November 10, 2009 – The Stationery Office (TSO) is beginning the update to the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Version 3, evolving the guidance by drawing on the experience and expertise of the ITIL community.
TSO’s ‘OGC Mandate for Change: Project Requirements for an Update to the ITIL® Core Publications‘ outlines how the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) intends to manage the next evolution of ITIL.
ITIL Version 3 was published in June 2007 and will remain the definitive version for the foreseeable future. There are no current plans for ITIL Version 4. OGC will continue to update the core ITIL Version 3 guidance through controlled releases in the future. The updates of all the ITIL Version 3 core publications will be released in early 2011.
‘OGC Mandate for Change’ scopes the changes to be included in this update of ITIL Version 3. The framework itself will remain unchanged and no new concepts will be added. However, all five ITIL volumes – ‘Service Strategy’, ‘Service Design’, ‘Service Transition’, ‘Service Operation’ and ‘Continual Service Improvement’ – will be reassessed to remedy any inconsistencies. Similarly, OGC will ensure that the structure of the guidance is consistent across all five books.
Based on extensive user feedback, the next ITIL update will include refinements to the manuals such as the clarification of diagrams and concepts, alongside other general incremental improvements. Furthermore, ‘Service Strategy’ will be revised with simpler language, so that the concepts remain the same but are explained more clearly.
Janine Eves, OGC Contract Manager and Publisher at TSO, says: “Since the ITIL V3 launch, ITIL users have made numerous suggestions for improvement via the ‘Change Control Log’, a mechanism TSO put in place to capture community feedback in order to continually improve ITIL V3. The comments made have been through the ITIL ‘Change Advisory Board’ (CAB) and have been seen as valuable improvements by OGC. This update is not going to be ITIL V4; the process is all about improving the usability of the core publications.”
TSO and OGC are now calling for participants in the ITIL update process. Authors will make any necessary changes to the text and reviewers will comment on the changes and advise whether drafts are acceptable. Details can be found in the new ‘Call for Participants: ITIL® Update’ document.
Frances Scarff, Head of Best Management Practice at OGC, says: “To ensure the highest quality guidance, OGC and TSO will be using key individuals with experience and expertise in ITIL and IT service management. The day-to-day management of the project will be carried out by TSO, on behalf of OGC, and control of the project will reside with a Project Board constituted by OGC.”
Richard Pharro, Chief Executive Officer of The APM Group, the official ITIL accreditor, adds: “As part of a commitment to continuous improvement, OGC seeks widespread opinions on its best practice methods, including ITIL. The new editions of the ITIL core publications will be based on comments received from the community. The suggestions that will be incorporated should not affect the overall qualifications scheme but may impact some of the examination papers. The only major change candidates will see to the scheme when compared to 2010 will be the introduction of the ITIL ‘Master Level’ qualification, giving candidates further opportunities to prove their professional service management capabilities.”
The ‘OGC Mandate for Change’ can be found at: https://www.8020comms.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ITIL_Mandate_for_Change_0909-1.pdf.
