Project management: ITIL 4 Practice Guide

Project management: ITIL 4 Practice Guide

  • Digital transformation
  • IT Services

May 1, 2020  |

  49  min read

This document provides practical guidance for the project management practice.

1. About this document

It is split into five main sections, covering:

  • general information about the practice
  • the practices processes and activities and their role in the service value chain
  • the organizations and people involved in the practice
  • the information and technology supporting the practice
  • considerations for partners and suppliers for the practice.

1.1 ITIL® 4 qualification scheme

Selected content from this document is examinable as a part of the following syllabus:

  • ITIL Leader – Digital and IT Strategy

Please refer to the syllabus document for details.

2. General information

2.1 purpose and description.

Programme and project management play an integral part in planning and introducing changes to an organization while optimizing the use of resources, accounting for risks, and linking changes to achieve the expected value.

A programme may be comprised of projects across different areas of the organization. For example, the launch of a new product or service may rely on projects running in the sales, marketing, distribution, and IT departments, all of which are focused on delivering the outcome required by the programme. A programme can be a standalone programme, but more often it forms part of a portfolio (see the portfolio management practice guide for more information).

A project is typically focused on delivering a specific output; a programme’s focus is on the outcomes and benefits of enabling value for the organization and other stakeholders. Programmes usually last longer than individual projects.

Both programmes and projects are distinguished from ongoing operations (often called ‘business as usual’) as they:

  • introduce significant changes
  • are temporary structures
  • bring risks and opportunities above and beyond the normality of business as usual.

2.2 Terms and Concepts

An important element of a profession is a body of knowledge that is distinctive to the professional group. For the past 50 years, project management associations around the world have made serious attempts to conduct themselves as professional associations and spent a considerable time and effort in developing bodies of knowledge (BoKs) and their associated certification programmes.

A BoK is a resource; providing the concepts, functions, and activities that make up the professional standards and provides key information to successful delivery of that profession’s core functions. In this case, the core function is programme and project management.

All project management BoKs describe how projects should be directed, managed, and delivered, however they all differ in terminology and lifecycle, which is why it is important to understand which BoK is behind the project that is driving the change. The main project management BoKs are the APM body of knowledge (APMBoK®), and the PMI body of knowledge (PMBoK®), although there are others to do with change management (CMBoK) and cybersecurity (CYBoK).

In this practice guide, key terms and definitions are based on AXELOS PPM BoKs and methods, including:

  • PRINCE2 Agile ®
  • Managing Successful Projects ®

2.2.1 Programme

The focus of programmes is to deliver outcomes and benefits rather than outputs or products. A programme coordinates the projects within its boundaries and is more concerned with stakeholder engagement, communication, and direction when compared to projects.

The programme endeavours to gradually deliver changes in organizational capabilities through the related projects that run under its category. A group of projects structured around distinct step changes in capability and benefit delivery is called a 'tranche'. These gradual changes allow the organization to realize benefits during the programme rather than waiting for the whole programme to end.

The typical lifecycle or transformational flow of a programme is described in Managing Successful Programmes (MSP). This is shown in Figure 2.1.

Image of Figure 2.1 shows MSP transformation workflow

Figure 2.1 MSP transformational flow

2.2.2 Project

The focus of projects is to deliver outputs (products or other deliverables) within defined parameters of time, cost, and quality. By doing so, those outputs are of value to the organization.

These outputs also allow the organization to realize benefits, but, in traditional (waterfall) projects, those benefits are primarily driven-out after the projects are completed.

The typical lifecycle of a traditional linear (waterfall) project as described in Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 ® is shown in Figure 2.2.

Image of Figure 2.2 represents PRINCE2 project management processes

Figure 2.2 PRINCE2 project management processes

An Agile approach works similarly to a programme but in a highly compressed timeframe. The agile delivery is planned in increments, and it is expected that benefits are generated at the deployment of each increment. Therefore, the organization receives its benefits as early as possible.

The typical lifecycle of an Agile project as described in PRINCE2 Agile ® is shown in Figure 2.3.

Image of Figure 2.3 shows the PRINCE Agile project management processes

Figure 2.3 PRINCE2 Agile Project Management Process

2.2.3 Agile

The term ‘agile’ is very broad and is viewed in many different ways within the agile community. There is a set of well-known frameworks referred to as ‘Agile methods’, and there are also well-known behaviours, concepts, and techniques that are recognized as characterizing the agile way of working. However, there is no single definition of agile that accurately encapsulates them all, although the Agile Manifesto 1 , which is shown in Figure 2.4, comes quite close.

Image of Figure 2.4 shows the Agile Manifesto 2001

Figure 2.4 The Agile Manifesto 2001

Agile became so popular because it helped to address the new demands being placed on how software was delivered. It needed to be produced more frequently while retaining a specified level of quality to meet the demands of the digital age. (For more on agile software development see the software development and management practice guide and ITIL ® 4: High-velocity IT , section 4.2).

In contrast to the traditional methods of delivery, the Agile phases are shorter, more iterative, and incremental. There is also a move to achieve early delivery of benefits by deploying products at the earliest opportunity, as described in Figure 2.5.

Image of Figure 2.5 shows Agile versus Waterfall

Figure 2.5 Agile versus waterfall

On the left of figure 2.5, the incremental Agile approach allows for multiple deployments throughout the project. The waterfall delivery on the right tends to allow for a single delivery at the end of the project.

2.2.4 Traditional (waterfall)

‘Waterfall’ was the first software development methodology, inherited from the manufacturing and construction industry where you can or cannot afford to iterate (after you have built a tower or a bridge you cannot go back to "improve" the foundation). However, because software is prone to frequent change, waterfall is not always the best solution.

Waterfall is often mentioned alongside Agile, but the two approaches contrast each other. The main difference between them is that waterfall doesn't react well to frequent changes, which is why it acquires a bad reputation in the software development community, where frequent changes are normal.

During the waterfall approach, a project is completed in distinct stages (see Figure 2.5) and moved step by step towards the ultimate release to the customer, business, or consumer. There is a big design upfront and then the plan is executed in a linear fashion with the hope of no changes in the designs.

In the Agile space, there is enough design upfront to get the project moving, with the absolute knowledge that the design will evolve and that change is inevitable. With the digitization of many aspects of organizations, Agile methods are being successfully applied to many digital solutions, not just software development. These include digital marketing, publishing, and other content-related activities, digital infrastructure, and digital communications. Non-digital projects that are focused on flexible, evolving resources (organizations, communities, partnerships, knowledge) also benefit from this Agile approach.

2.2.5 Holistic approach

The project management practice is not limited to managing the progress of projects; it should contribute to value co-creation and the overall strategy of an organization. In order to achieve this, the project management approach of the organization should be holistic. PRINCE2 describes seven key aspects of project management that should be addressed continually as part of the practice. They are known as seven PRINCE2 themes, and are outlined in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 PRINCE2 key themes

2.2.6 tailoring.

An organization usually develops an approach to PPM based on one or more BoKs, methods, and frameworks. Regardless of the selected sources of best practice, organizations should tailor their guidance to suit the organization’s specific needs, capabilities, and constraints. Tailoring is an ongoing activity that is usually done through interval-based and event-based reviews of the PPM approach (see section 3.2.1).

2.2.7 Directing, managing, and delivering

There are three key levels of control in the PPM practice: direction, management, and delivery. In programmes and projects, these three layers have ‘air-gaps’ between them in order to allow the levels of management to exercise control without micro-managing the layer below. These ‘air-gaps’ are constructed with a controlled connectivity between the layers so that each layer can work within the parameters laid down by the layer above. This is known as management by exception, where only exceptions to those parameters are brought to the attention of the upper layer for a decision. Figure 2.6 shows an example of this approach.

Image of Figure 2.6 represents Directing, managing projects and delivering products in an organization

Figure 2.6 Directing, managing projects, and delivering products in an organization

2.2.8 Managing programmes

To manage a programme successfully, it requires:

  • focus on value.

2.2.8.1 Leadership

Programmes translate the strategic objectives of the organization into specific purposes and objectives for individual projects. Leading and directing a programme provides the bridge between strategic objectives, business operations, and project delivery. Therefore, the key principles for effective leadership includes:

  • the ability to create a compelling vision portraying a beneficial future and communicate it to a range of stakeholders
  • empowered decision-making, giving individuals the autonomy to fulfil their roles effectively
  • visible commitment and authority
  • relevant skills and experience to provide active management.

2.2.8.2 Vision

A vision is a picture of a better future and is the vital focus and enabler for the acceptance, motivation, and activity alignment of the large community of stakeholders involved in any programme. The vision statement encapsulates the vision and is used to communicate a high-level impression of the desired ‘to-be’ state. A good vision statement:

  • is written as a future state: a snapshot of the organization in the future
  • can be easily understood by a wide variety of stakeholders
  • is written for the broadest groupings of stakeholders as the target audience
  • describes a compelling future
  • matches the degree of the transformational change with the boldness of the vision conveyed
  • avoids target dates, unless the vision is truly time-dependent
  • is sufficiently flexible
  • is short and memorable.

2.2.8.3 Focus on value

Value drives many aspects of programme management, which means it is the centre of programme management; programmes are primarily driven by the need to enable value by delivering benefits.

Figure 2.7 illustrates the extent of the impact of benefits management within a programme.

Image of Figure 2.7 show the extent of the impact of Benefits management within a programme

Figure 2.7 The extent of the impact of benefits management within a programme

2.2.9 Directing projects

To direct a project successfully, the duties of a project board include:

  • Accountability The project board is accountable to programme or corporate management for the success or failure of the project within the constraints defined in a project mandate.
  • Unified direction This is about teamwork at project board level. While each project board member has accountability for satisfying the interests of a particular stakeholder category, it is crucial that a cohesive overall direction for the project is agreed and communicated.
  • Effective delegation Project board members must delegate effectively using the PRINCE2 organization structure and controls designed for this purpose. A key feature of the method in this respect is the implementation of management stages: delegating the day-to-day management of the project to the project manager on a stage-by-stage basis. The project board defines the framework for how projects will be executed to ensure consistency across the enterprise.
  • Cross-functional integration The project management team is a temporary, almost always cross-functional, structure that is set up with specific responsibility for the project. Project board members must ensure that this is recognized and respected in the functional or line management organizations and that the project board’s authority is not undermined.
  • Commitment of resources Project board members are responsible for committing the resources necessary for the successful completion of the project. It is an important criterion that, collectively, they should be able to deliver all the resources required for the success of the project.
  • Effective decision-making The project board makes the key decisions in the project. Decision-making is the means by which control is exerted, and PRINCE2 provides an optimized framework for this purpose.
  • Support for the project manager The project manager is the focus of the day-to-day management of the project, which is often a busy and stressful role. The project board can relieve some of this stress and remove some of the obstacles by demonstrating visible and sustained support for the project manager.
  • Effective communication The project manager must ensure communication is timely and effective, both within the project and with the key external stakeholders.

2.2.10 Managing projects

Managing projects under an Agile approach requires a slightly different style compared with a waterfall project method. In traditional projects, the project manager is much more central to the decision-making process on a day-to-day basis. Whereas in an Agile situation, the team is empowered to make decisions within set parameters, and the project manager facilitates the evolution of the products rather than directs the work.

To enable collaboration and self-organization, a project manager should:

  • trust the team to deliver and not be as involved
  • leave the team to work independently and not stifle their creativity
  • trust the people who know best to deliver the right solution
  • ensure that the project board understands exactly what ‘empowerment’ means so that the team will be supported and not overruled
  • involve the team in release planning for a truly honest view of what can be released and when
  • focus on having a stable team to drive innovation and the right solution
  • insist on customer involvement all the way through and that they deliver input when required
  • ensure that the team recognises that the customer is fully integrated into the team so that they deliver the business need.

To maintain transparency and communication, a project manager should:

  • clearly communicate the product vision to the team so that they know what they are building and why
  • deliver something frequently that the customer/user can relate to in order to get fast feedback
  • ensure the whole team, including the customer, is involved in the vision to gain maximum motivation
  • ensure the team has a minimum viable product that is truly a ‘minimum’
  • ensure the project board and senior stakeholders understand MoSCoW prioritization techniques so that their expectations can be set early
  • engage with and understand the project stakeholders to avoid misunderstandings
  • understand and communicate the benefits and any threats to them so that the team does not fixate on products alone
  • ensure the needs of the customer representative are being met and that the evolving solution meets the business need.

To maintain a healthy and inspiring work environment, a project manager should:

  • work with the team managers to ensure the team bonds well
  • make sure the team is trained in Scrum and has a good grounding in Agile delivery
  • ensure the team knows what type of Agile approach is being used so that it can be tailored appropriately
  • be clear about the delivery process with the stakeholders so as to set their expectations properly
  • collaborate with product owners
  • ensure the team is set up to make releases on demand so that the technical infrastructure does not get the way of release delivery
  • ensure the team is co-located as much as possible to promote collaboration and communication
  • ensure the team understands the role of the ‘servant leader’ so that they understand the difference between coaching and direction.

To successfully plan, monitor, and control, a project manager should:

  • attend the daily stand-ups to know the status of the project
  • focus on removing problems so that there are no blockers for the work
  • make sure retrospectives are held frequently to improve delivery
  • make sure the team knows ‘what to fix’ versus ‘what to flex’ to maximize the value to the business
  • ensure the project information/reports (team boards) are intelligible to enable progress tracking
  • ensure project level requirements are prioritized as soon as possible to assist in focusing on the business need
  • use product-based planning and link the products to benefits so that the right outputs are created at the right time with a view to delivering benefits early
  • agree the reporting metrics to have confidence that progress is reported correctly
  • synchronize sprint teams across the project to keep the interfaces relevant
  • ensure the teams are not continually deferring the ‘difficult’ stuff to later sprints to avoid the integrity of the evolving solution becoming compromised.

2.2.11 Delivering products in an Agile environment

The delivery of products in an Agile environment relies on considering two major aspects that are inextricably linked:

  • what to fix and what to flex
  • prioritization and timeboxing/sprints.

2.2.11.1 What to fix and what to flex

Image of Figure 2.8 shows a diagram that represents Applying Tolerances to a project,  such as what to Fix and what to Flex

Figure 2.8 Applying tolerances to a project

Table 2.2 demonstrates PRINCE2 Agile views.

Table 2.2 How PRINCE2 Agile views tolerances for the six aspects of a project

2.2.11.2 prioritization and timeboxing/sprints.

Having decided what to fix and what to flex, the team needs to apply prioritization to those aspects they are going to flex in order to remain within the set timeframes.

Prioritization may be based on the MoSCoW technique. The rules are quite specific:

  • Must have requirements will provide the minimum viable product, which can be guaranteed to be delivered. This can be achieved by ensuring that no more than 60% of the effort in the timeframe is allocated to must have requirements.
  • Should have requirements are important but not vital. The business may find it difficult if these are left out. It may necessitate and leave them with a costly workaround.
  • Could have requirements are even less important and can be seen as a wish list with far fewer consequences on the end solution if left out. It is recommended that up to 20% of the effort of the timeframe be allocated to this category, providing a 20% tolerance for the timeframe.
  • Won’t have (this time) requirements are the requirements that the project team has agreed will not be delivered in this particular timeframe. This does not mean they will never be delivered as they may be available later in the project in a different category.

With the priorities set, the team may now carry out the detailed planning at the timebox or sprint planning level, bearing in mind the percentages allocated to the various MoSCoW priorities. The timebox is a fixed period of time (usually between 2 to 4 weeks) during which a number of iterations are carried out by the developers with the sole intent of delivering as much as possible in that period. However, the first care is to deliver the must have requirements followed by the ‘shoulds’ and then the ‘coulds’. If time is running low, the business decides which of the ‘coulds’ will be abandoned first so that the higher priority requirements can be accommodated. This means that the business must adopt a new mindset regarding what it will and will not receive. However, as they are complicit in the delivery, nothing will come as a surprise.

The PPM practice draws on the abilities of the managers to plan, monitor, and control all aspects of a programme or project and motivate all those involved to achieve the objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality, and performance. This is achieved by:

  • defining and continually aligning the project management approach with the stakeholders
  • ensuring the project management approach is adopted and embedded in the organization
  • directing projects
  • managing projects
  • continually reviewing the practice for improvements.

There are several activities and areas of responsibility that are not included in the PPM practice, although they are still closely related to programme and project management. These are listed in Table 2.3, along with references to the practices in which they can be found. It is important to remember that ITIL practices are merely collections of tools to use in the context of value streams; they should be combined as necessary, depending on the situation.

Table 2.3 Activities related to the PPM practice described in other practice guides

2.4 practice success factors.

A practice success factor (PSF) is more than a task or activity, as it includes components of all four dimensions of service management. The nature of the activities and resources of PSFs within a practice may differ, but together they ensure that the practice is effective.

The PPM practice includes the following PSFs:

  • establishing and maintaining an effective approach to programme and project management across the organization
  • ensuring the successful realization of programmes and projects.

2.4.1 Establishing and maintaining an effective approach to programme and project management across the organization

Establishing the use of best practice for programmes and projects within the organization is relatively easy. A champion must select the most appropriate methods that fit the culture and style of the organization and then attract the investment required for the training, tools, and techniques that will be required for practitioners to operate the methods successfully.

Maintaining the approaches may become more complex as time passes, the organizational changes and the drivers for change within the organization adapt to external forces. This can challenge current approaches if they have not been adjusting. In order for this to happen, the methods and approaches to programme and project management need to be assessed as part of the general ongoing assessment of the health of the organization as a whole.

Maturity models, such as P3M3, can be used to assess the currency of the methods, tools and techniques as well as competence of the project management professionals in an organization, so that they stay aligned with the developing needs and aspirations of the organization. The reports from these assessments should be used to correct or adjust any area that appears to fall short of delivering the service expected of that method.

Any changes to existing standards must be notified to the practice community along with any education or briefings; this is so that the latest thinking transitions over previous versions are seamless and the methods grow and evolve naturally.

2.4.2 Ensuring the successful realization of programmes and projects

Project and programme success is predominantly about benefit delivery. A post implementation review may point out a few failings in the technical delivery that should be addressed before trying the project a second time. Learning from experience is important, therefore reviews, embedding lessons, and feedback are essential.

Ensuring consistency in the delivery of programmes and projects requires an observance of the guidance, as well as the application of project/programme assurance to ensure the guidance is followed. However, this does not always culminate in a successful delivery if the benefits are not forthcoming. Therefore, assurance needs to be more holistic in its approach than just checking against a guide or standard. Projects are also about people: those providing the requirements and resources, creating the products, and agreeing the investment. These stakeholders need to be satisfied that the project is delivering to the best of its ability on behalf of others.

There are many reasons why projects might fail, this can include: setting unrealistic expectations, poor methodology and requirements, inadequate resources, poor project management, and untrained team members. However, these things can be avoided by adopting effective practices and project management techniques that will help to establish a clear understanding of expectations and processes between all the stakeholders.

Generally, there is a simple set of five rules that can help prevent projects failing:

  • begin with the end in mind: start with a clear project scope
  • build a project plan: visualize everything that needs to be done on a timeline
  • do not be so connected to the plan: things can change and so does the plan
  • check, update, and monitor: check the timeline for progress, update the timeline with actual performance, monitor the use of your resources
  • keep an eye on the quality: you cannot retrofit quality and poor quality delivers poor benefits.

It is also important to look for signs showing that the project may be in trouble. Some of them could be:

  • team morale starts to decline
  • quality of outputs starts to deteriorate
  • lack of communication.

In organizations that embrace Agile, the ITIL guiding principles provide a useful extension to the five rules above:

  • focus on value
  • start where you are
  • progress iteratively with feedback
  • collaborate and promote visibility
  • think and work holistically
  • keep it simple and practical
  • optimize and automate.

2.5 Key metrics

The effectiveness and performance of the ITIL practices should be assessed within the context of the value streams to which each practice contributes. As with the performance of any tool, the practice’s performance can only be assessed within the context of its application. However, tools can differ greatly in design and quality, and these differences define a tool’s potential or capability to be effective when used according to its purpose. Further guidance on metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other techniques that can help with this can be found in the measurement and reporting practice guide

Key metrics for the PPM practice are mapped to its PSFs. They can be used as KPIs in the context of value streams to assess the contribution of the practice to the effectiveness and efficiency of those value streams. Some examples of key metrics are given in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4 Examples of key metrics for the practice success factors

3. value streams and processes, 3.1 value streams contribution.

Like any other ITIL management practice, the PPM practice contributes to multiple value streams. It is important to remember that a value stream is never formed of a single practice. The PPM practice combines with other practices to provide high-quality services to consumers. The main value chain activities to which the practice contributes are:

  • design and transition
  • obtain/build.

The contribution of the PPM practice to the service value chain is shown in Figure 3.1.

Image of Figure 3.1 shows heat map of the Contribution of the PPM Practice to Value Chain process

Figure 3.1 Heat map of the contribution of the PPM practice to value chain activities

3.2 Processes

Each practice may include one or more processes and activities that may be necessary to fulfil the purpose of that practice.

The PPM practice activities form five major processes:

  • managing the organization’s approach to PPM
  • managing product delivery.

3.2.1 Managing the organization’s approach to PPM

This process is focused on defining, agreeing, communicating, and promoting an organization-wide common approach to programme and project management. It includes the activities listed in Table 3.1 and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.1 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the managing a common approach to PPM process

Figure 3.2 shows a workflow diagram of the process

Image of Figure 3.2 shows workflow of the Managing a Common Approach to PPM process

Figure 3.2 Workflow of the managing a common approach to PPM process

Table 3.2 provides examples of the process activities.

Table 3.2 Activities of the managing a common approach to PPM process

3.2.2 directing projects.

The purpose of the directing projects process is to enable the project board to be accountable for the project's success by making key decisions and exercising overall control while delegating the day-to-day management of the project to the project manager. This process includes the activities listed in Table 3.3 and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.3 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the directing projects process

Figure 3.3 shows a workflow diagram of the process

Image of Figure 3.3 shows workflow of the  Directing Projects process

Figure 3.3 Workflow of the directing projects process

Table 3.4 describes the activities of the process.

3.2.3 Managing projects

The purpose of the managing projects process is to enable the project manager to be responsible for the day-to-day tasks of running the project on behalf of the project board. This process includes the activities listed in Table 3.5 and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.5 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the managing projects process

Figure 3.4 shows a workflow diagram of the process.

Image of Figure 3.4 shows the workflow process for Managing Projects

Figure 3.4 Workflow of the managing projects process

Table 3.6 Activities of the managing projects process

3.2.4 managing product delivery.

The purpose of the managing product delivery process is to enable the solution development teams to create an evolving solution in accordance with the business priorities and staying within the timeframes, costs, and quality stipulated by the business. Table 3.7 includes the activities in the process and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.7 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the managing product delivery process

Figure 3.5 shows a workflow diagram of the process.

Image of Figure 3.5 shows the workflow Managing Product Delivery process

Figure 3.5 Workflow of the managing product delivery process

Table 3.8 provides examples of the process activities.

The work packages described in the table may take the form of a traditional work package: a set of information about one or more required products collated by the project manager to pass responsibility for work or delivery formally to a team manager or team member.

Under an Agile approach, the work packages may take a slightly different form but with the same desired outcomes. In this case they will be discreet timeboxes or sprints with associated products to be completed within the timebox or sprint according to the business priorities of those products.

4. Organizations and people

4.1 roles, competencies, and responsibilities.

The practice guides do not describe the roles of practice owners or managers that should exist for all practices. They focus instead on specialist roles that are specific to each practice. The structure and naming of each role may differ from organization to organization, so any roles defined in ITIL should not be treated as mandatory, or even recommended. Remember, roles are not job titles. One person can take on multiple roles and one role can be assigned to multiple people.

Roles are described in the context of processes and activities. Each role is characterized with a competency profile based on the model shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Competency codes and profiles

The role accountable for all PPM activities is usually the practice owner. The competency profile for this role is CLA, though the importance of each of these competencies varies from activity to activity. Examples of other roles which are responsible for PPM activities are listed in Table 4.2, together with the associated competency profiles and specific skills.

Table 4.2 Examples of the roles involved in PPM activities

4.1.1 programme manager.

The responsibilities of the programme manager typically include:

  • day-to-day management of the programme, including taking the programme forward from appointment, supervising, and controlling and closing the programme
  • being the day-to-day agent on behalf of the programme sponsors, ensuring the successful delivery of the new capability
  • planning and designing the programme and proactively monitoring its overall progress, resolving issues, and initiating corrective action where appropriate
  • developing and implementing the programme’s governance framework
  • effectively coordinating the projects and their interdependencies
  • managing and resolving any risks and other issues that may arise
  • maintaining the overall integrity and coherence of the programme and developing and maintaining the programme environment to support each individual project within it
  • managing the programme’s budget and monitoring the expenditures and costs against benefits as the programme progresses
  • facilitating the appointment of individuals to the project delivery teams
  • ensuring that the delivery of outputs or services from the projects meets programme requirements in line with the programme blueprint, and is to the appropriate quality, on time, and within budgets
  • facilitating the development of the blueprint with input and approval of the relevant stakeholders
  • managing the blueprint and ensuring that the capabilities delivered are aligned with it
  • managing the performance of the programme team
  • maximizing the efficient allocation of resources and skills across the projects within the programme
  • managing internal and external suppliers to the programme
  • managing communications with stakeholders
  • initiating extra activities and other management interventions where gaps in the programme are identified or issues arise
  • reporting on the progress of the programme at regular intervals to the programme sponsors.

The skillset of a programme manager is more focused on decision-making and business management.

4.1.2 Project manager

The project manager is the single focus for the day-to-day management of a project. This person has the authority to run the project on behalf of the project board within the constraints laid down by the project board. The role of the project manager must not be shared.

The skills needed for a project manager are more ‘hard-skills’, oriented to execute some responsibility or some activity in different areas of knowledge.

The project manager’s professionalism is based on the proficiency in the following competency areas:

  • management control
  • benefits management
  • financial management
  • stakeholder engagement
  • risk management
  • organizational governance
  • resource management.

The project manager is responsible for the work in the managing projects and managing product delivery process. The project manager also delegates responsibility for the managing product delivery process to the team manager(s).

As the single focus for the day-to-day management of a project, there are many different aspects to the project manager role, some of which are shown in Figure 4.1.

Image of Figure 4.1 shows the facets of the project manager role

Figure 4.1 The facets of the project manager role

4.1.3 Team manager

The team manager’s prime responsibility is to ensure that the products are produced to an appropriate quality, as defined by the project manager, and adheres to the set timescale and cost accepted by the project board. The team manager is accountable to, and takes direction from, the project manager.

4.1.4 Scrum master

The Scrum master serves the product owner in several ways, including:

  • ensuring that the goals, scope, and product domain are well understood by everyone on the Scrum team
  • finding techniques for effective product backlog management
  • helping the Scrum team understand the need for clear and concise product backlog items
  • understanding product planning in an empirical environment
  • ensuring the product owner knows how to arrange the product backlog to maximize value
  • understanding and practising agility
  • facilitating scrum events as requested or needed.

The Scrum master serves the development team in several ways, including:

  • coaching the development team in self-organization and cross-functionality
  • helping the development team to create high-value products
  • removing impediments to the development team’s progress
  • facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed
  • coaching the development team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.

The Scrum master serves the organization in several ways, including:

  • leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption
  • planning Scrum implementations within the organization
  • helping employees and stakeholders understand Scrum and practical product development
  • causing a change that increases the productivity of the Scrum team
  • working with other Scrum masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization.

4.2 Organizational structures and teams

The structure of project teams may vary from project to project, and depends heavily on the approach taken for project management.

In PRINCE2, there are nine roles which are defined with specific responsibilities. They relate to project direction, project management, and project delivery; although in the case of project delivery, PRINCE2 only refers to the team manager and not the members of the delivery team. The roles are listed below:

  • project board
  • senior user
  • senior supplier
  • project manager
  • team manager
  • project assurance
  • change authority
  • project support.

Please refer to the Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® for the detailed description of the roles.

Agile approaches have a more simplified roles list that usually includes a team member, team manager (e.g. Scrum master), product owner, and sometimes business analyst. It also does not have a project manager role.

The structure of the team should be decided for each project based on the organization’s approach to project management and scale and complexity of the project.

5. Information and technology

5.1 information exchange, inputs/outputs.

The effectiveness of the PPM practice is based on the quality of the information used. This information includes, but is not limited to, information about:

  • customers, users, and other project stakeholders
  • the product of project, user, and customer requirements
  • the organization’s approach to change and projects
  • the market environment and consumer groups
  • services and their architecture and design
  • the partners and suppliers used in the project, including contracts on the services they provide
  • the organization’s strategy, portfolio, and programmes.

This information may take various forms, depending on the nature of the projects. The key inputs and outputs of the practice are listed section 3.

5.2 Automation and tooling

In some cases, the PPM practice can significantly benefit from automation. Where this is possible and effective, it may involve the solutions outlined in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 Automation solutions for PPM activities

6. partners and suppliers.

Very few services are delivered using only an organization’s own resources. Most, if not all, depend on other services, often provided by third parties outside the organization (see section 2.4 of ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition for a model of a service relationship). This means that organizations use suppliers in their projects for the resources in all four dimensions of service management. This includes, but is not limited to, supplier’s products and services, competencies and expertise, tools and data, market presence, strategic relationships, and so on.

Where organizations aim to ensure fast and effective project management, they usually try to agree close cooperation with their partners and suppliers, removing formal bureaucratic barriers in communication, collaboration, and decision-making (see the supplier management practice guide for more information).

External resources involved in the projects should be properly integrated and onboarded to align the approach, teamwork assumptions, culture, communication channels, and tools. Relationships with the suppliers should be constantly monitored and managed, with conflicts, exceptions and issues resolved as soon as possible. Exceptions should be used for review of the supplier agreements, both formal and informal, and re-alignment.

Where appropriate, parties should agree on how the project deliverables will be defined and how the acceptance and handover procedures will work. The definition of the work package should be central to this.

The practice-specific roles and teams described in section 4.1 are sometimes outsourced. Usually, outsourcing is easier if the organization has its own project management centre of excellence (e.g. PMO) and is used to integrate external project management specialists into the project teams. Outsourcing can also benefit if the supplier shares the same approach and processes in managing projects.

Organizations switch from outsourcing the function or process in the overall project management to outsourcing a specific competency. This way, the organization gets knowledge and experience it lacks but retains decision-making, control, and responsibility for the project within the organization.

7. Important reminder

Most of the content of the practice guides should be taken as a suggestion of areas that an organization might consider when establishing and nurturing their own practices. The practice guides are catalogues of topics that organizations might think about, not a list of answers. When using the content of the practice guides, organizations should always follow the ITIL guiding principles:

More information on the guiding principles and their application can be found in section 4.3 of ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition .

8. Acknowledgements

AXELOS Ltd is grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of this guidance. These practice guides incorporate an unprecedented level of enthusiasm and feedback from across the ITIL community. In particular, AXELOS would like to thank the following people.

8.1 Authors

Richard Rose.

8.2 Contributors

Raymundo Sanchez Tico, Mauricio Corona.

8.3 Reviewers

John Edmonds, Allan Thomson, Michael Macgregor, Dinara Adyrbai, Roman Jouravlev, Erika Flora.

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What Is ITIL? A Beginner’s Guide to the ITIL Process

Read on to learn about IT Infrastructure Library processes, concepts, and use cases.

[Featured Image] A tech professional in an office searches the web for the answer to, “What is itil?”

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is sometimes referred to as the ITIL foundation or the ITIL framework. Regardless of the language used to describe it, ITIL refers to the set of guiding principles IT service professionals use to standardize their processes. The article below answers the question “What is ITIL?” before examining its processes and why they are important to the IT industry. 

What is ITIL?

ITIL is a set of practices. Its primary purpose is to provide a systematic approach to IT service management (ITSM). Since its 1989 inception by the UK Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, the ITIL framework has undergone several revisions. Today, these revisions span four versions and five books. Each book contains guidelines surrounding the various processes and phases of the IT service lifecycle.

ITIL benefits and use cases

Any organization can use ITIL, from small businesses in the US to large-scale enterprises abroad. It provides a flexible roadmap for organizations to follow when undertaking a digital transformation. A few more reasons a company may align their IT processes with the ITIL framework include:

Standardization. As mentioned above, standardization is one of the primary goals of the ITIL foundation. ITIL helps create predictable IT environments, making it easier to manage risks, problem solve, and streamline processes. 

Transparency. Establishing a set of standards helps improve visibility into IT costs and operations. ITIL helps bridge the gap between departments by enabling IT admin to be front-end business service partners in addition to back-end support. 

Cost-effectiveness. The ITIL framework is designed to help organizations use their hardware and software resources as efficiently as possible. 

Strategic alignment. Similar to DevOps methodology , the ITIL framework seeks to unite business operations and IT departments. Enhanced communication helps organizations better translate business strategies and goals into technical requirements.

Organizational change management. The ITIL foundation includes best practices for change management. With these guidelines, IT professionals can release changes without interrupting service.

What is the ITIL process?

As you navigate through the steps below, remember that the ITIL process is an iterative, as opposed to linear, process. Each phase can be repeated or revisited as needed. The ITIL framework can be broken down into five stages.

1. Service strategy

The phrase service strategy refers to the phase of the ITIL process that syncs business goals with the IT service lifecycle. Service strategy has four subcategories:

Service portfolio management. A service portfolio is the scope of services the service provider manages. Managing this portfolio requires each service to be identified and evaluated to establish its role in the IT process. Service portfolio management includes the Service Pipeline, Service Catalog, and Retired Services. 

Demand management. IT professionals use user profiles and Patterns of Business Activity (PBA) to analyze and influence customer demand for better customer satisfaction.

Financial management. All accounting, budgeting, and transactional processes associated with the IT department occur during this phase of the ITIL framework. 

Strategy operations. During the strategy operations phase, it’s essential to ensure routine IT operations are running smoothly and efficiently. This phase provides an opportunity to reexamine the current strategic approach. 

2. Service design

The service design phase of the ITIL framework focuses on seven processes and the Four Ps of Service Design . Its primary goal is to prevent costly service disruptions that arise in response to inefficient workflow. Each of the Ps represents an area of focus crucial to consider when designing the IT service infrastructure.

The seven service design processes

Service catalog management. A service catalog is the subset of IT services directly available to customers. Typically, these are the offerings within the larger service portfolio visible to users. 

Service level management. Service level management refers to the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) made between the customer and the IT provider. These agreements represent the agreed-upon performance of a system or service.

Availability management. The availability management process deals with the ability of a system or service to function when the customer requests it. Availability requirements are established in the SLA agreements secured during the service level management process above. 

Capacity management. ITIL defines capacity as the “maximum throughput a service, system, or device can handle.” There are three primary areas of focus involved with capacity management— Business Capacity Management (BCM), Service Capacity Management (SCM), and Component Capacity Management (CCM). 

Service continuity management. This component of the ITIL foundation is often referred to as IT service continuity management (ITSCM). It secures the service provider's ability to meet the agreed-upon service-level threshold. Techniques involved with ITSCM include Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Management of Risk (MOR).

IT security management. IT security management is centered around five major qualities: confidentiality , integrity , availability , authenticity , and non-repudiation . 

Supplier management. Supplier management ensures that the organization receives the agreed-upon service levels from its partners. It’s similar to service level management, but unlike service management, it deals with internal negotiations. 

3. Service transition 

This ITIL phase coordinates the building, testing, and deployment of IT services. Plans must include the configuration of hardware and software, the readying of production environments, and the management of support personnel. Seven processes exist under service transition:

4. Service operations 

This phase of the ITIL framework caters to meeting end-user expectations. It includes five processes and four functions. 

ITIL service operations processes 

Event management. Event management verifies that configuration items (CI) and services are consistently monitored and that any issues are reported and escalated to the appropriate parties.

Incident management. This process aims to return services to normal operation swiftly after a disruption.

Request fulfillment. Service requests should be acknowledged and resolved as soon as possible. 

Access management. Access management is the process of granting authorized users access to services. It also encompasses activities related to protecting those services from unauthorized users. It is sometimes referred to as rights management or identity management.

Problem management. The problem management process includes both incident prevention and incident impact management. 

ITIL service operations functions

IT operations management. IT operations management is the function that oversees all functions. It includes monitoring and controlling the entire IT service infrastructure, from routine tasks and maintenance to job scheduling. 

Service desk. The service desk is the portal in which help desk technicians connect with customers. Its primary functions are incident resolution, communication, and service request management. 

Application management. Application management oversees applications throughout the entirety of their life cycles. 

Technical management. Technical management supports the IT infrastructure through expertise and support.

5. Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

The fifth ITIL phase is ongoing; hence its focus on continual improvement . The goal is to continually improve the efficiency and quality of IT services and infrastructure. CSI analyzes past performance and uses quality management methods to improve existing processes. One seven-step process comprises CSI:

1. Identifying improvement strategies

2. Defining what will be measured

3. Gathering data

4. Processing data

5. Analyzing data

6. Presenting and using the information drawn from the data

7. Using the information to improve

What is an ITIL certification?

An ITIL certification proves your expertise in the ITIL framework. Some employers look for these certifications to screen potential candidates for their ability to perform an ITIL-related role. You'll need to enroll in an ITIL training course to earn an ITIL certification. Here are a few options that are available to you:

Note: All training course information was sourced from this Axelos-accredited ITIL training website in January 2023.

ITIL 4 Foundation Training Course: This is an entry-level training course introducing learners to IT service management. It costs $613 to enroll.

ITIL 4 Foundation and ITIL 4 Direct Plan and Improve Bundle: This is a bundle of training courses is the entry point for a journey towards an ITIL Managing Professional or ITIL Strategic Leadership role. It costs $855 to enroll.

ITIL 4 Managing Professional Bundle: This training bundle includes everything you need to become a certified ITIL 4 Managing Professional. It costs $3,068 to enroll.

ITIL 4 Strategic Leader Bundle: In this training bundle, you'll receive all the content you need to become a certified ITIL 4 Strategic Leader. It costs $1,970 to enroll.

Read more: What is ITIL Certification?

Should you get an ITIL certification?

Earning an ITIL certification is an excellent way to enhance your resume. It can also be valuable for IT professionals who want to introduce the ITIL framework to their current organization. There are several versions of ITIL, each of which is an evolution of the one that came before it. As of January 2023, ITIL V4 is the most recent. 

Alternative IT management certifications

If you're unsure if an ITIL certification is right for you, you have options. You can consider earning a Professional Certificate for your resume from a recognized industry leader like System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services by Google . This course is part of the Google IT Support Professional Certificate . In this certificate program, you'll learn how to configure and manage servers and other industry tools. Focus areas include cloud infrastructure and resources, and how to recover an IT infrastructure when disaster strikes.

In the Google IT Support Professional Certificate program, I learned skills to assist customers with end-to-end support, ranging from identifying problems to troubleshooting and debugging. — Janelle H.

Get ready for ITIL certification with Coursera

Prepare for your ITIL certification exam, or start learning related IT skills today with these top-rated courses on Coursera:

To prepare for your ITIL 4 Certification exam, head over to LeanQuest's ITIL 4 Exam Preparation . In just 17 hours, get ready for the ITIL 4 exam by diving into its key concepts, terminology, and best practices with a series of self-paced learning, practice quizzes, and exams.

To learn in-demand coding skills for IT, try Google's IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate . Here, you'll learn how to automate tasks by writing Python scripts, use Git and GitHub for version control, and manage IT resources at scale in a six month Professional Certificate taught by industry leaders at Google.

To enhance your cybersecurity skills, explore IBM's IT Fundamentals for Cybersecurity Specialization . Learn cybersecurity tools and processes, system administration, and types of cyber attacks in this two month specialization.

Keep reading

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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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What is ITIL Project Management?

Read this blog on ITIL Project Management to learn what ITIL Project Management is? Why you need an ITIL certification, terminologies, its uses and more.

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According to the “ITIL® Foundation” certification study guide, 70% of organisations that adopt ITIL® experience improved service delivery” including effectively integrating ITIL Problem Management roles and responsibilities ,  ITIL V4 Framework and Processes is a framework that recommends a set of practices that help manage IT services. The set of practices defined by ITIL® includes a range of tasks, processes and procedures that facilitate governance and brings stability to an organisation. This blog explains ITIL® in the Project Management process, the important terms, and how ITIL® helps a Project Manager.     

Table of Contents  

1) Explaining ITIL® Project Management 

2) Important terms used in ITIL® Project Management 

3) How does ITIL® help a Project Manager? 

4) Why do Project Managers need ITIL® certification? 

5) How to use ITIL® Certification effectively in the phases of Project Management? 

6) Conclusion 

Explaining ITIL® Project Management  

As mentioned above, Project Management is the art of managing a project and fulfilling all its objectives per the defined time, scope, cost and quality targets. The ITIL®4 Framework, including ITIL 4 Demand Management , includes a Project Management practice that helps ensure that all projects in the organisation are successfully delivered. This section of the blog explains the different ITIL® Project Management processes.    

Process Description  

ITIL Project Management (also known as Transition Planning and Support) is a new process that was first introduced in ITIL®3. Though ITIL®2 covered certain aspects of the Project Management process, ITIL®3 provides much more comprehensive guidance on the process. Transition Planning and Support in ITIL®4 mostly focuses on managing service transition projects.  

While ITIL® does not delve into the detailed aspects of Project Management, it highlights the most important activities of the process. ITIL® also helps identify interfaces with other Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) practices. ITIL® Project Management aims to plan and coordinate the resources necessary to position a project release within the estimated cost, time and quality.  

A defined ITIL® Project Management process provides a good platform for adopting Project Management Frameworks like PRINCE2® or PMBOK®. In the 2011 edition of ITIL ®, the Project Management concept was revised to emphasise its primary responsibility of coordinating various service transition projects and solving problems.   

A project is started when Service Portfolio Management charters a new or significantly altered service. The Project Management process then goes on to other processes like Service Design Coordination, and Release Planning, performance planning activities at a detailed level.

Sub-processes  

This section lists the sub-processes in the ITIL® Project Management or Training Planning and Support process and their respective objectives. 

Project Initiation: This sub-process aims to define the project's stakeholders, as well as the responsibilities and resources available to a project. The Project Initiation sub-process also aims to document the risks, constraints and assumptions affecting the project. 

Project Planning and Coordination: The objective of Project Planning and Coordination is to ensure that service transition projects are put in place according to the organisation’s Project Management guidelines. This sub-process also aims to coordinate all the activities and resources across the project. It is not accountable for the detailed planning of phases but facilitates the planning of activities performed by other processes. 

Project Control: The objective of the Project Control sub-process is to keep track of project progress and consumption of resources. The sub-process also aims to accelerate progress whenever necessary and to correct any errors if required. 

ITIL Certification Training

Important terms used in ITIL Project Management  

This section defines several jargons used in ITIL® Project Management practices. The following terms are used in ITIL® Project Management to represent process inputs and outputs. 

Data for Project Plan Update: Data for Project Plan Update refers to any current information related to the progress of the project and consumption of resources. This information is sent as input for Project Control and Project Reporting from several Service Transition Processes to Project Management.    

Project Charter: The Project Charter can be defined as a comprehensive statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a certain project. The Charter lists the project objectives, identifies stakeholders and other resources and establishes the authority of the Project Manager. The statement also outlines any constraints and assumptions affecting a project and contains all you need to know about a project. 

Project History Log: A Project History Log is a document that records events of significance during a project. The significant events recorded on a Project History Log could refer to important decisions, escalations and any changes made to the Project Scope. 

Project Plan (Service Transition Plan): A Project Plan is also referred to as a Service Transition Plan in ITIL®. The Project Plan is a formal document that lists the major deliverables, important milestones, resources and significant activities for a project. The document is meant to assist both project execution and project control.   

Project Portfolio Status Report: The Project Portfolio Status Report could be defined as a comprehensive summary of all the planned or ongoing projects in an organisation. The report lists data that is important to track the project, such as important milestones and the project's current status.

Become an expert in ITIL® by joining our ITIL Certification Course . Register now!

How does ITIL help a Project Manager?  

Understanding how ITIL contributes to project management is crucial for effective delivery. ITIL Release Management , as a key component, plays a significant role in ensuring seamless project transitions.

Project Management and ITIL® are integral for business success if an organisation wants to minimise the percentage of project failure. A blend of both gives the Project Manager and the organisation the best opportunity to ensure a decrease in failed projects. ITIL® assists any project in defining procedures through delivery and documentation while streamlining operations to generate lower costs and greater continuity. Implementing ITIL® in Project Management also makes it easy for stakeholders to act and make the best decisions. ITIL enhances project management with clear guidelines but requires awareness of both ITIL Advantages and Disadvantages for balanced implementation.

The use of ITIL® in Project Management provides several advantages in the process that includes a suitable practice-based process implementation. ITIL® also facilitates awareness of IT support and services and helps IT comprehend the company's specific needs. Another way ITIL® helps a Project Manager is by minimising the effect of events and downtime. 

Having an ITIL® certification is of great help to a Project Manager, as he or she can understand the context of work. ITIL® helps a Project Manager understand how IT Service Managers identify, design, deliver, implement, manage and improve their services. It also mirrors the traditional project lifecycle stages: definition, planning, delivering (with monitoring and controlling) and closure. To be well-acquainted in this field, one must have adequate background knowledge and understanding – which makes ITIL® a valuable learning resource.

Are you an IT professional managing IT-enabled services and digital products? Then, this  ITIL 4 Specialist: Create Deliver And Support CDS  training course, is for you.

Why do Project Managers need ITIL® Certification?  

An ITIL® certification also offers plenty of options to a Project Manager. They can occupy a role that involves only Project Management or a role that needs ITIL® skills – such as the Transition Manager.   

Certified knowledge of ITIL® will also automatically qualify a Project Manager to take up positions in the service industry, such as a Service Delivery Manager. The ITIL® certification also ensures a better package for hiring organisations, further helping a Project Manager.  

ITIL® certifications emphasise service strategies, design aspects, transition, operation and continuous improvement of the IT service lifecycle. These benefits add a lot of value to a Project Management environment.   

The Project Management process consists of the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling and closing projects. These stages are quite similar to what ITIL® guidelines offer. In an ideal scenario, the service stage begins after a project ends. For instance, whenever Apple releases the latest version of an operating system, many bugs are reported by users.  

This is where a Project Manager comes into the picture, as they will design a service strategy to correct the bugs and improve the ITIL Service Lifecycle . The certification will acquaint the Project Manager with all the necessary technical skills to manage and handle operations better. 

The ITIL® certification also offers several other benefits to a Project Manager. While it explains the importance of ITIL change management to a Project Manager, it also provides the skill to tackle unforeseen circumstances. It aids Project Managers to monitor all products and services offered by the company and adapts to all changes made in the IT infrastructure.  

ITIL® improves the IT Service Management process and acquaints a Project Manager with the common terminologies in Project Management. The ITIL® certification also provides a platform for all project divisions to synchronise.

How to use ITIL® Certification effectively in the different phases of Project Management?

Different phases of a Project Management lifecycle

This blog section will explore how you can implement your ITIL® certification in different phases of a Project Management lifecycle.    

Initiation  

In Project Management, initiation refers to the early stages of a project where the Project Charter is established. As mentioned above, the Project Charter lists a project's objectives, needs, constraints, stakeholders, benefits and risks. ITIL® could help initiate by establishing a Project Charter per the ITIL® Four Dimensions Model. 

Planning  

The planning phase in Project Management establishes the scope, requirements, plan and risks involved in the project. This is where ITIL® guiding principles come into the picture, as it helps a Project Manager define the scope and requirements of a project. The guidelines established by ITIL® are universal and apply to all organisations. The ITIL® framework recommends that companies implement repetitive assessment and improvement in all their processes. 

Execution  

The execution stage of the Project Management process is where the product or service is produced. ITIL® recommends some practices that help a Project Manager create value. These practices are categorised into general management practice, service management practice and technical management practice. The Project Managers are free to decide the type of practice they want to implement to create value.    

Monitoring and Controlling  

In ITIL® Project Management, Monitoring and Controlling require handling aspects of the project such as scope, quality, risk, cost and any required changes while ensuring alignment with ITIL Incident Management principles for effective incident resolution and service restoration. The Monitoring and Controlling phase also handles transition, planning and support. A Project Manager can face several challenges during this process, such as maintaining stakeholder relationships. This is where ITIL® 4 key concepts comes in, as the concepts of the framework’s service transition phase give the Project Manager enough knowledge to deal with these issues.

Feedback and Closure  

The final phase of the Project Management process involves feedback from customers. This phase also aims to respond to user requests, fix bugs and conduct routine activities. Project Managers with the ITIL® certification can implement the Service Value System and the ITIL® 4 Project Management dimensions model into consideration.   

Conclusion  

Overall, ITIL® helps a Project Manager ensure an efficient Project Management process and deliver high-quality customer service. ITIL® Project Management aims to help an organisation deliver the service within the projected time, cost and quality by planning and coordinating the necessary resources.   

ITIL Project Management stages mirror traditional Project Management processes: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and feedback. For Project Managers wondering what next after ITIL 4 Foundation ? The ITIL® Certification offers several options and equips The ITIL® certification provides several options to Project Managers and equips them for a career in the industry. To stay ahead of the competition, an aspiring Project Manager must be updated with the latest digital trends – and ITIL® certainly helps achieve that purpose.

Learn about various guiding principles of ITIL in Digital and IT strategy with our  ITIL 4 Leader: Digital and IT Strategy DITS  course now!  

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24 August, 2020

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This is what Every Project Manager should Know about ITIL

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By   Mike Clayton

The ITIL ® framework is the most widely-used framework of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM).

Many project managers deliver IT components to our projects. And the service régime that starts when we hand them over will often dictate the value of the products we’ve created. Because of that, Project Managers need to be mindful of this in designing our products, delivery, and handover.

And, whether you are an IT Project Manager or not, you may find yourself delivering IT-related projects. These may be in the form of hardware, infrastructure, software, or service processes as a part of your projects. So, that means you need a basic understanding of ITSM and, in particular, of ITIL ® .

Therefore, in this feature article, we’ll explore what ITSM and ITIL ® are. We will see how ITIL ® is structured, to give you a basic understanding of its principles. And we’ll find out how and why it is relevant to you.

And, finally, we’ll speak to one of ITIL’s founders, Ivor McFarlane.

To Get You Started…

Here’s a short video that summarises a lot of what follows.

What We Will Cover in this Article

This article is a broad introduction to ITIL ® . We’ll cover four topics, and end with a conversation with one of the founders of ITIL ® , Ivor McFarlane.

  • Let’s Understand the Context: IT Service Management (ITSM)

What is ITIL ® ?

How is itil ® structured, why is itil ® relevant to project managers, a conversation with one of the itil ® founders: ivor mcfarlane, let’s understand itil in context: it service management (itsm).

This is what Every Project Manager should Know about ITIL

An engine’s performance depends on how effective its lubrication is and how efficiently the fuel and air flow into it. It’s the same for an organization.

An organization’s performance depends on the services that keep it running. And one of those services is Information Technology: IT. How well its people and processes can use computing services and access data will impact how well they can work.

IT Service Management (ITSM) does four things

ITSM does four things. ITSM:

  • Defines the services and service levels the organization needs
  • Delivers or contracts for those services to meet the business need
  • Manage the service lifecycle from specification to decommissioning
  • Keeps services under review to ensure they will continue to meet future needs

ITIL itself has a definition of ITSM:

“The implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business. IT service management is performed by IT service providers through an appropriate mix of people, process and information technology.”

Whom Does ITSM Serve?

So, ITSM focuses on the needs fo the organization and of the people within it: the ITSM customers. To do this, ITSM needs to align the IT with the organization’s goals and operating model. But it must have a focus on the end-user, so that it is:

  • useful to them (fitness for purpose)
  • and works well (fitness for use)

So ITSM serves the organization, it’s people, and its own customers. It does this by contributing to business performance by delivering high quality IT services. And, in so doing, it places its emphasis on the services people need, rather than on the assets of the IT infrastructure:

ITSM Capabilities

To support the organization, ITSM is a collection of capabilities, or processes, that allow IT departments to manage their IT services, through the lifecycle of:

  • Identifying needs
  • Designing solutions
  • Creating the services
  • Delivering them
  • Supporting and managing the services
  • Maintaining and improving the services
  • Decommissioning them

Some of these services are identified in the diagram below.

Generic representation of the components of IT Service Management (ITSM)

  • Strategy development and Requirements gathering
  • Configuration and release management
  • User service and support
  • Managing incidents
  • Problem resolution
  • Change management
  • Project management
  • Asset management and the financial control of the service
  • Policies and procedures, and compliance matters

Formal Frameworks for ITSM

There are a number of frameworks for IT Service Management. Each has its proponents. And some can be adopted in parallel and work together effectively. However, understanding these is well beyond the scope of this article (or the competence of this author!) Indeed, you really don’t need to know this, as a general Project Manager. However, it may be useful to at least recognize the names of some of the big players:

  • COBIT Originally Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies
  • MOF Microsoft Operations Framework
  • TOGAF The Open Group Architecture Framework
  • ISO/IEC 20000 This is the global standard that describes the requirements for an ITSM system

and… the most widely adopted framework:

In a nutshell, ITIL ® is a framework of best practices for delivering IT Service Management. It is one of the oldest, the most widely used, and it is consistent with the global standard,  ISO/IEC 20000 .

ITIL is a public framework, meaning anyone can adopt it at no cost. The costs of developing, maintaining, and updating its guidance are covered by:

  • Sale of licenses for training
  • Fees for exams
  • Learning products

The Two Main Features of ITIL ®

First, ITIL has a strong emphasis on the governance of IT. And second, it also focuses on continual measurement and improvement of the quality of services.

These twin concerns with governance and quality account for ITIL’s benefits to the organizations that use it. Therefore, they drive its popularity with some of the word’s largest corporations and Governmental bodies.

The History of ITIL

The UK Government sponsored the creation of ITIL in the 1980s, by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). It was the CCTA that, late in the 1980s, also adapted the PROMPT project management methodology into what we now know as PRINCE2 .

ITIL started life as the  IT Infrastructure Library . It was a collection of books that each covered one area of practice within IT Service Management. ITIL Version 1 had more than 30 volumes, that looked at different aspects of ITSM from a process perspective.

And this, by the way, is where the name ITIL comes from. Although ITIL no longer stands for anything.

Who Owns ITIL?

CCTA ceased to exist in 2001, when it was merged with the Office for Government Commerce (OGC). This was initially part of the UK Treasury and later of the Cabinet Office. (The UK Prime Minister’s ‘own’ Government department.)

In 2011, the then UK Government decided to privatize the work of the OGC. It transferred ownership of OGC methodologies, including PRINCE2 and ITIL to Axelos . This is a joint venture company, between the Cabinet Office and Capita plc. Since 2013, Axelos has managed, developed, and grown its portfolio of best practices.

ITIL Version 2

The owners of ITIL saw that the original version needed simplification, to make it easier to work with and reduce the cost. At the time, the Government’s own publisher, HMSO, printed the ITIL manuals. And they were not cheap!

ITIL Version 2 appeared in 2001. It consolidated the library into nine logical ‘sets’ that grouped related processes. The IT Service Management sets (Service Support and Service Delivery) were the ones people most used.

ITIL Version 3

The ITIL Refresh Project issued ITIL Version 3 in 2007. This now had 26 processes and functions, grouped into 5 volumes. They are arranged around the concept of service lifecycle structure.

ITIL Version 3 is now known as ITIL 2007 Edition and, in 2009, the OGC officially announced that it would withdraw ITIL Version 2 certification.

ITIL 2011 Edition

In July 2011, the OGC published the 2011 edition of ITIL to update the 2007 version.

ITIL Version 4

In 2018, Axelos started work on the next version of ITIL. Guess what! It is called ITIL 4.

ITIL version 4?

The big change that ITIL 4 brings is a focus on business value – rather than simply effective technology.

To support this, ITIL 4 replaces the Processes of ITIL 3 with a set of 34 Practices. It also introduces:

  • The service value system
  • The four dimensions of service
  • The seven guiding principles

It is a big change and one I am unqualified to assess.

For a full review and description of ITIL 4, take a look at this excellent article, ITIL 4 vs ITIL v3: What’s The Difference?

ITIL 3 Qualifications

Axelos continues to offer five tiers of ITIL 3 qualification:

  • Foundation Level
  • Practitioner Level
  • Intermediate Level
  • Expert Level
  • Master Level

ITIL Foundation Level

For Project Managers, the right level to focus on is ITIL Foundation Level. This is the entry level certification. It offers you a general awareness of the key elements, concepts, and terminology used in the ITIL service lifecycle, including:

  • Links between lifecycle stages
  • Processes and their contribution to service management practices

ITIL Practitioner Level

If you were planning to move specifically into IT Project Support, you would need to work towards ITIL Practitioner level. It’s the next stage in your ITIL learning, and aims to improve your ability adopt and adapt ITIL in your organization.

ITIL Intermediate Level

An IT Project Manager will need at least a Practitioner-level understanding of ITIL if you are working in an ITIL arena. And even if you are not, it will be helpful. The certification has a modular structure. Each module has a different focus on IT Service Management.

You can take whichever of the Intermediate qualifications that you need. They go into more detail than the Foundation level and Practitioner, and provide an industry-recognized qualification. Only if you are at the level of your career where you will be leading IT programs would you need to go beyond this, to Expert level.

ITIL 4 Qualifications

Axelos has changed the qualification structure for ITIL version 4. There are now 4 tiers:

ITIL 4 Managing Professional

Itil 4 strategic leader, itil 4 foundation.

An an introduction to ITIL 4 that enables candidates to understand IT service management as an end-to-end operating model for all technology-enabled products and services, through:

  • Continual improvement

This tier of qualification delivers practical and technical knowledge about how to run successful IT enabled services, teams, and workflows.

It is designed for IT practitioners who work within technology and digital teams across businesses.

The Strategic Leader tier takes your ITIL skills beyond IT operations, into all digitally-enabled services. It will require you to demonstrate a clear understanding of how IT influences and works within a wider business strategy.

ITIL 4 Master

For the top tier of qualification, you need to be able to make choices and apply them. And you must explain and justify how your choice and application of principles, methods, and techniques from ITIL and related management techniques. This must relate directly to achieving desired business outcomes.

How is ITIL Structured?

We’ll start with ITIL version 3 and then move onto version 4.

ITIL 3 was structured around the 5 ITSM Phases:

  • Strategy (defining the service portfolio)
  • Design (developing the capabilities the organization needs)
  • Transition (bringing the new services into the organization)
  • Operation (providing day-to-day maintenance and support)
  • Continual improvement (monitoring and advancing quality and service standards)

Each of these has a number of processes, of which there are 26 in total. The illustration below summarises them.

The Five ITIL Stages and 26 Processes ITIL is © Copyright Axelos

ITIL Service Strategy (SS)

At the Service Strategy phase, the role of ITSM is to understand how to support the organization in its goals and objectives. To determine how to meet its customer needs, an IT team must understand:

  • the vision and direction of the organization
  • the value chain and how it sits in its market and the wider customer environment
  • how it will achieve its objectives and business strategy

These will identify how the IT service provider can build its portfolio of IT services to meet the organization’s current and forecasted business needs. The key processes at the Service Strategy stage are:

  • Strategy generation
  • Service portfolio management
  • Financial management of IT services
  • Demand management

ITIL Service Design (SD)

Here’s the stage where the IT team builds new services and plans for their introduction and management. The processes at this stage include:

  • Service catalogue management
  • Service Level management
  • Capacity management
  • Availability management
  • IT service continuity management
  • Security management
  • Supplier management

ITIL Service Transition (ST)

Here is where project management touches service management. At this phase, the IT team introduces new services into the organization. So, the processes at this stage include:

  • Transition planning and support
  • Release and deployment management
  • Asset and configuration management
  • Service validation and testing
  • Knowledge management

ITIL Service Operation (SO)

This is what the users see. It is the stage where the IT team meets the service expectations of its end-users. They must balance service delivery standards against cost, and provide support to help users resolve any problems. ITIL breaks this down into two sections: process and functions. The processes are:

  • Event management
  • Access management
  • Request fulfilment
  • Problem management
  • Incident management

The operational functions are:

  • Service desk
  • Technical management
  • Application management
  • IT Operations management

ITIL Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

An IT department must also identify and make improvements to its IT services, processes, technology, and service management system. This is how they ensure they maintain the value they deliver to the organization, and meet its emerging needs.

ITIL has a seven-step continual improvement process:

  • Identify the strategy for improvement
  • Define what you will measure
  • Gather the data
  • Process the data
  • Analyze the information and data
  • Present and use the information
  • Implement improvement

There are two other processes at this stage, which inform this process:

  • Service measurement
  • Service reporting

ITIL version 4 has 34 practice, organized into three groups:

General Management

  • Architecture Management
  • Continual Improvement
  • Information Security Management
  • Knowledge Management
  • Measurement and Reporting
  • Organizational Change Management
  • Portfolio Management
  • Project Management
  • Relationship Management
  • Risk Management
  • Service Financial Management
  • Strategy Management
  • Supplier Management
  • Workforce and Talent Management

Service Management

  • Availability Management
  • Business Analysis
  • Capacity and Performance Management
  • Change Control
  • Incident Management
  • IT Asset Management
  • Monitoring and Event Management
  • Problem Management
  • Release Management
  • Catalogue Management
  • Configuration Management
  • Continuity Management
  • Level Management
  • Request Management
  • Validation and Testing

Technology Management

  • Deployment Management
  • Infrastructure and Platform Management
  • Software Development and Management

The Big Changes are not in the change from Processes to Practices…

ITIL 4 also introduces three new organizing frameworks.

For more on these, I recommend excellent article, ITIL 4 vs ITIL v3: What’s The Difference?

Why is Relevance of ITIL to PMs

ITIL ® is the leading standard for services. So, where a project manager needs to be involved in IT services in any way, it is a great qualification to have. The foundation level means you will understand the context in which you are working. Clearly, if you are or aspire to be an IT project manager, ITIL becomes all the more valuable.

ITIL will help you understand how IT service managers identify, design, implement, manage, and improv their services. And this mirrors the traditional project lifecycle stages:

  • Delivering (with monitoring and controlling)

project management on itil

IT Projects become IT Services

The outcome of your IT projects will often become IT services. For example, roll-out of new desktop software will led to a need for monitoring and support.

Project Manager: Expert or Non-expert?

A common debate is whether a project manager needs to be an expert in the subject matter of your project, to deliver it successfully. After all, there are experts you can call on, to help you through your project. But then, if you are to make sound decisions, perhaps you need the technical insight.

The answer has to be balance. I suggest you do not need to be an expert in everything you do. That would be impossible. But you do need a certain amount of background knowledge and understanding. This makes ITIL Foundation and valuable learning resource.

A good project manager must have a breadth of knowledge to mix your management and leadership skills with some relevant technical skills. So, you may have an ITIL expert on your team, but you need enough knowledge to understand the context of how they advise you.

Career Considerations

And, let us not forget that Project Management is a competitive market. There may be a shortage of project managers, but which jobs do you want? If you want your pick of the plum jobs, there are two things you need to do:

  • Decide which jobs are the plum jobs for you
  • Prepare for them by learning what you need to know and demonstrating your commitment

You can read more from us on project management careers and job interviews:

  • 13 Reasons to Take up a Project Management Career
  • Can you Get a Project Management Job? (Here’s How)
  • Essential Project Management Interview Questions

ITIL® Certification for Project Managers

Any project manager who plans to work in the IT domain should consider getting the ITIL Foundation qualification. You can look at our program here.

This course that we offer has the first 22 units absolutely free. You don’t even need to sign up with your email address. So, you really can try before-you-buy.

And when you have learnt the material and are ready, we can set you up to take the Axelos ITIL Foundation exam , too.

ITIL v3 or ITIL v4?

The scope of ITIL 4 Foundation is smaller than ITIL 3 Foundation (about half the size). So, select ITIL 3 if:

  • You want to learn as much as possible or
  • Your organization uses ITIL

But select ITIL 4 if:

  • You prefer to take the easier or more up to date program
  • Your organization uses ITIL 4
  • You want to future-proof your qualification

If you are in any doubt, I would always recommend the more up-to-date qualification: ITIL 4.

Conversation with Ivor Macfarlane

Our ITIL v3 and v4 Foundation courses are delivered by Ivor Macfarlane , one of the original contributors to ITIL and ISO/IEC2000.

We were fortunate enough to get a few moments of his time.

Ivor, what involvement have you had in the origins of ITIL?

I’ve been working in the IT Service Management (ITSM) space for 30 years now, most specifically related to ITIL development and training. I was involved in the development of the documentation of IT Service Management when I was working in the team building the IT Infrastructure Library (now just known as ITIL) from 1989-1999.

How have things changed, since the early days?

In the early days of ITIL, as you would expect, the focus was on encouraging and then answering ‘what and why’ questions, like:

“What is this ITIL thing and why should I know about it?”

What you might expect less, is that even now I still find myself explaining the need for ITSM to organisations. Of course they all do some degree of ITSM. At the very least, things fail and they fix them. So, incident management is always there.

But recognising the full range of ITSM processes, and the benefits of treating them formally comes as news surprisingly often. And this is especially true of the wide range of good guidance and advice available to help them.

What is the relevance of ITIL to Project Managers?

One factor that helps introduce new concepts to folks is a growing realization that no single approach or aspect of IT can stand alone. Understanding a wider perspective of IT helps all of us do our jobs better.

This has led to the appearance of a wider range of training courses on previously specialist training sites. For example, I have been delighted to help with the appearance of ITIL training in places best known for delivering training and expertise in project management, like Online PM Courses. The synergy goes both ways of course: good project management is essential to using ITIL well, and to help deliver IT Service Management success.

Mike adds: Of course, now, Project management is one of the34 Practices in ITIL 4.

Why are frameworks like ITIL valuable?

Most good frameworks are well-founded on common sense and the ideas we use in everyday life. Formalizing them into more business-oriented frameworks helps us recognize those processes, attitudes, and behaviors.

And that, in turn, helps us apply them to our working lives. It helps to drive a much-needed move away from seeing methods and frameworks as complicated, specialist tools for specific business situations. Instead, we need to see this guidance as widely-applicable and a simple way to get started on robust and high-quality service delivery.

So, how do you reflect on your eminent professional career?

The framework that I have spent 30 years working with is ITIL.

It’s based on good solid engineering practice and everyday sensible behaviors. And it’s applicable to all kinds of services. Since everything we do is a service (to some degree) then it should offer good ideas for everyone.

So… just because you are happy with the familiar sets of guidance you use, it is always worth a look over the wall at other good ideas.

Chances are there is stuff that will help you.

Ivor, thank you.

What is your experience of itil.

Do you recommend ITIL training for project managers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll respond to every contribution.

Do You Love Pinterest?

We do. And we have one of the most comprehensive ITIL Pinterest Boards . Check it out and follow us.

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A Project Manager’s Guide to ITIL 4

Erika Flora

Why Read About ITIL for Project Managers

The rise of modern ways of working, which includes movements like Agile and DevOps, has significantly changed how we look at Project Management. It is not the same discipline it was when I first became a Project Manager 15 years ago. We’ve learned more about what makes projects and programs successful and, as a result, we’re pushed to do better. Part of “doing better” is continuing to learn and grow in our knowledge as well as the way in which we work.

The best Project Managers continually add to their toolset, and ITIL 4 is one of the topics that is worth developing a working understanding of for Project Management. This article will discuss what we as Project Managers need to know about ITIL 4: how it relates to the work that we do and the value that it brings to our teams, organizations, and customers. We will also discuss how ITIL 4 is different from previous versions of ITIL and provide an overview of ITIL 4’s “Project and Program Management” practice guide. Let’s start by looking at how the focus of managing projects has changed and where ITIL 4 comes in.

The Problem with the Triple Constraint of Time, Scope, and Cost

Unfortunately, Project Managers and their teams can deliver projects that are on time and under budget, and the project can still be a complete failure. Customers care about getting products and services that solve a significant challenge or need. They want products and services that excite and delight them, ones that last and get better over the long-term. No one’s going to look back and exclaim, “At least the project was delivered faster and for less money than we expected!”

Instead, they’re going to complain about how bad the product or service is, and they’re not going to use it; and our organization will have wasted a tremendous amount of time and money delivering something that doesn’t measure up to our customers’ expectations. Fortunately, the best Project Managers, teams, leaders, and organizations avoid this result by changing their perspective on what constitutes project success, and it starts with shifting our mindset and being singularly focused on bringing value to those we serve. PMI calls this concept Benefits Realization Management (and the PMBOK Guide talks about the importance of tying projects to the strategic objectives of the organization). ITIL 4 calls this concept “enabling value,” and it’s the beacon that should guide everything we do.

The Problem with Finite Projects

The other challenge we face as Project Managers is the fact that projects, by design, are temporary and have specific start and end dates. As a result, two things happen. First, Project Managers and project teams are often tempted to make decisions that benefit the organization, customer, or other stakeholders in the short-term (for example, we may decide on a platform that gets our customers up and running more quickly, but it may not be the best long-term decision over the life of the product or service). Second, there ends up being a handoff to operations that, at best, involves a transfer of knowledge to a new team. Unfortunately, what more commonly happens, is that the project team “throws” the product or service “over the wall” to an operations team that has to support it; and that transition (and ongoing support) ends up being pretty bumpy.

In an effort to address these challenges, many organizations have changed their organizational structures and how teams fundamentally work, as well as their budgeting structures away from that of funding projects to funding ongoing programs and/or product management initiatives. So, what does this mean for Project Managers? It means that we need to change our perspective on how we look at projects. Not only do we need to make decisions based on what will benefit the product or service over the long-term, we also need to understand how we fit into the bigger picture of the organization.

This is where ITIL 4 can help.

ITIL 4 is the internationally recognized best practice on how we, as a “service provider” organization, develop and deliver innovative products and services to our customers and the overall marketplace. This concept of “Service Management” has remained unchanged since the creation of the ITIL framework (more on that later). What’s different and new in ITIL 4 is the inclusion of modern ways of working like Agile, DevOps, Lean, etc. and the emphasis placed on looking at our organization as a system, which ITIL describes using the Service Value System (or SVS). A diagram of the SVS is shown below alongside PMI’s Benefits Realization Management framework as both are focused on delivering value and benefit to our customers. The SVS gives Project Managers context on how the work we do fits into the bigger picture; and if we want to become effective project leaders within our organization, it requires an understanding beyond the edges of when our projects start and stop. Benefits Realization Management (or BRM) provides organizations with a way to measure how projects and programs add true value to the enterprise.

The Service Value System and Benefits Realization Management

The Project Management Lifecycle and ITIL 4’s Service Value Chain

The Service Value Chain (or SVC) is also a new ITIL 4 concept and one that’s a component of the SVS. The SVC is very similar to what the PMBOK Guide calls Process Groups that form the Project Management lifecycle. Both images are included side-by-side below for comparison.

The Service Value Chain and Project Management Process Groups

Issues with ITIL’s Service Lifecycle and PMI’s Process Groups

The SVC replaced a concept called the Service Lifecycle from ITIL v3 that included five phases: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operations, and Continual Service Improvement. Unfortunately, some practitioners and organizations mistakenly interpreted these phases to mean that the work to create and deliver products and services should be done sequentially. Thus, they ended up creating separate, siloed roles and teams of people, introducing unnecessary bureaucracy within and across teams, thereby slowing down how work was done (and giving previous versions of ITIL a bit of a bad name).

Project Managers had a similar issue with PMI’s Process Groups (that of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing), which resulted in Project Managers, teams, and organizations breaking projects into discrete, sequential phases with rigid phase gates and pushing out project timelines, rather than seeing the Process Groups (and in the case of ITIL, the Service Lifecycle phases) as loosely-based groupings of work, where activities can happen at any time and potentially be performed several times throughout the life of the project and/or overall product or service.

The SVC and Value Stream Mapping

As part of the ITIL 4 release, the Service Lifecycle was reimagined as the SVC to provide clarity around the fact that the work needed to bring value to customers can be done in lots of different ways and is often iterative and incremental . As a side note, the ITIL 4 framework also provides an overview of a fascinating concept that comes from Lean called Value Stream Mapping . I highly recommend learning more about this concept as it helps organizations get better visibility into the high-value work that’s done throughout the organization, identify areas of waste, and make significant improvements to how the organization runs.

Similarities and Differences Between PMI’s PMBOK Guide and the ITIL Framework

What’s nice about the two frameworks is that they complement one another very well. In this section, we’ll start with an overview of some of the similarities and differences and then dig into specific Project Management processes and related concepts, examining where they overlap.

Origin of the PMBOK Guide and ITIL Framework

The PMBOK Guide/PMP exam and ITIL books, exams, and certifications were created at around the same time (as shown below). Over the years, each framework has become the most well-known international best practice framework on their respective topics. More than one million people globally have obtained their PMP certification , and similarly, over one million people hold one or more ITIL certifications .

Ready to dive into ITIL 4 training? Beyond20 is an industry-leading training provider.

The Evolution of the PMBOK Guide and ITIL

The Evolution of the PMBOK Guide and ITIL

The table below provides a high-level overview of PMI’s PMBOK Guide (which describes Project Management) and ITIL 4 (which describes the topic of IT Service Management ) side-by-side.

Other Similarities between the PMBOK Guide and ITIL Framework

Other Similarities between the PMBOK Guide and ITIL Framework

Both frameworks also share the following characteristics:

  • They have published Practice Guides that serve as a supplement to the core books.
Here is a link to PMI’s Practice Guides , which include topics like Benefits Realization Management (mentioned above), Business Analysis, Managing Complexity, and Agile. PMI’s Practice Guides are available for free download by PMI members. Fun fact (though my idea of fun may differ from yours): PMI also provides what they call Practice Standards & Frame`works , which detail a specific tool, technique, or practice, for example, there are practice standards for Project Estimating and Scheduling.
AXELOS provides electronic versions of the 34 Practice Guides as part of their MyITIL program . Anyone that’s taken an ITIL 4 course and passed the exam receives a free subscription to MyITIL for one year. After that, the cost of the subscription is $50 annually. There are lots of new Practices in ITIL 4 that did not exist in prior versions of ITIL, including that of Project and Program Management as well as Business Analysis, Organizational Change Management, and Workforce and Talent Management .
  • They are regularly updated every few years (with ITIL 4, the plan is to update content every year) and are written and reviewed, in large part, by industry experts around the world.
  • They are scalable frameworks that can be used in very small and very large organizations and across industries. Because they are frameworks (rather than standards or methodologies), they are intended to be tailored to the needs of each organization. Which means, the books provide lots of tools, techniques, etc. on the things you could be doing in your organization (the books are descriptive, not prescriptive). Thus, it is up to us and our teams to figure out where our challenges lie and/or what goals we’re trying to achieve, see which concepts are most useful, and determine how to best implement them to meet our specific needs. Basically, the frameworks give us ideas on the “what” we could be doing. It’s up to us to figure out “how.”
  • They provide a common language and standard terminology. Thus, you know if you’re hiring someone that’s PMP or ITIL certified, they “speak the same language” and can hit the ground running quickly.
  • Each organization (PMI and AXELOS) strives to further the state of the profession and provides resources and a community in which practitioners can network and share ideas.

ITIL 4 has unique areas of focus that are not covered in the PMBOK Guide and can serve as helpful tools in managing projects and understanding the bigger picture of the organization.

ITIL’s 4 Dimensions of Service Management

The first concept is that of the 4 Dimensions of Service Management (pictured below). The closest concept in the PMBOK Guide is that of the various “Knowledge Areas” as it defines the areas we need to consider when we are, for example, introducing change within our organization. We must look at our overall organization and its people, our partners and suppliers, the tools and technology we use (including how information and knowledge flows), and the value streams and processes we have in place and may be impacted. There is some overlap specifically here with the Integration Management, Stakeholder Management, and Procurement Management Knowledge Areas.

project management on itil

Project Management and ITIL’s 7 Guiding Principles

Another unique concept in ITIL 4 is that of the Guiding Principles. As in real life, being a great Project Manager goes beyond knowing what’s in the PMBOK Guide and implementing process, tools, and techniques. It starts with the right mindset, which is why the Agile movement focuses a lot of time on the concept of “being Agile” rather than just “doing Agile”. The same is true in delivering great products and services to customers. We can “do ITIL” (purchase an IT Service Management platform and define several ITIL processes); and we can still fail spectacularly in the eyes of our customers. That’s where the Guiding Principles can help. Drawn from concepts in Agile, Lean, DevOps, etc., it provides guidance on the mindset, values, and beliefs that will help drive the right behaviors across the organization.

ITIL Guiding Principles

Project Management Process Overlap with ITIL 4

There are several more Project Management Knowledge Areas and processes that have touchpoints with ITIL 4 practices; and this article could be much longer than it is. However, to avoid putting you to sleep, dear reader, I will call out only two additional areas of the Project Management framework where I’ve found that, depending on whether you are working inside or outside of a project, people use similar words differently. Thus, you may be saying “Knowledge Management” and assume other people understand what you’re saying. Whereas, someone that has a good understanding of ITIL concepts may use the same term but mean something different. These areas include:

  • Project Integration and, specifically, the “Manage project knowledge” and “Perform integrated change control” processes: The ITIL 4 framework contains a “ Knowledge Management ” practice that provides lots of ideas on how to effectively capture and share knowledge and turn it into insightful, data-driven decisions, not only within a project, but across the organization. ITIL 4 also contains a “ Change Enablement ” practice that talks about how to best manage changes that could potentially impact other parts of the organization (for example, when releasing or deploying new components of software at various points throughout the project).
  • Cost Management and the “Plan cost management,” “Estimate costs,” “Determine budget,” and “Control costs” processes: ITIL 4 has a “Financial Management” practice that provides insight into how to build end-to-end cost models for our products and services, budgeting at the product/service level, and accounting for said costs.

What’s in the ITIL 4 “Project and Program Management” Practice Guide?

One of the things I like about the ITIL 4 framework is that its content has been and is still being created and revised iteratively and incrementally. All content is reviewed by industry practitioners, feedback is gathered; and this feedback goes into the next release of content. Version 1 of the Project and Program Management Practice Guide was released a couple months ago, and it is a good start.

Project Management ITIL 4 Practice Guide

There are three interesting concepts contained within it, including:

  • An overview of Project Management and Program Management
  • An overview of Agile and Waterfall approaches along with when to use them (more detail on that here )
  • An overview of PMI and Project in Controlled Environment (PRINCE2) concepts. PRINCE2 is a Project Management methodology that is frequently used outside of the United States. Thus, if you are a Project Manager working on global projects or within global organizations, it’s a helpful method to have some knowledge of.

Next Steps to Learn More about ITIL 4

This blog article is my best attempt at giving some of the highlights around ITIL 4 for Project Managers, and I have included links to further reading on several of the topics we’ve covered. However, there is a lot more to the ITIL 4 framework, and it’s worthwhile to continue learning more about it. A great place to start is by reading through our   ITIL 4 Complete Guide as it has gives additional detail on the subject. If you just want a quick summary of new ITIL 4 concepts, I recommend downloading our free “What’s new in ITIL 4” infographic (pictured here).

What's New in ITIL 4 Infographic

Download this ITIL 4 infographic

ITIL 4 Training, Certification, and the PMP

Whether you are new to the topic or have taken ITIL v2 or v3 training, there is a lot of new material in the ITIL 4 framework; and a 2-day ITIL 4 Foundation course is a great way to deepen your knowledge and “learn the language” of ITIL 4. Plus, if you hold the PMP credential, you earn 16 PDUs (and the advanced ITIL 4 courses give you 24 PDUs)! Also, unlike the PMP exam, you don’t need to meet any prerequisites to be able to attend an ITIL 4 Foundation class or take the exam, and you don’t have to earn any continuing credits to maintain your certification.

I wish you all the best on your ITIL learning journey!

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The future of ITSM is agile guide book

A practical guide to ITIL 4 in an age of agile

アジャイル時代における itil 4 の実用ガイド, itil 4 is here—and it's more agile than ever..

To keep up with the speed of business, IT teams are transforming the way they work. Gone are the days of inflexible processes and heavy workflows. IT teams are shifting towards more collaborative, iterative, and customer-centric approaches, in order to break down silos, adapt quickly, and deliver seamless experiences. In short, ITSM is becoming more agile. 

Enter ITIL 4, the latest update to the widely used ITSM framework and the beginning of a new paradigm shift for IT teams. ITIL 4 offers a more holistic and flexible frame of reference, while embracing modern ways of working like agile and DevOps.

In this guide, Atlassian and AXELOS have partnered to help jumpstart your agile journey. You'll learn eight practices typically used by high-velocity IT teams, and tips from the Atlassian Team Playbook  to bring more agility and collaboration into ITSM:

  • Continual improvement with retrospectives
  • Agile project management to speed up project delivery 
  • Knowledge management to empower team culture
  • Customer-centric service desk and request management
  • Adaptive incident management
  • Streamlined change control through automation and collaboration
  • Continuous delivery for deployment management
  • Integrated software development and operations teams

What's new in ITIL 4—and what it means for you

How to build high-velocity service teams through performance, culture, and practices

The top 8 practices typically used by the best performing IT teams 

Tips and resources to bring agility and collaboration into ITSM

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Akshay Anand

Itsm product ambassador & evangelist, axelos.

Akshay Anand is a Product Ambassador at AXELOS®, working on the development of new guidance and research within the ITSM portfolio. With experience from around the world, he previously advised Fortune 100 clients on how to improve their ITSM capabilities, implemented toolsets using ITIL best practices, and headed up global ITSM activities at Macmillan Publishing. More recently, Akshay has focused on bringing together agile development teams and ITSM professionals to address challenges posed by emerging technologies and market shifts. 

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Paul Buffington

Principal solutions engineer, itsm, atlassian.

As a member of the Atlassian Enterprise team, Paul is responsible for helping customers redefine the shape of modern ITSM. His passion for all things IT is driven by 15+ years of consulting in the industry. His expertise spans the Atlassian products but also goes beyond the technology to helping teams improve the way they work. 

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Ian Buchanan

Principal solutions engineer, devops, atlassian.

Ian Buchanan is a Principal Solutions Engineer for DevOps at Atlassian where he focuses on the emerging DevOps community and the application of Atlassian tools for better continuous integration and continuous delivery. As champion of lean and agile practices in large enterprises, he has managed enterprise software development tools across all phases of their lifecycle, driven organization-wide process improvement, and built multi-national agile teams. 

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Product Marketing Manager, Atlassian

Teresa Fok is a Product Marketing Manager at Atlassian where she looks after go-to-market strategies for Jira Service Management and ITSM solutions. From better understanding customer needs to helping them solve business challenges with Atlassian products, she's passionate about helping IT teams work better to drive change in their organizations. 

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What is Project Management and its Importance in ITIL ?

Project management.

Project management is the art of managing the project and fulfilling its goals as per the defined time, scope, cost, and quality targets.

Project Management, PM, Project Managers

Note: Project is any temporary work with a defined starting time and end time with some defined outputs.

Project management has become an integral practice in any organization, irrespective of the industry (like banking, health care, chemical, manufacturing, hospitality, construction, etc.).

Project management can be broadly classified into 5 phases as initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing.

Some of the prime processes that should be there in project management are scope management, risk management, cost management, procurement management, quality management, schedule management, communications management, etc.

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Why do we need project management?

Project management practice is essential to follow a defined process in initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project activities which meet the customer requirements and commitments as promised by the service provider.

Below are some more detailed points elaborating the importance of project management:

  • To ensure the project gets completed in time as promised to the customer.
  • To ensure the project is not exceeding the planned budget.
  • To ensure there is no scope creep.
  • To schedule the work in an appropriate order as per the priorities of the customer.
  • To identify the potential risks & dependencies in the project work.
  • To provide a communication channel to the customer, who can provide the updates and progress on the project status.

Project Management Professional (PMP)

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project management on itil

Project management professionals can be primarily classified into two categories as project manager and project management coordinator.

Project managers are accountable for delivering the project outcomes; this role will have to plan and organize schemes, resources, and people, ensuring that the project work is on time, scope, and budget. This role will have to track the work to be completed, set deadlines, and delegate tasks to the project team, identifying potential risks.

The project management coordinator/ officer works reporting to the project manager to assist and support specific teams on a project. The project Coordinator plans, organizes, and administers projects and coordinates the work assigned to associates on the project teams.

Responsibilities of Project Manager

  • Plan, monitor the work and set deadlines to ensure the project is on time, cost, scope, and budget.
  • Motivate project team, coordinate the work, identify and manage risks, and delegate tasks to the right human resources.
  • Act as a liaison with all internal and external stakeholders and regularly report to management.

Responsibilities of Project Management Coordinator / Officer

  • Executing administrative duties such as coordinating and scheduling meetings, preparing agendas, and documenting the meeting minutes.
  • Managing and tracking detailed tasks, milestones, and risks in MS Project, Excel, and MS PowerPoint.
  • Preparing and assisting the project manager in creating weekly and monthly status reports.

Project management in ITSM

Project management will play a vital role in IT Service Management because even ITSM’s focus is on achieving outcomes that are customer satisfaction concerning incident resolution and closure, service request fulfillment and closure, change implementation and closure, problem resolution and closure, etc. in defined timelines, cost, scope, and quality parameters.

As project management has five phases initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure; in the same way, ITSM can be categorized into five: stages service strategy, service design, service transition, service operations, and continual service improvement.

We cannot map the five phases of project management to IT service management. Yet, the stages, processes, principles, and best practices of project management can be implemented in all the 26 processes and 4 functions of ITSM.

For example, implementing and operating incident management:

To implement incident management as a process and execute the operations, you would need an incident manager and incident analysts as human resources, who can follow the resource management process in project management. To maintain quality in incident management, the IT governance team can utilize project quality management practices from project management.

To maintain good communication with all the internal (problem manager, change manager, etc.) and external stakeholders (like customer team), the IT governance team can utilize and embed project communications and stakeholder management from project management.

Likewise, one can utilize other processes like risk management, integration management, cost management into the operation of ITSM.

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  • ITIL Project Management play in ITSM

Published: June 16, 2021

Updated: January 17, 2024

In this Blog Post

What is project management, stages of project management, why do we need project management, where itsm meets project management, how does project management in itsm help improve it projects.

project management on itil

Amartya Gupta

Product Marketing Manager

Welcome to our blog on ITIL project management. In today’s digital landscape, organizations strive to deliver high-quality services while optimizing resources and maximizing customer value.

ITIL project management provides a framework that integrates service management best practices with project management principles to achieve these goals.

In this blog, we will decode ITIL project management, explore its key principles, understand its impact on project management, delve into the role of project management in ITIL, and discuss how to get started with ITIL.

So, let’s dive in and learn all you need to know about ITIL project management.

Project management  is the process of using precise methods and concepts to initiate, plan, execute, and manage how new projects or changes are implemented inside an organization.

When introducing new services, project management enables teams to build on ITIL principles by outlining several essential processes.

Whether it is to build software, create new business processes, or upgrade IT infrastructure, project teams often involve personnel from diverse backgrounds and locations to collaborate to plan, execute, and manage projects.

Key project management components include:

  • Scope  – what new developments or changes are expected to be delivered with this project
  • Time  – the amount of time required for the project
  • Cost  – the budget that has been set aside for the project
  • Quality  – the standard of the project’s output

Increasing or reducing any of these components will affect the others. For example, decreasing the time allotted to finish the project will limit the scope of work that can be done, impacting the project’s quality and cost.

Even though many project management methodologies and strategies exist, most projects follow somewhat the below stages:

1. Initiation:  The project manager determines what the project will accomplish by collaborating with the project benefactor and key stakeholders to agree on deliverables.

2. Planning:  The project manager keeps track of all tasks and sets deadlines for them while defining the dependencies between each task.

3. Execution:  The project manager assembles the project team and gathers and assigns the project’s resources to specified tasks.

4. Monitoring:  The project manager monitors the status of the project tasks and modifies the project plans based on requirements.

5. Closing:  The project manager assures that the project’s outcomes are approved by the business and then the project team is disbanded.

Now that you know that project management is an essential practice to define, execute, and manage project tasks that satisfy customer expectations and service provider’s commitments, let’s look at why you need project management:

  • Define the scope, timeline, and budget precisely from the outset to stay on track and maintain costs and resources within budget
  • Increase your chances of accomplishing the required outcome by understanding how the project fits into your business plan
  • Prioritize your company’s resources and ensure that you are using them efficiently.
  • Boost productivity and improve quality of work
  • Reduce the risk of project failure
  • Meet the diverse demands of the project’s stakeholders
  • Improve customer satisfaction by providing continuous communication on project status

Project management can become an essential part of IT Service Management because like project management, the focus of ITSM is achieving customer satisfaction through  incident resolution  and closure, service request fulfillment, change implementation, and so on within the described scope, timeline, cost, and quality factors.

As you know, organizational  change management is crucial to any advancement.

Because ITSM aims to provide high-quality IT services at the lowest possible cost, organizations must manage change with extreme caution to prevent jeopardizing the stability and functionality of the IT environment.

This is where project management comes in to keep unnecessary spending in check and keep up with the customer’s evolving business requirements.

Now that we understand what a vital role project management can play in IT service management, let’s see how project management aligned with ITSM can help improve IT service delivery.

Unified Platform

A unified platform for both IT service management and project management allows the management of all service desk processes and project-related activities from a single platform, resulting in faster turnaround times and increased efficiency among team members.

Better Planning

A unified platform allows all participating team members to easily plan their project management activities and define their objectives.

Enhanced Flexibility

Improved productivity, boosted roi.

The cornerstone of ITIL project management is managing the constraints of time, cost, and scope of work while fulfilling objectives.

Similarly, ITSM processes aim to fulfill customer-stated expectations for value, capabilities, accessibility, dependability, and efficiency. This is while ensuring agility and responsiveness in times of changing business requirements.

These frameworks together can offer a competitive edge to any organization.

If you are on the lookout for a unified platform that provides both these disciplines, then look no further than Motadata ServiceOps ITSM .

Motadata ServiceOps is an ITIL-aligned ITSM platform with a built-in project management module that can help you digitally transform your service management practices.

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ITIL - Project Management

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Transition Planning and support (Project management) deals with planning the resources to deploy major release within predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

Project manager is the process owner of this process.

The following diagram describes the several objectives of project management process −

Project Management

The Service Transition Strategy considers the following several aspects to organize Service Transition and allocating resources −

Purpose, goals, and objectives of Service Transition

Framework for Service Transition

Context, e.g. service customers, contract portfolios

Organizations and stakeholders involved in transition

Schedule for milestones

Financial requirements

Planning an Individual Service Transition

Service Transition plans describe tasks and activities required to release and deploy a release in to the test environment. It is good practice to deploy Service Transition plan from a proven Service Transition model.

Service Transition Plan also includes:

Issues and risks to be managed

Activities and tasks to be performed

Schedules of milestones, handover and delivery dates

Staffing, resource requirements, budgets, and timescales at each stage

Lead times and contingency

It is required to have integrated transition plans that are linked to lower level plans such as release, build and test plans.

It is best practice to manage several releases and deployments as a programme, with each deployment run as a project.

Reviewing the Plans

It is required to verify the plans as and ask following questions before starting release or deployment −

Have the plans been agreed and authorized by all relevant parties, e.g. customers, users, operations and support staff?

Do the plans include the release dates, and deliverables, and refer to related change requests, known errors and problems?

Has the service Design altered significantly such that it is no longer appropriate?

Have potential changes in business circumstances been identified?

Do the people who need to use it understand and have the required skills to use it?

Have the impacts on cost, organizational, technical and commercial aspects been considered?

Is the risk to overall services and operation capability been assessed?

Is the service release within the SDP and scope of what the transition model addresses?

Table of Contents

What is itil, what are the itil concepts, what are the itil guiding principles, itil framework, benefits of itil, drawbacks of itil, itil processes and stages: summary, how do i put itil into practice, itil: concepts, processes, benefits.

ITIL: Concepts, Processes, Benefits

Staying organized and efficient in the fast-paced world of Information Technology is crucial for a business. This is where ITIL, or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, comes into play.

ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a comprehensive framework that helps organizations manage their IT services effectively. ITIL provides a defined approach to IT service management, offering guidelines, best practices, and processes to ensure that IT services align with the needs and goals of the business. ITIL has its roots in the United Kingdom, and the British government primarily used it to standardize IT practices. However, over the years, ITIL gained international recognition and adoption.

ITIL's primary purpose is to align IT services with the needs of the business. It helps organizations deliver value to their customers by guiding how to design, transition, operate, and improve IT services.

Before going into the details, let's look at some fundamental ITIL concepts .

  • Value-Centric Approach: ITIL's emphasis on delivering valuable services underscores the importance of aligning IT with customer needs. By focusing on the outcomes customers seek, ITIL ensures that services are not merely technical solutions but meaningful contributions to the business.
  • Cost and Risk Management: The concept of a service in ITIL separates the ownership of specific costs and risks from the customers. This approach helps organizations manage their budgets more effectively and distribute risks appropriately, contributing to overall financial stability.
  • Customer-Centricity: ITIL's definition of a service highlights the customer as the central figure. This customer-centric approach fosters a culture where IT services are designed, delivered, and improved with the end-user in mind, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.

Service Management

  • Holistic Approach: Service management in ITIL encompasses a wide range of capabilities, including activities, processes, and functions. This perspective ensures that all aspects of IT services, from design to operation, are considered and optimized.
  • Lifecycle Perspective: The ITIL framework acknowledges that services have a lifecycle, and service management is crucial in each stage. This comprehensive view ensures services are designed, transitioned, operated, and improved effectively.
  • Continuous Improvement: Service management involves the ongoing effort to define, create, and manage services. This constant improvement mindset allows organizations to adapt to changing business needs and technological advancements, ensuring that services remain relevant and valuable.

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  • Efficiency and Consistency: ITIL processes are structured sets of activities with predefined sequences. This structure ensures that tasks are executed efficiently and consistently, reducing the likelihood of errors and improving the overall quality of IT services.
  • Objective Achievement: Processes in ITIL are designed to accomplish specific objectives. This goal-oriented approach helps organizations focus on what needs to be achieved and ensures that efforts are directed toward meaningful outcomes.
  • Repeatable and Scalable: ITIL processes are repeatable, meaning they can be applied consistently across various situations. This repeatability makes them scalable, allowing organizations to adapt and expand their IT services while maintaining a high level of control and predictability.
  • Team Collaboration: Functions in ITIL represent teams or groups of people with defined roles and responsibilities. These functions encourage collaboration and specialization within an organization, ensuring tasks are distributed efficiently among skilled individuals.
  • Resource Allocation: Functions are instrumental in allocating resources effectively. Organizations can optimize their resource allocation by assigning specific functions to manage different aspects of IT services, ensuring that each area receives the necessary attention and expertise.
  • Roles and Accountability: Functions are often associated with specific roles, each with its responsibilities. This role-based approach enhances accountability within an organization, as individuals understand their duties and how they contribute to the overall success of IT services.
  • Clear Responsibilities: Roles in ITIL provide individuals with clearly defined responsibilities and duties. This clarity eliminates confusion and ensures everyone understands their role in the larger service management context.
  • Efficiency and Effectiveness: Assigning roles to functions helps streamline operations by ensuring that each function has the right people in the right roles. This alignment improves the efficiency and effectiveness of IT service delivery.
  • Accountability and Ownership: Roles promote accountability, as individuals are responsible for their tasks and contributions. This accountability fosters a sense of ownership and commitment to achieving service management goals.

ITIL is guided by seven principles that serve as a foundation for its practices.

  • Focus on Value: The first ITIL principle emphasizes delivering value to customers. IT services should not be viewed as mere technical solutions but as means of facilitating customer outcomes. This principle underscores the need for IT to align closely with business objectives and customer needs. By focusing on value, organizations ensure that their IT services are relevant, impactful, and contribute directly to achieving business goals.
  • Start Where You Are: ITIL recognizes that every organization has a unique starting point regarding its IT service management capabilities. This principle encourages organizations to assess their existing processes, resources, and capabilities and build upon them. It promotes incremental improvement, ensuring that organizations refrain from attempting radical overhauls that could disrupt operations and be costly.
  • Progress with Feedback: Continuous improvement is at the heart of ITIL, and this principle reinforces that concept. Organizations should embrace iterative cycles of planning, implementing, and reviewing processes and services. Regular feedback mechanisms are crucial to identifying areas for enhancement and ensuring that services remain aligned with evolving business needs.
  • Collaborate and Promote Visibility: Collaboration between different departments, teams, and stakeholders is essential in IT service management. This principle encourages open communication and cooperation. It stresses the importance of visibility into processes and services, as transparency fosters better decision-making and accountability.
  • Think and Work: ITIL promotes a holistic perspective, urging organizations to consider the entire service lifecycle and all aspects of service delivery. By doing so, organizations can avoid siloed thinking and ensure that services are well-rounded and meet technical, business, customer, and strategic requirements.
  • Keep It Simple and Practical: Simplicity and practicality are core to successful ITIL implementation. This principle advises against overcomplicating processes or solutions. Complex systems can lead to increased costs, confusion, and resistance to change. Instead, organizations should focus on straightforward and pragmatic approaches that make sense in their context.
  • Optimize and Automate: Efficiency is a key goal of ITIL, and this principle encourages organizations to optimize their processes and services continually. Automation is seen as a means to achieve this optimization. Organizations can reduce manual errors, save time, and improve overall service quality by automating routine tasks and processes.

The ITIL framework is a widely recognized set of best practices and guidelines for managing IT services and IT service management (ITSM). The ITIL service lifecycle is a core concept within the framework and represents the path that IT services follow throughout their existence. It's important to note that these stages are not isolated; they are interlinked, and their interaction ensures the delivery of high-quality IT services.

  • Service Strategy: This initial stage defines the overall vision and objectives for IT services, considering the organization's strategic goals. It involves assessing market demand, identifying growth opportunities, and developing a clear plan for service implementation.
  • Service Design: With the service strategy as a foundation, the design stage focuses on turning concepts into tangible IT services. This stage encompasses designing processes, policies, and procedures that govern service delivery, ensuring that services are reliable, scalable, and efficient.
  • Service Transition: Service transition is the bridge between service design and operation. During this phase, the services designed in the previous stage are transitioned into the live environment. Rigorous testing, training, and documentation ensure a seamless transition.
  • Service Operation: This is where the rubber meets the road, as services are actively delivered to customers. Service operation includes managing incidents, problems, changes, and service requests, all while maintaining service availability, performance, and security.
  • Continual Service Improvement (CSI): CSI is the engine that drives ongoing enhancement. It involves measuring service performance, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing changes to optimize service quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

ITIL Service Lifecycle

By adopting ITIL principles, practices, and processes, businesses can enhance their IT service quality, align their IT operations with business objectives, and achieve greater efficiency.

Improved IT Service Quality

One of the primary benefits of ITIL is its focus on delivering high-quality IT services. By following ITIL's best practices, organizations can ensure that their IT services meet or exceed customer expectations. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and trust in the reliability of IT services.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

ITIL emphasizes understanding and meeting customer needs. Organizations can enhance customer satisfaction by aligning IT services with business requirements and improving service delivery. Satisfied customers are likelier to remain loyal and recommend the organization's services.

Efficient Resource Management

ITIL helps organizations optimize IT resources, including personnel, technology, and budget. Efficient resource management leads to cost savings, improved allocation of staff, and better utilization of technology assets. This, in turn, contributes to a more cost-effective IT operation.

Cost Savings and ROI

Through the effective management of IT services and resources, organizations can realize significant cost savings. ITIL's focus on reducing waste, improving processes, and minimizing downtime leads to a positive return on investment (ROI) for IT initiatives.

Alignment with Business Goals

ITIL ensures that IT services are closely aligned with the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. This alignment helps bridge the gap between IT and the rest of the business, making IT a strategic partner in achieving business success.

Greater Visibility and Control

ITIL promotes transparency and visibility into IT processes and services. This increased visibility allows organizations to monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to improve service delivery. It also provides a better understanding of IT costs and their impact on the organization.

Risk Reduction

By implementing ITIL's best practices for change management, incident management, and problem management, organizations can reduce the risks associated with IT operations. Quick identification and resolution of issues minimize the potential impact of incidents on business operations.

Continuous Improvement

ITIL is built on the principle of continual service improvement (CSI). This means that organizations are encouraged to regularly assess their IT services and processes, identify areas for enhancement, and implement changes. CSI ensures that IT services remain adaptable and responsive to evolving business needs and technology trends.

Standardization and Consistency

ITIL promotes the standardization of processes and practices across the organization. This standardization leads to greater consistency in service delivery, reduces errors, and ensures that IT services are reliable and predictable.

Competitive Advantage

Organizations that implement ITIL often gain a competitive advantage. They can respond more effectively to market changes, deliver better customer experiences, and outperform competitors not prioritizing IT service management.

While ITIL offers numerous benefits, it's essential to be aware of potential drawbacks:

  • Complexity and Resource Requirements: Implementing ITIL can be complex and resource-intensive, especially for smaller organizations.
  • Resistance to Change: Employees may resist changes in processes and practices, which can slow down the implementation of ITIL.
  • Potential for Over-Standardization: In some cases, excessive standardization can stifle creativity and innovation within IT teams.
  • Limited Agility in Some Cases: ITIL's structured approach may need to be better suited for organizations that require rapid adaptability to changing circumstances.

ITIL process management allows organizations to use and manage their IT services effectively.

Incident Management

Incident Management process focuses on minimizing the impact of incidents on IT services by swiftly restoring normal operations. It involves logging, categorizing, prioritizing, and resolving incidents to reduce downtime and disruptions.

Problem Management

It aims to identify and address the root causes of recurring incidents. By proactively addressing underlying issues, organizations can prevent incidents from happening in the future.

Change Management

This is crucial for controlling IT services and infrastructure changes. It ensures that changes are planned, approved, and implemented with minimal risks and disruptions.

Service Level Management

It defines and agrees upon customer service levels. It ensures that services meet agreed-upon performance standards and that any deviations are addressed promptly.

Capacity Management

Capacity management optimizes IT resources to meet current and future business requirements. It helps organizations avoid resource bottlenecks and ensures that services are scalable.

Availability Management

Availability management ensures that IT services are available when needed and minimizes downtime. It involves monitoring, measuring, and managing service availability and reliability.

IT Service Continuity Management

This process involves planning for and recovering from incidents or disasters that could disrupt IT services. It ensures that organizations can maintain essential services during and after such events.

Financial Management for IT Services (ITFM)

ITFM helps organizations manage their IT budgets effectively and allocate costs to different services. It ensures that IT spending is aligned with business priorities.

project management on itil

Implementing an ITIL process in an organization can be a transformative process. Find the key steps below to implement ITIL successfully.

  • Assessment: Begin by assessing your organization's current IT service management practices and identifying areas that need improvement.
  • Leadership and Stakeholders: Get buy-in from leadership and involve key stakeholders in the process.
  • Training and Certification : Provide training to staff and consider ITIL certification to ensure that everyone understands and follows ITIL practices.
  • Pilot Implementation: Start with a small-scale pilot implementation to test an ITIL process and adjust as needed.
  • Challenges and Mitigation: Anticipate and address challenges, such as resistance to change, with clear communication and support.
  • Measurement and Continuous Improvement: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly assess the success of your ITIL implementation. Continuously improve processes based on feedback and results.
Develop skills for real career growth by experiencing the latest curriculum designed with the help of industry leaders. Enroll in our ITIL MP Master's Program and strengthen your job-ready skills.

ITIL plays a crucial role in every aspect of business and stands as a guiding light for organizations seeking to streamline their IT services. By understanding the core concepts, enhancing the guiding principles, and implementing the ITIL framework, organizations can unlock their numerous benefits, leading to improved service quality, customer satisfaction, and overall efficiency. While ITIL isn't without its challenges, the rewards of effective IT service management are well worth the effort. So, consider adopting ITIL practices to propel your organization towards IT excellence and success.

Are you looking to become an ITIL expert? Simplilearn recommends you start with Simplilearn’s ITIL® 4 Foundation course . If you’re already a certified ITIL V3 Expert or have some experience with ITIL V3, consider taking Simplilearn’s ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition Module Training now .

Or check out the more advanced classes in the ITIL suite! In the meantime, go through this Simplilearn video on “ ITIL Foundation Basics ,” delivered by our ITIL experts, which takes you through the fundamentals of ITIL.

1. What distinguishes ITIL from other IT frameworks?

ITIL stands out from other IT frameworks because it focuses on best practices for IT service management (ITSM). It emphasizes a customer-centric approach, continuous improvement, and a comprehensive framework that covers the entire service lifecycle.

2. What are the 4 pillars of ITIL?

The four pillars of ITIL are

  • Organizations and people.
  • Value streams and processes.
  • Information and technology.
  • Partner and suppliers.

These pillars guide organizations in effectively planning, implementing, and managing their IT services.

3. What is the ITIL life cycle?

The ITIL life cycle comprises five stages.

  • Service Strategy
  • Service Design
  • Service Transition
  • Service Operation
  • Continual Service Improvement.

These stages together form a continuous loop for managing IT services throughout their lifecycle.

4. What tools are required to begin a journey with ITIL?

To begin an ITIL journey, you'll need essential tools like IT service management software, incident management systems, change management tools, and service desk solutions.

5. Why is IT called ITIL 4?

ITIL 4 signifies the fourth iteration of the ITIL framework. It was introduced to address modern IT practices, focusing on agility, flexibility, and integration with other frameworks and methodologies.

6. How long does it usually take for an ITIL adoption to show results?

The time for ITIL adoption to show results varies depending on the organization's size, complexity, and commitment. Typically, organizations can start seeing initial improvements within a few months to a year after implementation.

7. Does ITIL have variants for different industries?

Yes, ITIL has industry-specific variants like ITIL for Healthcare, ITIL for Financial Services, and ITIL for Public Sector. These variants tailor ITIL principles to meet specific industries' unique needs and regulations.

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What is ITIL? A Complete Guide to ITIL Methodology

ITIL Methodology - Invensis Learning

In today’s world, a business has to be able to adapt both its strategic priorities and IT skills to remain competitive, no matter how frustrating or uncomfortable this transition can be. This kind of transition can not, of course, start with a blank slate. Knowledge of existing procedures and management strategies within an enterprise can guide the production of IT services. Without this, a method of IT Service Management (ITSM) will eventually lose time, resources, and commitment, allowing rivals a chance to deliver more competitive products for consumers. In this article, let us explore the ITIL methodology in detail.

What is ITIL? 

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a reference or structure for promoting the implementation and administration of IT services. Some may see it as ITIL guidelines, but it’s merely a compilation of the best practices found in five advice journals, and in response to improvements in the way IT organizations work, it grows over time. Any of the five publications cover various sections and phases of the lifecycle of the IT service.

This (CCTA) Central Computer Telecommunications Agency in the UK in the ’80s initially established this system. It was used as a series of guidelines for increasing IT efficiency in the first example and was subsequently associated with the international ISO / IEC 20000 service management norm. In a joint partnership called Axelos, ITIL has been owned by the UK Cabinet Office and Capita since 2013, and Axelos regulates and issues licenses to anyone who wishes to use the ITIL system. If a company just needs to use ITIL locally, they do not apply for an appointment. It is now known less as a collection of rules and more as a system of best practices or procedures.

ITIL can also compare with IT Service Management (ITSM), but these two aspects are radically distinct. ITSM is how organizations develop, design, distribute, maintain, and sustain IT services, whereas ITIL is a best practice system for how IT services can be handled inside the enterprise. ITIL is basically meant to support the incorporation of ITSM operations into the overall management plan of the organization.

ITIL 4 Foundation Certification Training

How Does ITIL Methodology Work?

The ITIL methodology consists of five books, each of which focuses on a different lifecycle aspect of the IT service. They also assist each other, including realistic guidance for the preparation, instigation, and advancement of systems for use or product creation.

Service Strategy

All of this is about just what you expect your organization to do and how. ITIL will allow you to integrate your IT department into your essential business operations, such as the management of service portfolios, financial management, and partnerships. It will help you identify your organization’s needs, while also providing you with the requisite insight to foresee how developments will affect your IT operations.

Service Design 

This deals with the system, like architectures, protocols, rules, paperwork, and sustainability, of IT services. It can help you assess your programs, so you can make sure they fulfill your organization’s criteria. Crucially, you’ll also understand how to make it possible that as significant shifts or crises occur, the programs will be changed. 

Service Transition

This stage looks at the locations between both the end of the production period of an IT service and the moment for customers when the service goes live. If you were upgrading computers, for example, will you need to instigate program upgrades to make the transfer go ahead without a hitch? The measures are to test, analyze, and record improvements, as well as to handle the information to ensure effective decision-making.

Service Operation

This applies to day-to-day activities and the maintenance of the product or business, meaning that you can offer it in compliance with the specifications set out above. The measures revolve around principles, processes, organizational strategies, and functions necessary to ensure that your business can execute. This will also encourage you to build a Service Level Agreement (SLA) arrangement for your IT service desk. Bear in mind that mistakes of any sort or the other are generally inherent in any IT endeavor. This stage means that when this occurs, you have a well-founded issue management mechanism in place for

Continuous Improvement

Efficient ITSM is not about completing and leaving a business growth project as-is. Instead, by documenting some repeatable procedures and assessing how they’re being refined, you can plan yourself for continual and continuing changes. The final module of ITIL offers resources and guidelines for determining risks and performance indicators within a facility or product to assist with this.

ITIL 4 Foundation Certification Training - Invensis Learning

Benefits of the ITIL Approach

Bringing this approach on board gives organizations a range of opportunities. Maybe most importantly, it will reduce the amount of time and money that is expended during the lifecycle of service growth, while still growing the end-product efficiency. This, in essence, if a service or product is introduced, as well as the productivity of workers working on, it will offer a significant boost to customer satisfaction. 

Getting an ITIL certification can help you benefit the organization you are working for in many ways, Know your clients more so that you can provide services that meet their needs. This will help you develop long-lasting relationships and boost your credibility.

  • Understand how to improve a guide about how to foresee and respond to problems with your operation, integrating several variables such as customer interface and not just focused on IT growth 
  • Increase efficiency and optimize the control of capital by creating cost-effective recommendations 
  • Manage threats without damaging or destroying the business accidentally
  • Build a supportive climate for the creation of resources that facilitates continuous change 
  • Ensure that the company aligns more closely with other IT guns. For enterprise architecture growth, this can be critical
  • Develop the method of risk assessment by anticipating and reducing service interruptions and disruptions 
  • Build networking possibilities and ease cooperation by integrating the terminology and methods of ITIL into your organization 
  • Make your service portfolio more competitive
  • Adjust quickly to developments in technology, regulation, and so on, to keep your strategic edge increasing and sustaining 
  • Move up your company profile with a nationally recognized credential

Core ITIL 4 Certifications

Both people and technological resources can accomplish ITIL verification/certification. 

ITIL 4 which is in its current version is governed by AXELOS for updating their publications and certification exams worldwide. Examinees are awarded corresponding ITIL pins upon passing examinations at various levels. Understanding ITIL’s fundamentals are of benefit to IT practitioners at all levels. Not only can it improve one’s technical credentials, but it will help them to gain a holistic understanding of the processes of delivering IT services. 

ITIL methodology is incredibly useful and it allows individuals and enterprise teams to understand and coordinate your company’s IT management approaches. It blends the IT team’s skills with the needs of the clients, market processes, and frameworks while at the very time having the goal of high-quality service delivery at its heart. 

You can effectively incorporate and promote the ITIL methodology by training your workforce in widely-recognized ITSM certification courses that provide knowledge on ITIL best practices, and offer using suitable tools, which can have massive and long-lasting beneficial effects on your company. You will guarantee that your clients get higher quality services and that your IT departments and projects are firmly incorporated into your company processes by adopting ITIL standards.

ITIL Service Management

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DE - ES - Project Management - Transition Planning and Support

Objective: ITIL Project Management (Transition Planning & Support) aims to plan and coordinate the resources to deploy a major Release within the predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

Part of : Service Transition

Process Owner : Project Manager

  • 1 Process Description
  • 2 Sub-Processes
  • 3 Definitions
  • 4 Templates | KPIs
  • 5 Roles | Responsibilities

Process Description

ITIL Project Management (Transition Planning and Support) is a new process in ITIL V3; ITIL V2 covered some aspects of this process within Release Management but ITIL V3 provides considerably enhanced guidance.

Transition Planning and Support in ITIL V3 is mostly about managing service transition projects, so at IT Process Maps we decided to make this clear by slightly changing its name to Project Management (Transition Planning and Support) .

Project Management ITIL

ITIL does not provide a detailed explanation of all aspects of Project Management. Rather, it highlights the most important activities and assists in identifying interfaces with other Service Management processes.

However, having a basic ITIL Project Management process defined will provide a good starting point for adopting best-practice Project Management frameworks like PRINCE2 or PMBOK (as recommended in the ITIL V3 books).

In ITIL 2011 Project Management has been revised to highlight that its main responsibility is to coordinate the various service transition projects and resolve conflicts.

Projects are initiated when Service Portfolio Management has chartered a new or substantially changed service.

The Project Management process now calls upon other processes like Service Design Coordination and Release Planning, to perform planning activities at a detailed level.

The process overview of ITIL Project Management (Transition Planning and Support) shows the key information flows (see fig. 1).

The latest edition of ITIL 4 describes the key activities of "Transition Planning and Support" in the general management practice of "Project Management".

Sub-Processes

These are the ITIL Project Management (Transition Planning and Support) sub-processes and their process objectives:

Project Initiation

  • Process Objective: To define stakeholders, responsibilities and resources available to the project, as well as documenting risks, constraints and assumptions affecting the project.

Project Planning and Coordination

  • Process Objective: To make sure service transitions projects are planned in accordance with the organization's Project Management guidelines, and to coordinate activities and resources across projects. This process is not responsible for detailed planning of project phases but triggers planning activities performed by other processes.

Project Control

  • Process Objective: To monitor project progress and resource consumption, to expedite progress when required and to initiate corrective action if required.

Project Reporting and Communication

  • Process Objective: To provide an overall summary of all planned or ongoing Service Transition projects as information for customers and other Service Management processes.

Definitions

The following ITIL terms and acronyms ( information objects ) are used in ITIL Project Management to represent process outputs and inputs:

Data for Project Plan Update

  • Current information related to project progress and resource consumption. This information is sent from various Service Transition processes to Project Management as input for Project Control and Project Reporting .

Project Charter

  • The Project Charter is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project. It outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, defines the authority of the Project Manager and the resources at his disposal, and lists any constraints and assumptions affecting the project.

Project History Log

  • A document recording important events during the course of the project, e.g. decisions, escalations and changes to the project scope.

Project Plan (Service Transition Plan)

  • A Project Plan (in ITIL also referred to as Service Transition Plan ) is a formal, approved document showing the major deliverables, milestones, activities and resources for a project, used to guide both project execution and project control .

Project Portfolio Status Report

  • The Project Portfolio Status Report is an overall summary of all planned or ongoing projects, listing key project data like milestones and current project status.

Templates | KPIs

  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ITIL Project Management - Transition Planning and Support
  • For your routine tasks in ITIL Project Management we provide a comprehensive collection of helpful project management templates, checklists and tips under the heading of General Project Management .

Roles | Responsibilities

Project Manager - Process Owner

  • The Project Manager is responsible for planning and coordinating the resources to deploy a major Release within the predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

[1] A: Accountable according to the RACI Model: Those who are ultimately accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the ITIL Project Management process.

[2] R: Responsible according to the RACI Model: Those who do the work to achieve a task within ITIL Project Management.

Author: Stefan Kempter, IT Process Maps GbR

Process Description  › Sub-Processes  › Definitions  › Roles

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ITIL vs PMP Certification: Which One is Right for You?

Home Blog Project Management ITIL vs PMP Certification: Which One is Right for You?

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It is essential for project management professionals to have project management certifications under their belt in today’s ultra-competitive job market. PMP and ITIL are two highly popular certifications for professionals seeking to boost their careers in IT and other industries. You may want to compare ITIL vs PMP, but the truth is that they are distinctive in the value they offer for the individual as well as the industry.

While ITIL can tie into the larger area of project management, the same does not hold true for PMP. Many professionals don’t have the time to pursue both certificates due to their busy schedules. This leaves them confused regarding which certification to pursue. The answer is that they should pursue the certification that would add value to their work area. There are some similarities between the two certifications; however, by looking at the difference between PMP and ITIL certification, one can decide which option is the best fit for them.

There are several great options for ITSM training , and you can explore them to find the one that suits your requirements. Before diving to understand ITIL vs PMP, we will first learn what ITIL and PMP is. 

What’s ITIL?  

ITIL ( Information Technology Infrastructure Library) certification is a widely acknowledged framework for IT-enabled service management or Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). The Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom first used it in the 1980s. It is primarily targeted at IT service management professionals. The original aim of ITIL was to standardize IT management methods to assist organizations in providing the highest quality services while avoiding the most prevalent mistakes. It was later amended and enhanced to provide a comprehensive framework to manage IT service delivery in several markets and industries.

The KnowledgeHut ITIL Foundation Course online helps you validate your ITSM skills and boost your career with job roles offering greater responsibility and a better salary.

What’s PMP? 

The Project Management Institute (PMI) administers the Project Management Professional Certification, or PMP credential, which is an industry-recognized certification for project managers. The PMP certification is intended for individuals who have extensive project management expertise. It is intended to assist project managers in understanding the fundamentals of Project Management as well as the methods outlined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). It would be useful for people who want to run huge and complex projects yet need a certification to demonstrate their competence and support their professional practice.

KnowledgeHut also offers top-rated PMP Certification training online that puts you in the elite group of PMI Certified project management professionals.  

Differences between ITIL vs PMP

This comparison table highlights the difference between ITIL vs PMP so that professionals can better understand which certification is more suited to their needs.

1. Philosophy

The philosophy of the ITIL certification is based on IT service management and revolves around the life cycle approach. Hence, the ITIL methodology is more useful to organizations that provide IT-enabled services. On the other hand, PMP certification is focused on the tools, methodologies, and processes that need to be adopted to complete a project successfully. The scope of PMP is wider as compared to the ITIL certification from a project management perspective. ITIL does include project management as one of the practices and provides guidance for it, but without delving into specific guidance such as PMP related, Hence, the principles and methodologies of PMP can be applied to projects of any industry of any size and any scope. It focuses on approaches for efficiently carrying out projects.

2. Methodology

As mentioned earlier, the primary concern of ITIL is to develop a comprehensive and consistent IT-enabled service management guidance and framework. Although designed primarily for IT—enabled services and enterprises, its distinctive guidance may be customized and utilized by practically any type of organization to help generate value and improve service management strategy. ITIL4, the latest in ITIL revolves around core concepts such as the four dimensions of service management and the service value system (SVS). The SVS has five elements: principles, governance, service value chain (SVC), continual improvement as a model or method, and 34 practices. The practices are an expansion of the processes from earlier ITIL versions. The Foundation certification covers all this, except for the practices wherein only 15 are covered, of which 7 are covered in more detail. The concept of value and value co-creation is highlighted.

Professionals can learn more about IT Service Management with the help of IT Service Management Certification Courses Online . They would also get a fair idea about which certification is appropriate from ITIL vs PMP.

Coming to PMP views each project as a temporary endeavor with certain constraints to deliver outputs that eventually drive change. Traditionally the PMP exam has focused on knowledge areas such as project scope management, process groups such as initiating, processes such as identifying stakeholders, and associated artifacts, tools, and techniques These are published in the so-called PMBOK Guide (project management body of knowledge). Both traditional and agile life cycle approaches are covered. This has been further expanded to consider Project Management principles , a system for value delivery, and other relevant topics. There is also added emphasis on people and business.

3. Prerequisites

Delving further into   ITIL certification vs PMP, certain prerequisites need to be fulfilled for each of the certifications.  

For PMP, professionals with a 4-year bachelor’s degree or its global equivalent need to have 36 months of documented project management experience. Those with a secondary-level diploma require 60 months of documented project management experience. Also, professionals must earn 35 contact hours through the contact learning program.  

For the ITIL certification, the prerequisites vary with the level of the certification. For the Foundation Level, there is no prerequisite. Hence, it is a good place to start for beginners. The ITIL Foundation Level Certification becomes a prerequisite for moving toward the advanced levels.

4. Exam Difficulty 

The PMP® Exam is typically regarded as being substantially more challenging than the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam since it is longer and has more questions.  

The PMP® test requires candidates to have 35 Contact Hours and at least 36 months/4500 effort hours of working experience in project management over at least three years, but there are no prerequisites for taking the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam.  

5. Certification Levels 

While PMP® certification holders must recertify every three years by obtaining 60 PDUs, ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification has no expiration date.  

6. Required PDUs

To maintain their PMP® Certification status, holders must accumulate at least 60 PDUs throughout the course of each three-year re-certification cycle. ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification holders are exempt from continuing education requirements. Therefore, when the most recent edition is launched, there will no longer be a need for an official bridge program for the ITIL 4 Foundation course. It simply implies that to obtain the most recent certification, holders of prior certificates must retake the ITIL 4 Foundation test. Additionally, if you seek a certificate and enroll in their membership program, you may receive digital badges through ITIL's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme. Members must have 20 CPD to extend the badge for the next 12 months.

7. Processes

40 multiple-choice questions make up the entry-level ITIL test, which must be passed with a minimum score of 65% (i.e., at least 26 correct answers). The total examination period is one hour. However, people who take the test in a language other than their working or native tongue will receive 25% more time. The ITIL Foundation exam aims to evaluate a candidate's proficiency with terminology, broad understanding of ITIL principles, and fundamental components of the service value chain and service value system. Unlike the ITIL, the PMP test takes four hours to complete, and there is no scheduled break. There are 200 multiple-choice questions in total; 175 of them must be answered correctly to receive a final score, and the remaining 25 are pretests used to determine if the questions will still be relevant for upcoming examinations. The five project phases—planning, starting, monitoring/controlling, executing, and closing—as well as the code of ethics and additional domain of professional conduct—are examined by the PMP examination questions.

8. Salary 

An employee's average PMP certification pay is based on a variety of parameters and varies by country, industry, and project size.  

The average PMP certification salaries for various nations are listed below:  

A PMP-qualified project manager makes 20% more money than a non-certified project manager, according to the 9th PMI wage study.  

According to Different Locations, ITIL 4 Salary:  

The USA, UK, Canada, India, and Australia are the top nations where ITIL 4 Foundation-certified professionals may earn a reasonable salary. The remuneration of ITIL 4 Foundation professionals in various nations are displayed in the table below.  

ITIL 4 Foundation-certified individuals are among the most sought-after job prospects in the IT market due to several firms embracing the ITIL framework. The ITIL 4 Foundation certification can improve your chances for advancement in your profession and, most significantly, raise your pay.  

9. Roles  

The main duties of a person with a PMP certification include the following:  

Formulate the major concept  

Plan out and organize the strategy.  

lead the group  

Controlling the cost  

Make important project choices.  

Deliver the promised results.  

Give consumers and end users a clear handover.  

These are the four standard ITIL roles:  

Process owner  

Process supervisor  

Process expert   

Service provider  

It's important to keep in mind that these tasks may not always correspond to specific job titles. Additionally, the ITIL-receiving association will choose a suitable job title for a representative's position that is consistent with its internal terminology and pecking order.  

Additionally, jobs don't truly resemble headcount. In a smaller organization, it's common for one employee to take on many tasks.  

Similarities of ITIL and PMP

Even with ITITL vs PMP differences, there are few similarities between the two certifications. Despite the certifications being unique, both are guidance that includes best practices and more. The next section discusses how you can combine ITIL & PMP methodologies.

Top Cities where Knowledgehut Conduct PMP Certification Training Course Online

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Combining ITIL & PMP Methodologies 

Combining both PMP and ITIL methodologies can be a great approach to managing service-related projects in the most efficient way possible. It can also help professionals understand the nitty-gritty of service management at the organizational level. For a professional who is in the service industry and, more so IT-based services, ITIL may be their first choice naturally. However, there is no such limitation to stopping at the basic level. They can certainly pursue the advanced levels as well as this would give their profile a boost. On the other hand, professionals in the IT industry who are looking forward to becoming project managers within any industry can benefit more from a PMP.

Which Certification Should you Choose? 

There are several overlapping features in ITIL and PMP. However, the methodologies, applications, and scope of these certifications are entirely different. They each have a specific focus area and professionals certified in ITIL and PMP deliver results for enterprises in those areas.  

From an enterprise perspective, an interesting observation in this scenario is that if both these certifications are combined, the enterprise will reap the benefits of a robust service management framework and efficient project management and delivery infrastructure. So, it really is less of a question of which certification is better and more of a question of what are your enterprise’s business objectives and which of these certifications will put you on a fast track to achieving them.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. which is harder: itil or pmp.

The comparison is not straightforward. ITIL certifications test knowledge, understanding, application, and analysis skills based on specific reference material. Whereas PMP testing is based on multiple and unlisted references, it also has a psychological element of testing thus not just a textbook-based exam.

2. Which is better: ITIL or PMP?

Both these certifications are great for professionals, and it depends on the individual goals, on the basis of which one can choose which certification to go ahead with.

Profile

Kevin D.Davis

Kevin D. Davis is a seasoned and results-driven Program/Project Management Professional with a Master's Certificate in Advanced Project Management. With expertise in leading multi-million dollar projects, strategic planning, and sales operations, Kevin excels in maximizing solutions and building business cases. He possesses a deep understanding of methodologies such as PMBOK, Lean Six Sigma, and TQM to achieve business/technology alignment. With over 100 instructional training sessions and extensive experience as a PMP Exam Prep Instructor at KnowledgeHut, Kevin has a proven track record in project management training and consulting. His expertise has helped in driving successful project outcomes and fostering organizational growth.

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How to streamline your ITIL incident management process

by Amy Brennen | Feb 15, 2024

project management on itil

Are you trying to streamline your sluggish ITIL incident management? Maybe you’re facing challenges with incident routing, lengthy resolution times, or inconsistent team communication. If so, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) can help you improve IT reliability and incident resolution.

This blog unveils the secrets to optimizing your ITIL incident management processes to take your incident response from slow to stellar. Learn how ITIL goes beyond basic incident management and provides a proven framework for common challenges to save you time, resources, and headaches.

Whether you’re well into ITIL or starting out, this blog will equip you with learnings and actionable steps. Discover how to streamline your incident management lifecycle, improve service quality, and deliver rapid issue resolution.

What is incident management in ITIL?

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a collection of best practices and guidance for IT service management (ITSM), including incident management . They offer a high-level framework with a standardized approach to incident management with defined processes, roles, and best practices.

With ITIL incident management, we can define our incident management with:

  • Structure: Well-defined with stages like categorization, prioritization, resolution, and closure.
  • Scope: Aims to be holistic, covering all IT services and departments with a consistent approach.
  • Metrics: Includes broader considerations like impact on business operations, cost of incidents, and knowledge base development

However, the ITIL framework for incident management is not a prescriptive set of rules and is purposely adaptable. This enables you to tailor them to your specific organization’s needs and adapt them as your IT environment evolves.

What is the ITIL incident management process?

The ITIL incident management process typically goes from identification to categorization to prioritization to response to closure. Understanding how a typical process works lets you improve your incident analysis, contribute to ongoing service improvement efforts, and enhance overall IT service quality.

ITIL incident management process graphic

Step 1: Identification

Incidents are detected through various channels, including user alerts, infrastructure metrics, or anomalous behavior identification. Identification involves an initial recording of the incident’s details, which are then logged and assigned unique IDs for tracking. Integration of incident intelligence tools speeds up detection.

Step 2: Categorization

Following identification, incidents are triaged per company protocols, which is crucial for preventing misclassification and for subsequent handling. Proper categorization groups incidents based on defined criteria, facilitating efficient tracking, addressing user impacts, and helping with information gathering and diagnosis. Sometimes as more information becomes available, the category of an incident may change.

Step 3: Prioritization

Priority matrices rank incidents based on importance and business impact, aiding response urgency. Incidents are typically assigned prioritization codes based on factors like affected users, potential revenue loss, and impact on critical IT systems.

Step 4: Resolution

This phase emphasizes containment strategies to prevent further damage and involves implementing immediate fixes or workarounds, given the importance of maintaining service availability. If unresolved, escalation occurs for a deeper analysis. Documented solutions and probable root causes are stored in a knowledge base or Configuration Management Database (CMDB) for future reference.

Step 5: Closure

Closure involves documentation, assessment, verification from the affected party of a satisfactory resolution, and evaluation of the response actions taken. Ensure that any temporary workarounds are reverted or properly integrated into the system. Recheck initial categorization to ensure accurate closure, while comprehensive reports are shared with stakeholders to enhance future incident response.

What are the common challenges of the incident management process in ITIL?

While effective in addressing and resolving IT issues, the ITIL incident management process has several common challenges.

People and organizational challenges

  • Resistance to change: People and teams may resist changing their established methods and adopting new ITIL practices. Additionally, without leadership commitment, there may be insufficient resources or follow-through.
  • Lack of integration with existing ITIL and ITSM processes: Failing to integrate incident management into change management or problem management creates disjointed workflows. This lack of integration hinders the ability to address the root causes of incidents.
  • Silos and poor communication: Poor communication between IT teams and stakeholders during incident response is a common challenge. It can result in unclear ownership and difficulties in prioritizing incidents. Additionally, it can cause more user frustration as incident resolution times remain high.

Process and technical challenges

  • Inconsistent data and reporting: Insufficient or inaccurate information during incident identification and failure to integrate with other IT systems threaten the resolution process. This can lead to delays and potential misclassification of incidents.
  • Choosing the right tools and technology: Effective incident management relies on appropriate ticketing systems, knowledge bases, and automated processes. Selecting and automating these can be tricky, but is necessary to avoid labor-intensive workflows.
  • Maintaining process adherence: Monitoring and ensuring consistent adherence to ITIL guidelines over time can require dedication and effort. Failing to do so results in a delayed incident response.
  • Ongoing maintenance and improvement : ITIL is not a “set it and forget it” solution. It requires continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation to remain effective.

How can I optimize my incident management process?

Optimizing your ITIL incident management involves streamlining processes to enhance efficiency, reduce resolution times, and improve overall service quality. Here’s a detailed guide on optimizing specific aspects of ITIL incident management:

Enhance your early incident detection

To enhance early incident detection, make sure that your monitoring tools can provide real-time insights into your IT infrastructure. Also, ensure that you’re not using more monitoring tools than necessary. Establish clear alerting and monitoring thresholds to help define normal system behavior, allowing for the timely identification of deviations.

Deploy AIOps tools to aggregate and correlate alerts from multiple monitoring tools and use machine learning to identify significant incidents and reduce noise. This facilitates a swift response and reduces the impact on end-users.

Streamline categorization and prioritization

Efficient alert triage and prioritization are vital components of the incident management lifecycle. Set up clear criteria for categorizing incidents. Consider their nature, impact, and urgency.

Develop a prioritization matrix that considers business impact, urgency, and service importance.

Harness AIOps to automate initial triage processes and to categorize and prioritize incidents based on predefined rules. Also, align incident prioritization with SLAs to ensure resources are allocated according to agreed-upon service levels.

Apply automation and remediation

Streamline incident resolution by developing automated workflows for routine tasks, reducing manual efforts and expediting resolution times. Be sure to integrate incident management with IT Service Management (ITSM) tools and processes for seamless automation. Establish feedback loops within your incident management system for continuous improvement. Review and refine automated workflows based on user feedback and evolving requirements.

Enhance communication and knowledge sharing

Establish multiple, easy-to-use channels for incident reporting and monitoring. Ensure timely and clear communication with stakeholders throughout the incident lifecycle. Create and maintain a knowledge base containing solutions to common incidents, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides. This can help in faster resolution of recurring issues.

Ensure continuous optimization

Regularly review and analyze incident trends and management processes. Implement a feedback loop from both users and IT staff to identify areas for improvement.

Conduct post-incident reviews to analyze the handling of major incidents and learn from them. Invest in regular AIOps training and ongoing support so your staff can apply ITIL principles and understand AIOps best practices.

Align your ITSM tools with ITIL practices

Make sure your ITSM tools align with ITIL practices. This supports efficient incident management, including tracking, management, and reporting of incidents. Ensure that your tools are integrated with other systems like CMDB for better information accessibility.

The BigPanda platform makes this possible by integrating with existing ITSM tools. The Sankey diagrams below show how using our AI capabilities enable better incident tracking , management, and reporting for ITIL excellence.

Typical status of operations today graphic

[Figure 1: Sankey workflow showing the typical organizational landscape and event lifecycle]

Visibility. Insight. Control. graphic

[Figure 2: Sankey workflow showing a sample impact of using BigPanda]

Streamline incident management with BigPanda

BigPanda offers AIOps capabilities that significantly enhance each aspect of incident management, from detection to resolution and continuous improvement. Our AIOps platform was architected to support hybrid infrastructure like yours.

BigPanda’s strengths in AI-driven insights and integration with existing ITSM tools make it a powerful ally in optimizing your ITIL incident management processes.

  • Enhance your incident classification and prioritization: Empower your teams with BigPanda Incident Intelligence to quickly classify and prioritize incidents based on their severity, business impact, and potential risk. Create incident tags based on formula calculations to automate and keep prioritization up to date.
  • Give your stakeholders visibility: With Unified Analytics dashboards (shown below), gain a centralized view into your IT operations and identify areas of improvement. Make coordinating your ITIL easier with relevant KPIs, track performance, and identify patterns or recurring issues to drive continuous optimization.

Get a personalized demo and discover true incident management excellence, visibility, and optimization. Harness BigPanda AIOps for swifter, proactive incident management so you can seamlessly manage the modern IT landscape’s complexities.

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COMMENTS

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  7. Guide to ITIL Project Management

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  10. What is Project Management and its Importance in ITIL

    Project management is the art of managing the project and fulfilling its goals as per the defined time, scope, cost, and quality targets. Note: Project is any temporary work with a defined starting time and end time with some defined outputs. Project management has become an integral practice in any organization, irrespective of the industry ...

  11. How ITIL Project Management Improves ITSM

    1. Initiation: The project manager determines what the project will accomplish by collaborating with the project benefactor and key stakeholders to agree on deliverables. 2. Planning: The project manager keeps track of all tasks and sets deadlines for them while defining the dependencies between each task. 3.

  12. What is ITIL?

    Heightened risk management and stability. ITIL helps businesses manage risks, disruptions, and failures, contributing to a stable-yet-flexible environment. By establishing cost-effective practices, ITIL creates a foundation that supports growth, scalability, and change within the organization.

  13. How to make use of ITIL in Project Management

    How to make use of ITIL in Project Management Adinanta Nugraha Assistant Vice President at DBS Bank Published Feb 14, 2020 + Follow What challenges Project Manager face along the way:...

  14. Bridging the Gap Between ITIL and Project Management Best ...

    Project management allows teams to build upon ITIL principles by defining several necessary processes when introducing new services. While less defined than incident, problem and change management, project management frameworks (such as PMBOK) can fill in the gaps when implementing new IT services.

  15. ITIL

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  18. ITIL Certification for Project Managers

    Some of the benefits and importance of ITIL certification for project management are mentioned below: Explains the significance of change management. Provides project managers with the skills to tackle issues and unforeseen events. Aids project managers to maintain a record of all products and services offered by the company.

  19. What is ITIL? A Complete Guide to ITIL Methodology

    ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a reference or structure for promoting the implementation and administration of IT services. Some may see it as ITIL guidelines, but it's merely a compilation of the best practices found in five advice journals, and in response to improvements in the way IT organizations work, it grows ...

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    For many companies, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework has been deployed as a major methodology component for managing the operational side of information technology. These same organizations rely on project management methodologies for new capital development and enhancements. A mismatch occurs when the two disciplines work independently. This paper presents an ...

  22. ITIL vs PMP Certification: Which One is Right for You?

    1. Philosophy. The philosophy of the ITIL certification is based on IT service management and revolves around the life cycle approach. Hence, the ITIL methodology is more useful to organizations that provide IT-enabled services. On the other hand, PMP certification is focused on the tools, methodologies, and processes that need to be adopted to complete a project successfully.

  23. IT Project Management Best Practices

    IT project management is the process of planning, managing, developing, deploying, monitoring or reporting on information technology projects. Knowing how to manage an IT project is critical to ...

  24. How to streamline your ITIL incident management process

    The ITIL incident management process typically goes from identification to categorization to prioritization to response to closure. Understanding how a typical process works lets you improve your incident analysis, contribute to ongoing service improvement efforts, and enhance overall IT service quality.