ITIL 4: Core concepts, guiding principles, and practices

What is ITIL 4?

ITIL 4 is the latest update to the world-renowned and globally accepted framework of best practices for ITSM.

AXELOS* released it in February 2019. It provides a flexible foundation for organizations that must integrate various frameworks and approaches into their service management operations.

ITIL 4’s primary focus is on bringing different stakeholders together to co-create value for end-users in the digital era.

Note*- AXELOS is a joint venture set up in 2014 by the Government of the United Kingdom and Capita, to develop, manage and operate qualifications in best practice, in methodologies formerly owned by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). PeopleCert, an examination institute that was responsible for delivering AXELOS exams, acquired AXELOS in 2021.

Why does ITIL 4 matter?

In the constantly evolving digital era, IT services are at the core of every business operation, and hence, ensuring efficiency, resilience, and customer satisfaction is more crucial than ever. ITIL 4:

• Addresses the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
• Adapts to emerging technologies and changing business environments
• Facilitates a value-driven approach to ITSM, ensuring businesses remain competitive and agile

What are the differences between ITIL 3 and ITIL 4?

Here are a list of key differences between ITIL 3 and ITIL 4.

While ITIL 3 was more process-oriented, ITIL 4 offers a holistic, flexible, and modern approach, reflecting the changes and challenges of contemporary IT environments and business demands.

The ITIL 4 Service Value System (SVS)

The ITIL 4 framework is organized around the SVS concept and introduces the idea of service value chains. The service value chain within the SVS is the core operating model facilitating value co-creation. It acts as a channel for executing service delivery and represents how different organizational components work together to create value.

The service value chain comprises six activities companies undertake to create value: plan, engage, design and transition, obtain/ build, deliver and support, and improve. These activities allow companies to adapt to real-world scenarios.

For example, ITIL 3 represents the service lifecycle as linear. But in reality, service scenarios aren’t structured. Plans change, new requirements are introduced, and so on, as situations evolve. ITIL 4’s service value chain activities help companies adapt to the unstructured way. They support agility and enable IT departments to plan and manage tasks better to ensure faster service delivery and improved user experience.

ITIL's four-dimensions framework of service management

The four dimensions of the ITIL 4 framework provide a holistic approach to service management. It emphasizes that for any service to be effective, it should be approached considering these four interconnected dimensions.

Let's delve deeper into each of the four dimensions.

Organizations and people:

• This dimension encompasses the organizational structure, culture, and the workforce (or human resources) that execute the defined processes and procedures.
• In the context of service management, it's crucial to understand that people deliver services, and often, the success or failure of a service depends on the individuals delivering it.
• It also deals with workforce skills, competencies, capacity, training, organizational culture, governance, and hierarchy that can impact service delivery.

Information and technology:

• In modern service management, information and technology are integral components. This dimension deals with the information systems, technologies, and tools supporting services, processes, and value streams.
• It addresses how data and information are collected, stored, analyzed, and used. This includes technologies for automating workflows, reporting tools, databases, cloud systems, and any other relevant tech infrastructure.
• Information management and the correct utilization of appropriate technology can streamline service management, making it more efficient and responsive.

Partners and suppliers:

• No organization operates in isolation. This dimension focuses on relationships with other organizations that provide input or services, ensuring the quality of the end service.
• It recognizes the importance of a strong and well-managed supplier system that aligns with the organization's service delivery goals.
• This involves contract management, relationship management, supplier strategy, and ensuring that partners and suppliers integrate seamlessly into the service value system.

Value streams and processes:

• Value streams represent the activities undertaken to design, produce, and deliver a service to the customer. Processes, on the other hand, represent specific sequences of actions taken to achieve a particular outcome.
• This dimension emphasizes creating and optimizing value streams that provide maximum value to the customer and the organization.
• It’s about understanding the flow of value and designing efficient, effective, and adaptable processes to changing business needs.

The four dimensions of the ITIL 4 framework ensure that every aspect of service management is looked at from a holistic viewpoint instead of focusing solely on processes or technologies. This holistic approach emphasizes the interconnected nature of all these dimensions, ensuring a balanced approach to designing, delivering, and optimizing services.

The 7 guiding principles of ITIL 4

The SVS in the ITIL 4 framework has “7 pillars”, also known as the ITIL 4 guiding principles. These principles help IT professionals adopt the framework to fit their requirements. The principles also guide high-level decision-making in Agile, DevOps, and Lean practices, ensuring improvement in the decision-making process under all circumstances.

1. Focus on value: Every action in ITSM should create value for stakeholders, especially for service users. For example, a simple change like greeting users by name at IT help desks improves user experience.

2. Start where you are: Before making changes, assess the current situation to avoid unnecessary work and leverage things that already work. For example, identify the communication channels employees use. Share your IT updates on the same channels if they use Slack or MS Teams.

3. Progress iteratively with feedback: Avoid trying to do everything at once. Instead, make incremental improvements and frequently reassess through feedback loops. For example, conduct new hire surveys to find problem areas in the onboarding process. Address the issues and check again if it worked.

4. Collaborate and promote visibility: Work together across teams and departments. Keep work and progress transparent to foster trust and better decision-making. Consider tools like Slack or Teams to provide real-time updates and issue alerts to your IT teams.

5. Think and work holistically: No service or component stands alone. They are all parts of an ecosystem that should be considered holistically. For instance, IT teams collaborate with product and sales teams when launching new product features. It helps meet specific user demands.

6. Keep it simple and practical: Opt for simplicity whenever possible. If a process or action doesn't provide value or is overly complex, reevaluate it. Consider attendance tracking and leave management. Implementing tools to automate attendance, leave tracking, and approvals makes your employees’ lives easier. They can mark attendance easily and approve leaves on the go, removing the manual hassle.

7. Optimize and automate: Once processes are optimized, look for automation opportunities to increase efficiency. For example, consider a no-code form builder every time you conduct surveys. They help you collect data and analyze it to conclude effectively.

ITIL 4 management practices

The leap from ITIL V3 to ITIL 4 changed a lot—from ITSM processes to practices. Unlike ITIL V3, the ITIL 4 framework provides 34 management practices to help organizations deliver effective services. These practices include technology, culture, and data management.  

General management practices

These are the set of practices that are not exclusive to just IT but are crucial for managing any business organization. They reflect certain well-recognized business practices that support various management activities. This includes aspects like knowledge management, portfolio management, project management, risk management, workforce management, etc. As you can see, these ITIL 4 practices are aimed at the better governance of enterprise management in general.

Service management practices

These ITIL 4 practices are specific to managing IT services and the focus is on delivering, supporting, and improving IT services. They support the functioning of effective IT services to deliver value to end-users. This includes traditional ITIL processes like incident and service request management, change management, asset management, problem management etc. that enable the smooth functioning of IT support.

Technical management practices

These ITIL 4 practices are focused on the technical aspects of delivering IT services, managing the underlying technology infrastructure that support service delivery. This includes deployment management, infrastructure and platform management, or even software development and management that ensure that IT is reliable and efficient.

The ITIL 4 qualifications

AXELOS shared the ITIL 4 certification structure diagram that shows the ITIL 4 courses and certifications:Involves developing software applications, ranging from single programs to operating systems and large databases

1. ITIL 4 Foundation certification is the entry-level qualification on which the high-level qualifications are built.  

2. ITIL 4 Managing Professional certification gives the knowledge to run digital businesses, including ways to create stakeholder value.

3. ITIL 4 Strategic Leader certification provides the knowledge to plan, strategize, and derive maximum value from digital products/services.

4. ITIL Master certification is the highest-level qualification designed for seasoned ITSM professionals who understand ITIL concepts and practices in depth.

In addition to the certification paths, ITIL 4 offers four extension modules:

• Sustainability in digital and IT focuses on understanding the impact of digital and IT services on the environment.
• Acquiring and managing cloud services guides the integration of cloud technology with business strategy.
• IT asset management qualification focuses on costs and risk management, compliance monitoring, and governance of IT assets.
• Business relationship management targets establishing and nurturing relationships between organizations, service providers, and stakeholders.

How AI plays a pivotal role when it comes to ITIL 4

AI can be a game changer, given its capability to analyze vast amounts of data and make intelligent decisions.

Here’s how to integrate AI into your ITIL 4 approach:

• Understand AI capabilities: Ensure your team understands its potential and limitations within ITSM before integrating AI.
• Prioritize automation: Identify repetitive tasks and processes that AI can automate, ensuring faster response times.
• Data-driven decision making: Use AI to analyze service metrics, providing insights to improve service delivery and efficiency.
• Continuous learning: As AI tools evolve, continuously update your strategies to harness their full potential.

Here are a few examples.

Service level management:

While traditionally, service level management was about ensuring that IT services meet agreed-upon needs, here's how AI can redefine service level management.

• Real-time performance monitoring with AI can instantly flag deviations, ensuring SLAs are consistently met
• AI-powered assistants can provide 24/7 support, significantly enhancing service availability and user satisfaction
• Machine learning algorithms can analyze historical SLA data to predict potential breaches before they occur, allowing for proactive interventions
• AI can dynamically adjust resource allocation based on real-time service demands, optimizing performance and ensuring SLA compliance
• Natural language processing can interpret user feedback and sentiment analysis to continuously refine and improve service level agreements

Service performance and analysis:

With AI to analyze service performance, you can make more informed decisions.

• Advanced analytics and machine learning models can predict potential service issues or downtimes, enabling proactive measures
• AI can perform real-time data analytics, providing immediate insights for quick decision-making
• Predictive analytics can forecast future service usage and performance trends, aiding in capacity planning and resource allocation
• AI-driven pattern recognition can identify subtle anomalies in system behavior that might be precursors to larger issues
• Machine learning algorithms can correlate data from multiple sources to provide a holistic view of service performance and potential bottlenecks

Service continuity:

Service continuity is all about ensuring IT services can withstand and recover from significant disruptions. AI can again help in several ways here.

• AI can simulate various disruption scenarios, helping in planning and strategy formulation
• Machine learning models can analyze past incidents to identify potential vulnerabilities and suggest preventive measures
• AI-powered systems can automatically initiate failover procedures and resource reallocation during service disruptions, minimizing downtime
• Natural language processing can assist in creating and updating comprehensive, easy-to-understand continuity plans
• AI can perform continuous risk assessments, alerting IT teams to emerging threats that could impact service continuity
• Automated incident triage and routing powered by AI can ensure faster response times during critical situations

In conclusion

Embracing ITIL 4 with the added intelligence of AI provides organizations with a competitive edge. It ensures efficiency and a forward-thinking, proactive approach to IT Service Management. As with any transformation, continuous learning and adaptation are key. Harness the power of ITIL 4, supercharge it with AI, and embark on a journey of ITSM excellence.

To explore how Atomicwork can help streamline and enhance your organization’s IT infrastructure, schedule a demo today!