITIL life cycle. In this phase, the IT organization works with the Company to identify opportunities, understand customer needs, and assess service requests. The ITIL services strategy aims to align IT service development with business needs to ensure that newly developed skills can effectively add value to the Company. The ITIL service strategy process includes:
• Strategic management for IT services
• Service portfolio management
• Financial management for IT services
• Request management
• Business relationship management
2. ITIL Service Design: Service Design is concerned with the strategic design of new IT services and any alterations or modifications to existing services. Latest IT services must be developed to meet the user needs during the service strategy phase and the availability and capacity requirements needed to meet the service level agreement. The ITIL service design process includes:
• Project coordination
• Service catalogue management
• Service Management
• Risk management
• Capacity management
• Availability management
• IT service continuity management
• Information security management
• Compliance management
• Architecture management
• Supplier management
3. ITIL service transition: Service transition comprises all processes related to the construction and implementation of new IT services or approval of changes or updates to existing services. The ITIL service transition process includes:
• Change management
• Change evaluation
• Project management
• Application development
• Release and implementation management
• Validation and testing of services
• Asset management and service configuration
• Knowledge management
4. ITIL service operation: The IT service lifecycle is intended to ensure that IT services are delivered efficiently and according to agreed service levels. ITIL service work processes include:
• Organize events
• Incident management
• Execution requests
• Access control
• Problem management
• IT operations control
• Building management
• Application management
• Technical management
5. Continuous Service Improvement (CSI): The final volume of ITIL V3 contains methodologies for achieving continuous IT service improvement. Organizations are motivated enough to review services for their effectiveness and efficiency and to identify and implement changes to make processes more effective for the organization. The continuous service improvement process includes:
• Service overview
• Process evaluation
• Identification of CSI initiatives
• Monitoring of CSI initiatives
ITIL V3 provides an effective framework for companies looking for ways to manage IT service delivery more effectively. Through the IT service strategy process, IT organizations focus on capturing the needs and requirements of business users. After determining which new services or functions should be developed, ITIL V3 provides a stable process framework for managing IT services’ design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement.
ITIL Definition 4
The core aim of the new ITIL 4 framework for ITSM are:
• Provides a flexible basis for organizations that need to integrate different frameworks and approaches into their service management models
• To help companies navigate the new technology era of digital services.
To achieve this goal, ITIL 4 offers a broader ITSM approach than its predecessors with additional high-level guidance, less emphasis on process specification, and application areas that go beyond management or operational processes to address additional externalities focused on value creation. These new ITIL 4 relate to the three main criticisms of ITIL V3 outlined in the introduction.
In the ITIL 4 book from the ITIL Foundation training, we learn that the ITIL 4 framework is based on two main components: a Service Value System (SVS) and a four-dimensional model.
The Service Value System consists of five key components that support value creation for IT organizations:
• The seven guiding principles of ITIL
• Administration
• ITIL service value chain
• ITIL Practice
• Continuous improvement
The four-dimensional model includes four factors to consider about each component of the service value system:
• Organizations and people
• Information and technology products
• Partners and suppliers
• Value and process
ITIL 4 vs ITIL V3: Crucial similarities and differences:
Before discussing the differences between ITIL 4 and ITIL V3, let’s start with the same discussion. ITIL 4 retains almost all of the same content as ITIL V3, but the content has been reorganized and shifted to a new framework to shift ITIL’s focus away from process-oriented management and value creation.
ITIL V3 contains 26 processes and four functions, organized around the five phases of the IT service lifecycle.
A six-part IT service value chain replaces the IT service lifecycle in the ITIL 4 update, which acts as a central element of the new service value system.
The six service elements of the value chain are:
• Get involved
• Plan
• Design and transition
• Accept / Wake up
• Delivery and maintenance
• Upgrade
It needs to be understood that the IT service value chain is represented as a non-linear process. The first level, Commitment, is mandatory for the business and roughly corresponds to the ITIL V3 IT service strategy level. Service planning and improvement is a process that occurs along the entire service value chain and not at every specific service development phase. After all, design and transition, acquisition/construction, provision and maintenance of services are closely related processes that run concurrently or in stages.
In ITIL 4, the 26 processes & functions of ITIL V3 have been revised into 34 practices in three categories: general management practices, service management practices, and technical management practices.
Two major changes occur here:
• The ITIL V3 “process” was redefined in ITIL 4 as a “practice” to be less rigid and more flexible in how IT organizations implement it.
• Individual practices are separated from certain stages in the service value chain, which leaves additional room for a practical interpretation of the application of certain practices.
Finally, it should be noted that the four-dimensional model of ITIL 4 may be inspired by the “4Ps of ITIL Service Design”. As part of the ITIL V3 framework, IT organizations must consider people, partners, products and processes when designing new IT services to fit their purpose and use. While the original 4 P’s were intended solely for the design of ITIL services, a new four-dimensional model should be applied to each component of the new ITIL service value system.
In summary, most of the content of ITIL V3 has been reorganized and redesigned for ITIL 4. The most important innovations of the framework include seven guidelines, best practices for corporate governance and IT, ITIL service value system, new ITIL value chain services, and emphasis on continuous improvement and value creation.
What’s new in ITIL 4?
Now that we know how ITIL 4 changes and reimagines many ITIL V3 concepts, let’s take a closer look at some of the features of the new ITIL 4 framework and how they will impact the management of IT services.
Includes collaboration
The new ITIL 4 framework encourages collaboration between IT operations, security and development teams, and other departments and the Company itself. Effective communication and collaboration are critical to effective mutual value creation across service value systems.
Offers a holistic approach
The ITIL 4 framework, being one of its seven guiding principles, guides practitioners to think and work holistically. This instruction means taking individual responsibility for how IT operations and IT strategy affect service delivery & value creation regarding the Service Value System. IT engineers, developers and other team members are guided by ITIL 4 to take responsibility for the service value chain & always consider how their work affects the downstream value chain.
Adopt service value system
The new ITIL 4 value system represents the most significant structural change in the ITIL framework since introducing the IT service lifecycle in ITIL V3. ITIL 4 goes beyond the IT service management process and focuses on collaborative value creation through coordination and collaboration between people, products, processes and partners across all phases of ITIL SVS.
Designed for customer experience
In his research that led to the introduction of ITIL 4, AXELOS held seminars with thousands of companies across the globe to better understand the relationship between business organizations and the IT organizations that serve them. A recurring theme is that IT organizations focus too much on internal work: They spend too much time dealing with technology, processes, and systems and develop too little understanding of the organizations they work for.
Think of the ITIL V3 framework, and no wonder why. Only the book “ITIL Service Strategy” deals with the interactions between IT organizations and businesses, other books with processes fundamentally located within IT organizations. ITIL 4 solves this problem by directing IT and business to collaborate more closely across the service value chain, with extra assistance and guidance for IT management and governance.
Together, these changes stimulate a better user experience for enterprises and ensure that IT and business objectives are aligned along the overall service value chain.
Promoting transparency
ITIL 4 practitioners are driven by a framework for creating transparency between work teams. Project transparency and visibility across the organization has a number of positive effects on value creation: It contributes to harmonization between IT and business, helps eliminate information and knowledge silos, improves efficiency and resource allocation and helps reduce or reduce redundant work to abolish.
Promotes simplicity
“Be it simple and practical” is one of the new guidelines of ITIL 4. Organizations are motivated enough to ease their systems as much as possible and to properly measure the implementation of ITIL processes, tools and resources. This high-level guide is AXELOS’ way of saying, “You only need to apply ITIL practices to the extent that they provide practical benefits justified by the complexity and workload involved.” Instead of considering every ITIL process, the company looks for tools and resources that fit their practical needs.
Conclusive thoughts on ITIL 4 vs ITIL V3
Technology is enhancing and getting evolved at an exponential rate, and as businesses digitalize, they will increasingly rely on IT organizations to deliver new services and opportunities that meet business needs and goals. Henceforth, it is increasingly important for IT organizations to keep up with current technology trends and industry-leading IT management best practices.
ITIL 4 is finally here, and Vinsys is always available to help organizations and professionals transition to the new framework. Our industry leading certification programs, 24/7 technical support and training solutions for ITIL 4 course for users in companies of all sizes make Vinsys the ideal provider partner for companies looking to improve the management of their IT services and value creation processes.
