A Reader's Manual ITIL®4 Practice Guide
A Reader's Manual ITIL®4 Practice Guide
A Reader's Manual ITIL®4 Practice Guide
21st January
2020
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Contents
1 About this document 3
2 General information 7
3 Value streams and processes 11
4 Organizations and people 14
5 Information and technology 16
6 Partners and suppliers 18
7 Important reminder 19
8 Acknowledgements and feedback 20
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1 About this document
ITIL® 4 has been created to help organizations meet increasing demands from the current complex
digital environment. This reader’s manual is designed to help readers understand and use the
ITIL 4 practice guides. It provides an overview of their structure, content, and key concepts. It also
explains how the practice guides support ITIL 4’s qualification scheme and associated publications.
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Publication Content
ITIL Foundation Provides an overview of the key concepts of IT service management (ITSM)
and ITIL 4, including the service value system (SVS) and its components, the
guiding principles, and continual improvement. ITIL Foundation also provides
a brief overview of all 34 ITIL 4 practices. It does not refer directly to the
practice guides, as these are not examinable at Foundation level.
ITIL Specialist and Provide guidance on specific domains of service management and the
ITIL Strategist application of ITIL 4 in specific organizational contexts.
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1.3 THE EXAMINATION SYLLABUSES
Each ITIL Specialist, Strategist, and Leader syllabus is based on content from two sources:
● the respective publications (of the same name)
● a selection of content from the practice guides.
Not all of the practice guides contain examinable content, and no single practice guide is fully
examinable. You should refer to the individual syllabuses for details on the examinable content for
each ITIL 4 qualification.
Practices are important components of an organization’s SVS. They contribute to the service value
chain activities and ensure that the organization achieves its goals.
ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition provides a brief overview of every practice. The other ITIL 4
publications describe how the practices can be applied in various contexts. Details of each
practice are provided in the ITIL 4 practice guides.
Each practice guide provides structured information about one ITIL practice. Practice guides may
be complemented by supplementary publications such as templates and detailed descriptions of
methods and techniques.
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The remainder of this reader’s manual explains the key terms used in the practice guides and the
assumptions that were made when the guides were designed and written. This information will
help readers to navigate and use the practice guides.
It is important to remember that, although each practice guide helps organizations to build a
sound foundation in that particular practice, the guidance it contains is not exhaustive; there are
always opportunities for further nuance and innovation.
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2 General information
The general information section covers the following areas:
● purpose and description
● terms and concepts
● scope
● practice success factors
● key metrics.
Practice Purpose
Service level management To set clear business-based targets for service levels, and to
ensure that delivery of services is properly assessed, monitored,
and managed against these targets.
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Key concepts may differ in their nature and in the structure of their description. Definitions
introduced in ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition and its associated glossary are not altered but may be
amended, with further commentary, in the practice guides. Definitions introduced in the ITIL 4
Specialist and Strategist publications also match the definitions provided in the practice guides.
2.3 SCOPE
The scope section provides a list of activities and responsibilities that are included in the practice.
It also provides a list of adjacent activities and responsibilities that are not included, with
references to the practices where these activities are described.
The ITIL 4 scoping of the practices should not be treated as definitive. Organizations should adapt
these recommendations, based on their scale, structures, competencies, and other factors. ITIL 4
practices may be merged or further divided when institutionalized in the organization.
For example, some activities included in the scope of the change enablement practice are:
● planning individual change workflows, activities, and controls
● scheduling and coordinating all ongoing changes
● communicating change plans and progress to relevant stakeholders
● assessing change success, including outputs, outcomes, efficiency, risks, and costs.
Examples of activities that are not included in the change enablement practice are listed in
Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 Examples of activities outside the scope of the change enablement practice
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Practice success factor
A complex functional component of a practice that is required for the practice to fulfil its
purpose.
A PSF is more than a task or activity; it includes elements from all four dimensions of service
management. A PSF can also be defined as ‘a key sub-practice’. The nature of the activities and
resources of PSFs within a practice may differ, but together they ensure that the practice is
effective. Table 2.4 gives some examples of PSFs for various practices.
Table 2.4 Examples of practice success factors
Metric
A measurement or calculation that is monitored or reported for management and improvement.
When using the practice’s key metrics, consider the following points:
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● The effectiveness and performance of the ITIL 4 practices should be assessed within the context
of the value streams to which each practice contributes. However, a practice’s potential is
defined by its design and the quality of the resources, which can be measured and assessed in
any context.
● Metrics are insufficient for assessment and decision-making. To be used as an indicator, a metric
must have a pre-defined target value and possibly a tolerance. Each organization will define its
own target values and tolerances; these cannot be taken from ITIL 4 or any other publication.
ITIL 4 provides sample key metrics (that may be used as indicators) and related measurement
suggestions for each ITIL 4 practice. These are not prescriptive and should be adapted to each
organization’s objectives and practice design.
Table 2.5 provides examples of key metrics for various practices. More details on key metrics can
be found in the measurement and reporting practice guide.
Table 2.5 Examples of key metrics
Service level management Percentage of SLAs that are overdue for review
Customer satisfaction with service reporting
Service improvement productivity indexa
a(N+C)/(O+C)
– see the measurement and reporting practice guide for explanation and examples.
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3 Value streams and processes
This section covers the following areas:
● the contribution of the practice to service value chain activities
● the processes and activities of the practice.
3.1 VALUE STREAM CONTRIBUTION
Each practice guide includes details of the practice’s contribution to the service value chain. This
is based on the overview provided in ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition.
Although the most common contributions of the practice to the service value chain are described,
the list is not exhaustive. The heat map provided should not be treated as an implementation
guideline but should be adapted to the architecture and SVS of each organization.
3.2 PROCESSES
Each practice guide includes processes and activities that may be necessary to fulfil the purpose of
that practice. Some examples of processes for particular practices are given in Table 3.1.
Process
A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs. A process takes
one or more defined inputs and turns them into defined outputs. Processes define the sequence
of actions and their dependencies.
Practice Processes
Some practice guides also include descriptions of procedures, which outline commonly recognized
and recommended ways of performing processes.
Procedure
A documented way to carry out an activity or a process.
The processes and procedures described in the practice guides highlight areas that organizations
may find beneficial and inspire them to redefine their own processes and procedures. However, if
adopted, they should always be adapted to the organization’s architecture, needs, and objectives.
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Illustrative workflow maps are provided for some simple processes;1 Figure 3.1 shows an example
of a workflow map for the problem control process.
This section also includes a list of the inputs, activities, and outputs for each process. The change
lifecycle management process is shown in Table 3.2 as an example.
1
Simplified BPMN notation is used for these illustrations; see
https://www.bpmnquickguide.com/ for details.
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Table 3.2 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the change lifecycle management process
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4 Organizations and people
This section describes the following areas:
● roles, competencies, and responsibilities
● organizational structures and teams (specific to the practice).
4.1 ROLES, COMPETENCIES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The practice guides do not describe the practice management roles such as practice owner,
practice lead, or practice coach. They focus instead on the 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 competency profile for each role is made up of one or more of the competency codes shown in
Table 4.1, arranged in order of importance. For example, ‘MC’ means ‘main competency: methods
and techniques expert; secondary competency: coordinator/communicator’. Examples of
competency profiles for various roles are provided in Table 4.2.
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Table 4.2 Examples of competency profiles
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5 Information and technology
The information and technology section covers the following areas:
● information exchange
● automation and tooling.
5.1 INFORMATION EXCHANGE
In each practice guide, the information and technology section describes the key information used
by the practice. The lists are not exhaustive, but include the most common inputs to the practice.
Some examples are given in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1 Examples of key information used by practices
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attributed to specific vendors or solutions. As an example, Table 5.2 shows some recommended
automation solutions for the change lifecycle management process.
Table 5.2 Automation solutions for the change lifecycle management process
Change registration Ticketing and workflow Enabling and controlling Very high, especially for
systems, backlog workflow for changes; large volumes of
management tools, and prioritization of backlog changes
Kanban boards and workflow
management; workflow
visualization
Change assessment Ticketing and workflow Formalization and Medium to high,
systems, collaboration structuring of the especially for processing
tools, and resource assessment, providing complex changes
planning tools more accurate and solid manually
data for authorization
Change authorization Ticketing and workflow Quick and traceable High, especially for
systems and remote approval of delegated change
collaboration tools changes authority of high-
velocity changes
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6 Partners and suppliers
The partners and suppliers section covers the following areas:
● relationships with third parties involved in the practice
● sourcing considerations for the practice.
6.1 PARTNER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Very few services are delivered using only an organization’s own resources. Most, if not all, depend
on other services which are often provided by third parties. Relationships and dependencies
introduced by supporting services are described in the practice guides for service design,
architecture management, and supplier management.
It is important to ensure that dependencies on third parties do not limit practice performance.
This section may include recommendations on agreements, information exchanges, system
interfaces, responsibilities, and other solutions that can help to establish effective and beneficial
relationships with partners and suppliers when certain components of a practice are outsourced.
This section is included in the practice guides where there are generally recognized, effective
solutions specific to that practice.
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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 practice guides, organizations should always follow the ITIL guiding principles:
● 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.
More information on the guiding principles and their application can be found in section 4.3 of ITIL
Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition.
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8 Acknowledgements and feedback
AXELOS Ltd is grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of the practice guides
and this manual. These materials incorporate an unprecedented level of enthusiasm and feedback
from across the ITIL community. We will continue develop these guides based on the ongoing
feedback from readers. To share your thoughts and recommendations, please join the ITIL
development group at https://www.axelos.com/community
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