ITIL FOUNDATIONS CORE CONCEPTS

ITIL Core Concepts

Services
Services are the means that deliver a value to the customer without requiring the customer its own costs and risks.

Service Management
It is a set of capabilities specialized in delivering a value to the customer in the form of a service. ITIL is the framework for IT service management.

ITIL as a good Practice Framework
Good practices as the name indicates, represents best practices which have gained acceptance and adoption, there are many sources which good practices may come from:

• Public Frameworks
• Standards
• Proprietary Knowledge
• Academic Research

The Service Lifecycle
The ITIL core is structured around service lifecycle which contains 5 phases; the service lifecycle organizes activity around services and services move from concept to live environment until retirement.

Service Lifecycle:

• Main Layer: Service Strategy
• Second Layer: Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation
• Third Layer: Continual Service Improvement

Processes
Processes are structured as a set of activities designed to achieve specific objectives. Processes have 4 base characteristics:

• Starts as an input and ends as Output.
• They are triggered by an Specific Event
• They deliver a Value to the customer or stakeholder
• They are measurable

Meanwhile ITIL addresses the service lifecycle, also does to the processes related to the services, and analyses processes under a 3-layered model:

• Process Control: Process policies, ownership, documentation, etc.
• Process Itself: Includes roles, process steps, triggers, metrics, inputs, outputs, procedures.  
• Process Enablers: Are those that give support to the process, like resources and capabilities.

Functions
Are self-contained subsets of an organization looking to achieve specific tasks. Usually are based on a team of persons and their tools, they are supported by budget and reporting structures, besides brings structure and stability to the organization.

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Roles
Roles are a set of responsibilities and privileges, which may be held individually or by team, roles can be hold one or more. ITIL considers the following roles (development, performance, integration, improvement):

• Services Owner: In charge of DPII individual Process
• Process Owner: In charge of DPII Individual Process
• Service Management: In charge of DPI the whole Services
• Product Management: In charge of DPI of a group of related services        

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Organization for the Service Management
An organization almost always focuses on 4 major functions (Desk service, technical Management, application Management, IT operational Management). But ITIL also keeps on mind the relationship between Processes and Functions, where makes sure of properly allocating rolls to each activity and task.

ITIL FUNCTIONS

Desk Service
Is accountable for the service request, changes request, process inbound incidents, usually (not always), desk service is also responsible of Incident Management process, Desk service acts as a hub for all communications internal to the IT Service Provider.

There are four basis Desk service configurations:

• Local ( P. Customers : P. Desk service, same place)
• Centralized (P. Customers : S. Desk Service, on DS spot)
• Virtual (P. Customers : P. Desk Service, virtually)
• Follow-the-sun (same as Virtual but according to time zones following)

Technical Management
Is accountable for the procurement, develop, management of the technical sets and resources that the IT Service Provider infrastructure requires.

This function usually is in charge of areas like networking, database, security, servers, etc. The technical management’s main objective is to ensure that the service provider has the right skills sets to provide the services it offers.

Application Management
Primarily concerned on end-to-end Service provider’s applications, application management focuses on cultivating specialized skills sets in order to be able to provide support the organization’ s application. This function does not replace processes like incident management, problem management, change management, availability management, etc. instead is supported by them.  

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