What is ITSM? (WIki Source : IT service management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
IT service management (ITSM) refers to the entirety of activities — directed by policies, organized and structured in processes and supporting procedures — that are performed by an organization to plan, design, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers.[1] It is thus concerned with the implementation of IT services that meet customers' needs, and it is performed by the IT service provider through an appropriate mix of people, process and information technology.[2]
Differing from more technology-oriented IT management approaches like network management and IT systems management, IT service management is characterized by adopting a process approach towards management, focusing on customer needs and IT services for customers rather than IT systems, and stressing continual improvement.
Context
As a discipline, ITSM has ties and common interests with other IT and general management approaches, e.g., quality management, information security management and software engineering. Consequently, IT service management frameworks have been influenced by other standards and adopted concepts from them, e.g. CMMI, ISO 9000 or ISO/IEC 27000.[3]
Professional organizations
There is an international, chapter-based professional association, the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF). The main goal of the itSMF is to foster the exchange of experiences and ideas between users of ITSM frameworks. To this end, national itSMF chapters organize conferences and workshops. Some of them also contribute to the translations of ITSM framework documents into their respective languages or publish own ITSM guides. There are several certifications for service management like ITIL foundation 2011.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Main article: ITIL
IT service management is often equated with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), even though there are a variety of standards and frameworks contributing to the overall ITSM discipline.[4] ITIL originated as an official publication of United Kingdom government agencies (first CCTA, later OGC, then the Cabinet Office). In January 2014, ownership of ITIL was transferred to Axelos, a joint venture of the UK government and Capita, an international business process outsourcing and professional services company.
The current version of the ITIL framework is the 2011 edition. The 2011 edition, published in July 2011, is a revision of the previous edition known as ITIL version 3 (published in June 2007). ITIL version 3 was a major upgrade from version 2 (2001). Whereas version 2 was process-oriented (split into two groups: service support and service delivery), version 3 is service-oriented. Since ITIL V3, the various ITIL processes are grouped into five stages of the service lifecycle: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continual service improvement.
