ITIL V3 - The Fresh New ITIL
The ITIL Buzz
With the release of the new version of the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL V3, as it is popularly known, there is a huge amount of interest and anticipation among IT organizations, the user community and service providers as to what the buzz is all about. This blog will revolve around discussions on what ITIL V3 is all about, its new aspects, sharing of thoughts and points of views on its adoption and implications to IT organizations at large.
Questions, questions and more ...
To start with, I listed down below some queries that have regularly come up in discussions that we have had with our clients and colleagues in the industry around V3, that I thought would be interesting to share and discuss:
- What exactly is ITIL Version 3 all about?
- What's new: What's different about this version from what's out there already?
- As an IT organization, what does ITIL V3 mean to me?
- Do I need to "change" my outlook from a process-oriented approach to a service-oriented approach?
- How can I assess and benchmark my services / processes against those in V3?
- Is there a roadmap to help me progress from V2 to V3?
- As an individual, what does ITIL V3 mean to me?
- Will my certifications still be valid or do I need to sit for the exams again?
- I heard there are five books this time. Do I really need to read up all the five new books? I struggled getting through with just two last time - Service Support and Service Delivery.

- Hey, I am from the IT Development side - ITIL V3 doesn't really impact me. Or does it?
- And finally, enough talk ! When do we get to see V3?!
In my subsequent blogs, I will dwell more around how the ITIL V3 story is developing and some of our unique experiences with its adoption.
Infosys has been involved in the ITIL V3 Refresh project and several of our consultants, including myself, have provided inputs and reviews as part of the development of the new books. If you have a query on ITIL V3 or have a point of view that you would like to share, please feel free to post them here. We will be happy to discuss!


Comments
Being taught by one of the v3 authors was a privilege I received at Carnegie Mellon University.
The prime differnce between v3 and it's former version was that v3 is more about Business-IT integration and v2 was more about Business-IT Alignment.
Thus, if v3 prescribes how to do, v2 described what to do.
Thus, v3 now presents a Service Management Lifecycle whereas v2 provided only a collection of integrated processes.
Posted by: Manik Patil | July 6, 2007 11:28 PM
You said it, Manik.
You may also find this article by Aidan Lawes, the former CEO of itSMF, interesting. It focuses on the move towards integration of Business & IT as against the earlier approach of alignment -
http://www.busmanagement.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=269733&issue=195
By the way, which of the V3 authors taught you?
Posted by: Arvind Raman | July 10, 2007 12:56 PM
Majid Iqbal, adjunct faculty - Service Strategy author
David Canon - Service Operation author(he guided for operations of first ever special students interest group - CMUSMO, and gave some guest lectures and conducted simulations in Majid's lectures)
Posted by: Manik Patil | November 11, 2007 09:15 AM
Manik's words exactly fit for V2 vs V3 design. I am a trainer for ITIL-V3 practices. V3 is designed for a whole Service Lifecycle approach from scratch to the end line. You can use these 5 books for reference as they provide ample coverage up to Expert level. There is open topic at ITSMF forum on the topic coverage as Foundation Syllabus Review. Please have a look at it to get the answer for your fourth bullet. Thanks.
Posted by: George | November 3, 2008 12:28 PM
ITIL is a living framework. To continue to offer best practice guidelines it must evolve with time, to reflect developments in both the business and IT worlds ITIL V3 is a new version of the IT Infrastructure Library has many new subjects closely related to business operations and is much more focused on doing business than dealing with IT.
Posted by: ITIL Version 3 | November 30, 2009 03:22 AM
Hi,
Appreciate your feedback on what can be the expectation or likely questions that an Auditor may ask during the surveillance audit for ISO 20K. Also if anyone can share the presentation template for presenting the mgt sys to the auditor during the surveillance audit.
Expecting a fast reply on this.
Thanks a lot
Posted by: Anamika | January 19, 2010 04:10 AM